Billboard article - May 11, 2002
| Print interview with Rivers Cuomo, Jordan Schur, Jim McGuin, Brian Bell | |
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| Publication | Billboard |
| Published | May 11, 2002 |
| Author | Wes Orshoski |
| Interviewee | Rivers Cuomo, Jordan Schur, Jim McGuin, Brian Bell |
| Title | Geffen's Weezer on 'Maladroit' |
| Format | |
| Associated album | Maladroit |
| External link | Archived via Internet Archive (page one) Archived via Internet Archive (page two) |
| References | See where this article is referenced on Weezerpedia |
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Geffen's Weezer on 'Maladroit' Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo is on the phone from Los Angeles, listing the positive results of both a recent spat with the band's label, Geffen/Interscope - concerning the forthcoming Maladroit (May 14) and the group's decision last year to cut loose its manager, when a call comes in on another phone. "Wait, here's the record company now," says Cuomo, who has managed the band himself for roughly a year, stopping mid-sentence to put his phone's receiver to the speaker of his answering machine, on which a top Interscope exec is leaving a private message. "That's what call screening is for," Cuomo says afterward, sounding equal parts annoyed and amused. "It's endless! Delete!" With a journalist on the phone, Cuomo knows he's being somewhat naughty - and that's probably why he's having such fun. "I give 'em shit all the time. They have no idea how to deal with me," he says of Geffen and Interscope staffers before getting serious for a moment. "I don't want to be difficult, I just have to protect my band and our creative selves. The industry is geared toward exploiting our creative resources and laying them to waste, and I have to protect them. And so I get a reputation as being difficult. But if you're willing to help us and nurture us, I'm not difficult at all." Considering that the L.A. group has rarely stuck to beaten paths - be they musical or professional - it somehow seems strangely perfect that 31-year-old Cuomo is not only the frontman of and the main creative force behind Weezer but also now the guardian of the band and its music. In fulfilling his desire to protect the band and its material and to realize his vision for when and how his music should be released and promoted - Cuomo has found himself in a few uncomfortable situations since "phasing out" past manager Pat Magnarella Most notable is Geffen/Interscope's reaction to a mass-mailing Cuomo made in February. In a move that was as rare as it is for a band as popular and commercially successful as Weezer to be self-managed, the singer/guitarist - anxious for fans to hear the band's new material - personally sent a disc carrying eight of Maladroit's 13 songs to key radio and press outlets. Included was a letter on Weezer stationary that introduced the new album and explained that the band hoped to issue Maladroit in late April. The letters, each signed by Cuomo and his three bandmates, even listed the singer's e-mail address in case recipients had questions. All this was being done unbeknown to the powers that be at Geffen/Interscope, who only learned of the mailing after such stations as LA's KROQ began playing "Dope Nose," the hooky first track on the sampler. Several months earlier, Cuomo and the label had butted heads over a promotional appearance, which left the singer so upset that he didn't speak to Geffen president Jordan Schur for months - not until after "Dope Nose" hit the airwaves. Eventually, the singer says he received a call from key label execs, one of whom said, "Dude, what the hell are you doing? You're killing any chance of having a hit single by just haphazardly releasing your song. Ya gotta have a strategy, ya gotta have a plan." That conversation resulted in Cuomo, eight days after mailing the sampler, sending programmers a new letter at his label's request - but, again, he included a sampler. This one featured a new edit of "Dope Nose." "Please ignore [the original] CD for the time being, as I wasn't supposed to have sent it yet," he wrote in the second letter. "I was overeager for you all to hear it and I jumped the gun... It would probably be best if you wait to play any of these songs until you have been officially serviced by the record company." Yet by the time the second group of letters and samplers reached radio, "Dope Nose" was already a hit on some stations. Although Schur denies this, Cuomo says that his mailings forced the label into releasing Maladroit sooner than it had planned. "I knew they were not going to let us put it out when we wanted to, and I had to force the issue," he says. "They realized that the single already had so much momentum that to stop it would basically be to kill the song, kill the album, and there wouldn't be a second chance." But even before the mailing, Cuomo was posting both old and new demos for free download on weezer.com, as well as making all the new album's tracks - but only a few in finished form - available on the site. The singer says that the mailings and downloads were meant less to create tension between he and the label than to get the music to the fans: "I'm looking for instant approval from the fans. That's why I put up our songs almost as soon as they're finished being written." During the making of Maladroit, he even posted demos on the site, asking fans for their feedback and adjusting some songs based on responses. "I can't wait to get the fans' reaction," he says. "I don't want to have to wait four months." UNEXPECTEDLY POSITIVE RESULTS However unconventional, that strategy seems to have already worked: By sending out these samplers himself, Cuomo certainly appears to have forged or re-forged a direct connection with radio and press, which certainly strengthened his relationship with his fans as a result. Cuomo says the band would have surely left the label if it wasn't bound by its original contract, which requires the group to deliver three more records beyond Maladroit at "a three-quarter mechani-cal [royalty rate), which is criminal for a songwriter." If he