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Weezer would be Ritchie Cunningham's favorite band
Author: Natasa Hatsios (The Varsity)
Published: November 28, 1994
Somehow hanging up on Weezer bassist Matt Sharp is probably not the best way to start an interview. But a band plagued with the image of Ritchie Cunningham can be sympathetic to someone still figuring out the phone system. So as I set up shop, Sharp began to explain the band's origins.
"I'm ready to give you the answer. Are you ready? It's so fucking boring but I'm ready to give it to you. Here's the answer. We all moved to LA from the East Coast. So we lived out there for a while. We met here and there, the way people just hook up and a mutual friend of ours introduced us to each other because Pat [Wilson, drums] and Rivers [Cuomo, vocals, guitar] and I were looking for apartments so he suggested we live together. We lived together and then about a year later, Rivers and Pat had written all these songs and they asked me if I wanted to play with them. So I said yes."
Weezer pegs its conception on Valentine's Day, 1992. After near-obscurity playing the clubs of LA, they signed to 'ultracool' DGC Records, releasing their self-titled debut earlier this year. A coup for the band was getting The Cars' Ric Ocasek as producer.
"We sent him a tape because the record company told us to. We figured we'd pretty much just do it with an engineer that we knew in LA, we were pretty set on working with this one guy and we didn't want to talk to anybody and they said 'Well, you should at least get opinions, out
side opinions and at least listen to some other people. So they said 'make up a list and we'll send them tapes. Ric's name was on that list. We all kinda dug the early Cars records, and so he called us in like two days and came to the next rehearsal."
It took over a week for Weezer to actually get comfortable with not only working with a producer, but working with someone as famous as Ocasek.
"Occasionally you kinda just tap yourself on the shoulder and go 'What the fuck am I doing here? God, it's really weird. At first it was really surreal and just way out of hand. Rivers and I were just like 'This is ridiculous, this is just amazing," Sharp laughs.
"He just wanted us to record what we wanted to record. He didn't put some kind of stamp on it like 'this is my sound'. It was pretty much, 'Well, what do you guys want' and then we just went from there. It was a collective effort. Everybody just tried to figure out how to make it sound as good as it could."
Signing straight to a major label could be a bit daunting, but not for Weezer. They are quite sure of themselves and don't need tags attached to them, so much so that they officially released a banned list of words that the press is not allowed to use. Instead, the banned list has become infamous, getting quite a bit of attention.
"It's not a banned list. Karl [their all-around helper] and Rivers came up with that shit. I think it's ridiculous," he laughs. "I don't really care. People can say whatever they want to say. I think at that point we didn't have any idea about anything as far as dealing with the press and so we were sort of sensitive towards it. Now I don't think we really give a shit."
The band could be heading into Duran Duran territory as they're becoming better known for their videos rather than their songs. Working with wonderkid Spike Jonze (Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, The Breeders) doesn't seem to help matters either. The one-shot video for "Undone - The Sweater Song," features a plethora of dogs running back and forth.
"They were just supposed to hang around us the whole time," he says with reference to the dogs, "and do whatever - wander around through the instruments. But they wouldn't stay with us at all because the trainers were all there so they just ran to the trainers. That's why it looks like that."
Rather than spending an estimated $10 000 renting dogs again, Jonze and the band opted to recreating Al's Diner from the hit sitcom Happy Days, in it they play the band of the day, complete with matching sweaters and ties with Al still pushing the fish. MTV scooped it up immediately as an 'Exclusive,' the first time for a new band, and MuchMusic has put it in heavy rotation.
"He came up with three ideas and I can't remember what the hell the other two were, but they weren't that great," explains Sharp. "We were trying to figure out what we're going to do and Spike said 'This is what I want to do' and I said 'I don't think you'll be able to pull it off but if you can do it, do it. So he went ahead with trying to do it and we were like, 'Okay we'll do it.' Spike's a genius."
Sharp becomes silent when asked if he was a fan of the show.
"I don't know," he laughs after a bit of hesitation. "I wouldn't watch it now if it came on TV. By watching all those episodes that we watched to pick out footage it kinda scared me that all that crap is in my head. Cause I watched a hell of a lot of that when I was a kid."
"I think with the new video it's pretty fucking wacky. I mean we're hanging out with Al whatever the hell his last name is. He was actually there and that's pretty weird. And I'm looking kinda goofy here and there. I think the new video's kinda goofy, wacky, and quirky if you ask me."
Weezer play tonight at the Opera House with the Dambuilders.
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