Star Wars Insider article - July 1995

Print interview with Matt Sharp
Publication	Star Wars Insider
Published	July 1995
Interviewer	Jon Bradley Snyder
Interviewee	Matt Sharp
Title	Star Weeze
Format	Print
External link	Archived via Internet Archive (page one) Archived via Internet Archive (page two)

Star Weeze Author: Jon Bradley Snyder (Star Wars Insider) Published: July 1995 "What's the shot of me getting into the new trilogy? Probably not a good one. But I'm ready. That would be my acting debut; that'd be a good thing." Don't hold your breath Matt. You and about a million other people would love to be in the next Star Wars films. Matt Sharp, a.k.a. bass player for the band Weezer and principal songwriter and Moog maestro for his new band The Rentals, has already made one dream come true - his successful musical career. Matt now dreams of being involved with the next Star Wars films. Earth to Matt: work on that screen test but don't quit your day job. And what a day job it is. A year ago Weezer was barely a blip on the pop music radar. Today they have a multi-platinum album in multiple countries, several hit videos, and are playing to sold out concert halls all over the planet. More importantly, they're all Star Wars fans. "They showed all three Star Wars films at UCLA before we recorded our record and we all went," says Matt. "The guy who was trying to sign us at D.G.C. came with us, just to show he was into the same stuff we're into. He had to sit through all three movies, and he had never seen them before." They ended up signing with D.G.C. Chalk it up to Star Wars bonding. When they were auditioning guitarist Brian Bell during the recording of their first record, singer Rivers Cuomo quizzed him about his favorite Star Wars action figure. Brian said Hammerhead was his favorite. He could sing, he was into Star Wars, they asked him to join the band. "During the first days of tracking the record I put up a different Star Wars card in the recording studio for each day. One day would be 'R2-D2 Day', one day would be 'Leia Day' and so forth. The best day for me was 'Lando Day'. You can't possibly go wrong with Lando, though I'm not sure the others would agree," says Matt. While the members of Weezer don't agree on everything, and they all have their separate projects outside the band, they all believe in the "sacredness" of Star Wars, as Matt puts it. "We're pretty touchy about exploiting it in any weird way," says Matt. Star Wars is a common bond for people in their twenties who can remember seeing the films as kids. The band feels that making Star Wars references in their music and in videos is shameless pandering to a universal experience of their generation. Some experiences just cannot be bought or duplicated. Like the first time you saw the Star Destroyer fly overhead in Star Wars, or when you first discovered Vader is Luke's father. Or how about when Vader leaves the dark side to help destroy the Emperor. These representations of the struggle between good and evil were crucial and affecting to young audiences seeing them for the first time, especially to Matt's generation. When Matt talks about Star Wars being sacred, he's articulating a reverence for the feelings of awe and wonder that the Star Wars movies inspired in kids eighteen years ago, feelings that continue even to the present day. "There are friends of mine who are thirty and older, who completely don't get it. If I bring up Star Wars they go 'Oh God, shut up. I completely understand why they feel that way. If somebody starts ranting and raving to me about the original Star Trek I just go 'Whatever.'" Unlike other media phenomena of the 70s, Matt's interest in Star Wars is more than just a nostalgia trip. In the band's "Buddy Holly" video the band members have been computer rendered into an old episode of the American Graffiti-inspired TV show Happy Days. Is Happy Days an experience worthy of sacredness? Most definitely not. "Most of us grew up on a lot of junk television. It's upsetting to think that our minds are filled with multiple episodes of Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, and the Brady Bunch. After seeing the "Buddy Holly' footage for the first time it was sort of depressing knowing I was packed full with all that television." Matt relates Star Wars to the most pure memories of his childhood. It was an event that completely moved all these different people. "I caught an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man the other day. It was pretty amazing, but doesn't ring true emotionally like Star Wars." As a kid Matt wasn't dressing up as Happy Days' Ralph Malph for Halloween; he was getting his dad to help him construct the perfect Darth Vader costume. At his elementary school kids would compete to see who had seen the movie the most times. Since nobody had all the toys, kids from all over the neighborhood would pool their Star Wars toys together to play (Matt contributed his remote control R2-D2, which, sadly, he no longer owns today.) This, of course, all came about after Matt had been dragged kicking and screaming to see the movie for the first time. "I did not want to go. I had some idea that it was going to be at a planetarium, an extracurricular course or class. I thought I was being punished. I had not heard anything about it at all." When The Empire Strikes Back was first released Matt sort of freaked out. He simply could not believe that Darth Vader was Luke's father. He defended Luke to everyone that would listen. He had a laundry list of reasons why it was completely impossible that Luke was Vader's son. He's way into Irvin Kershner, he loves the dark and unresolved aspects of the second film, and he is fascinated by the idea of Luke losing his hand (possibly because Matt plays guitar?). Matt is definitely into the more serious side of the trilogy as opposed to the funny side. "We can't have those little furry things beating up on stormtroopers. I mean they're trained killers," says Matt, referring to Return of the Jedi. For Matt, Star Wars has had a indirect yet tangible impact on his music. Right now Matt is taking a break from Weezer to work on a side band called The Rentals. Matt describes The Rentals as a cross between Gary Numan, E.L.O. and well, Weezer. It's not so much influenced by Star Wars as it is a product of that same era (circa 1979) that spawned the movies. The band includes Matt, Rod Cervera, Cherielynn Westrich, Petra Haden, Pat Wilson, Danny Frankel and Tom Grimley. "Both Weezer and The Rentals have a super-dramatic aspect to them. Sometimes we get dramatic in kind of a corny way, very Wagner-esque. It's like standing up and waving the flag basically. I think it's great, but I think a lot of people probably don't like us for that reason, and that's okay. I'm really into doing over-dramatic things now. Musically the sound tracks for the Star Wars films are pretty amazing in that way." The Rentals first record will be called 1st Record, appropriately enough. It's safe to say you've never heard a band mix deep end bass, male and female vocal melodies and colorful Moog synthesizers in quite this way before. Weezer it ain't, but new, cool, and different it definitely is. The Rentals, while shooting their "Friends of P" video to promote their upcoming album, decided to kick out half their members and replace them with Star Wars cardboard character cut outs (not permanently, just long enough to take these pictures). The Rentals already have recorded a second record called For the Ladies, set for release early next year at about the same time Weezer will be returning to the studio to record their second album. Right now Matt and the rest of the Weezers are getting ready to hit the road for another U.S. tour that will last through the summer. In the audience will be Weezer's dedicated preteen hardcores, which one magazine has termed "the little league mosh pit." "A lot of people who listen to us are not our age. It's weird to think maybe some of then haven't seen the trilogy." It's okay Matt, in a couple of years this generation will have a trilogy of it's own. And who knows, maybe you can do a stormtrooper cameo. Fans can write The Rentals at: The Rentals, 9311 S.E. Foster Rd. Suite #666, Portland, OR 97266.