had his way, he would tour, record, and post his songs on the Web for free and continue sending albums to press and radio him-self. Despite all this, though, he admits that, at the moment, he "couldn't be happier with Interscope, ironically," especially with his improved relationship with Schur. "After we all realized there was no way to stop it, I think [the label] realized, 'OK, well, let's get behind them,'" Cuomo says. "And I think Jordan had some serious talks with Jimmy [lovine, Interscope/Geffen/A&M chairman), and I think the way they've ended up handling everything is totally genius - by basically letting me run the ship. "These are really crazy times, no one knows what the hell's going on in the industry or what's around the corner. So I think Weezer's like a little experiment for them. Like, 'Let's see if this guy can figure out what's going on.' I end up trusting them even more because I know that, at the end of the day, I have the power to make the decision either way. So I'm more likely to listen to what they have to say. And they are very smart guys, and I totally respect them." Such positive results would never have come to fruition if the band hadn't written such a strong song, notes Philadelphia Y100 PD Jim McGuinn, whose station was one of the first to play "Dope Nose." "Fortunately, Rivers wrote a great song, and it's a good record, and there's a lot of Weezer fans and, because of all that, I'm sure [Maladroit] will come out and sell a half-million copies in the first week," says McGuinn, who adds that it's that sort of fan base and retail presence - Weezer's three sets have sold a combined 4.5 million copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan - that enabled Cuomo to get away with such a stunt. Since parting ways with Magnarella, the band has, as Cuomo puts it, "cut out the business and promotional side of being a musician and focused more on just playing. What we've found is, if left to our own devices, we kind of stop doing a lot of things that bands are supposed to do [these days). So things have gotten much simpler." Guitarist Brian Bell says, "Nothing has really changed as far as the amount of work that's been coming in. We may even be getting more, just because of how much we've been in the public eye in the past year. But one thing that has changed within the band is that because we feel more mature and more responsible of what the future holds for us, it's kind of reassuring. Who would have better interest in us than Rivers? No one." WELCOMING WEEZER BACK Weezer, at that point, had been dormant for years. The band had virtually disappeared after its sophomore effort, 1996's Pinkerton, was greeted with a chilly response, thus devastating Cuomo, who had poured himself into the album's dark and passionate songs. When the band re-emerged in 2000, it was "prepared to start from scratch," Bell says. Cuomo remembers being moved nearly to tears after arriving at the stage for the group's first show in years at the Fresno, Calif., stop on the 2000 Vans Warped tour - at the very moment Weezer was being announced as a surprise guest. He recalls, "There was just a second of hesitation in which our hearts stopped, and then we heard the crowd just go crazy, and it was the greatest feeling." Such was the beginning of a striking comeback, which has seen the band sell out arenas with regularity and its 2001 set a second eponymous effort known by fans and the band as The Green Album - sell more than 1.3 million copies in the U.S. alone. Booked by Don Muller at Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills, Calif., Weezer is currently on a schedule that sees it switching from the road to the studio and vice versa every three weeks which helps keep things fresh while affording opportunities to try out songs-in-progress on live audiences. As a result of this cycle, the band has already begun recording the follow-up to Maladroit, which Cuomo says is slated to hit stores in February 2003. Partially as a result of his decision to self-manage Weezer, Cuomo says he's fallen deep into the songwriting zone, doubting himself less and trusting the muse more often. As a result, he's no longer afraid to wear his love for '80s metal on his sleeve. Bell says, "Rivers has just unleashed the shredding beast in himself." "It's been there all along, and I've had to consciously repress it on our first three records," Cuomo says with a laugh. "I had to force myself not to bust out with Scorpions riffs. And, at this point in my life, I really don't want to force anything anymore. I just wanna let it all hang out. So, on [Maladroit], it all just came pouring out." After the disappointment of the self-produced Pinkerton - which has nonetheless become a cult favorite, selling more than 620,000 copies in the U.S. - Cuomo says he crafted The Green Album (which, like the band's '94 debut, was helmed by Ric Ocasek) with an attention to song structure and mechanics. But as the band continued to peel away its musical inhibitions during the past year, the self-produced Maladroit became far less of a laboriously created album than its predecessors. RETURN TO THE GARAGE "It's like we don't think of ourselves as tools for marketing a record anymore," Cuomo says. "It's more like how things were when I was 13 or 14, just playing Kiss songs in the garage. It's just flowing naturally, and we're accepting whatever comes; and then it's the record company's problem to figure out how to sell it, because they're the ones who make the money off it anyway." As it continues to peel away inhibitions, the band is getting closer to cutting a classic album, Bell says. "It's coming up. It might be the one we're working on." Simultaneously, Cuomo says the band is "evolving toward a style that encompasses everything I love, which includes pop and metal, alternative, rap, goth, emo [laughs]. We're gonna have the mother of all styles." |
See also
| More Weezer interviews from 2002: | |
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| Other band member interviews from this year: | |
| Other material from Billboard: | |
| Other archives: | |
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