{"id":740454,"date":"2026-07-03T07:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740454\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:38:17","slug":"weezer-gold-album-interview-less-talk-more-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740454\/","title":{"rendered":"Weezer ‘Gold Album’ Interview: ‘Less Talk, More Rock’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMidway through Weezer\u2019s The Gold Album, due<\/a> Aug. 21st, Rivers Cuomo<\/a> offers an apparent glimpse into his onstage thoughts.\u00a0 \u201cCranking out another Nineties jam,\u201d he intones in a spoken-word verse on the track \u201cC.E.O.\u201d \u201cWish I could do something new\/ But nobody wants to hear that\/ They just want the classics\/ You can\u2019t blame \u2019em, really\/ There\u2019s something special about your early shit.\u201d\u00a0 The guitar parts beneath him bear some resemblance to \u201cUndone (The Sweater Song),\u201d which might seem like part of the joke, except there\u2019s no joke at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tAs Cuomo explains, \u201cThis question\u2019s come up in the past \u2014 how tongue-in-cheek are you in \u2018Beverly Hills,\u2019 for example, or when you say, \u2018What\u2019s with these homies dissing my girl?\u2019 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m being tongue-in-cheek at all. If you were to read my mind at that time, those were the exact thoughts that would be going through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHere comes the C.E.O.,\u201d the song\u2019s chorus goes, but it originally was \u201cI\u2019m the C.E.O.\u201d In both versions, Cuomo is singing about his discomfort with becoming, in essence, the head of the commercial enterprise that is Weezer, Inc. \u201cI was bemoaning the fact that I\u2019m finding myself in this role that doesn\u2019t really work with being an artist,\u201d Cuomo says. \u201cEveryone loved the song, but nobody liked that line. We ended up externalizing it \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s like I\u2019ve externalized this part of myself that\u2019s bringing down the party.\u201d Along the way, drummer Patrick Wilson<\/a> pitched \u201cI\u2019m C-3PO\u201d instead, which was tempting: \u201cI really liked that one,\u201d Cuomo adds.<\/p>\n

\n\t(To hear an audio interview with Cuomo and Wilson, check out Apple Podcasts<\/a> or Spotify<\/a>, or just press play above.)<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a whole, The Gold Album, co-produced by Geese collaborator Kenny Blume (f.k.a. Kenny Beats<\/a>) and Klas \u00c5hlund, is actually about Cuomo relinquishing his usual level of control, on multiple levels, and ending up with one of the best Weezer albums of this century. The album is full of songwriting contributions from the other members \u2014 in a first for the band, Wilson wrote the first single, \u201cShine Again\u201d \u2014 along with an unusual number of intra-band co-writes. \u201c\u200aI guess we\u2019re in a new spirit of sort of openness and collaboration,\u201d Wilson says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCuomo started thinking about reshaping his approach last year, while the band was shooting a forthcoming, still-top-secret movie. \u201cIt was basically like this comedy improv project,\u201d he says, \u201cand I have never had so much fun as I did working with these guys during that time. We were improv acting and joking around, but it was so funny and so fun. And at the end of that process, I was like, \u2018Wow, if only record-making could be that much fun, and feel so collaborative, and like we\u2019re playing off of each other\u2019s energy, and making stuff up together in the moment.\u2019 And so I wanted to head into the making of this record with the goal of having that much fun with these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpecifically, Cuomo deferred to Wilson, the other remaining founding member (guitarist Brian Bell<\/a> joined towards the end of making their debut album, while bassist Scott Shriner<\/a> came aboard in 2001). \u201cI had this super-strong instinct that I wanted Pat to take a turn at the wheel, as far as the overall aesthetic of the album,\u201d Cuomo says. \u201cI come from a more grid-like background \u2014 I grew up on Metallica records where everything is super precise and machine-like. But I just had this feeling like, man, if we make the kind of record Patrick would actually listen to, that could be a real sweet spot for Weezer.\u201d It was Wilson\u2019s idea to spend weeks in a rehearsal room (actually a living room, in Panic! At The Disco drummer Dan Pawlovich\u2019s house), piecing the songs together, rather than work from Cuomo\u2019s demos.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s just get in a room together and play and see what happens,\u201d Cuomo says. \u201cAnd less talk, more rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrian Bell, who co-wrote the standout track \u201cThe L.A. Sound,\u201d which chronicles the band\u2019s early touring days, chimes in with a larger point: \u201c\u200aEverything we\u2019ve ever done has been a group effort,\u201d he says. \u201cWhether we\u2019re getting credited on the record is another thing. But Weezer sounds the way it does because of the members of Weezer\u2026 We\u2019ve been collaborative \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s happened through our history, It\u2019s just now we\u2019ve meshed into this entity that\u2019s celebrating that collaboration\u2026 What\u2019s so great about this album is that it\u2019s not perfect. It\u2019s not lined up with Pro Tools. It\u2019s organic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tWilson successfully pushed to record his drum parts without a click track, a nearly unheard-of approach in 2026. \u201cSo much music now is just programmed and so compressed, and I instantly don\u2019t care when I hear it,\u201d he says. \u201cYou get a certain kind of tightness when you\u2019re not playing along to a click track. Not to compare myself to [drummer] Clyde Stubblefield, who\u2019s an obvious genius, but James Brown recordings are tight in a way that quantized music is not tight. It breathes and moves, but it\u2019s just so together.\u201d He likes to think The Gold Album sits, sonically, right between the band\u2019s first two albums: \u201cWhat\u2019s great about the Blue Album <\/a>is there\u2019s no fat on any of it. Pinkerton is so bombastic and just explosive, and the Blue Album is just so focused. I really feel like this is the best happy medium of both of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shriner says all the changes were welcome, especially in contrast to recent albums where the process felt more impersonal. \u201cThere\u2019s been a few records before this one where I didn\u2019t see anybody in the band,\u201d Shriner says. \u201cThe producer\u2019s gonna travel to Orange County somewhere to record Pat. Rivers has already done his scratch vocal and guitar. Brian [Bell] has his time slotted, and I can show up at one o\u2019clock and do bass from one to four \u2014 even to the point where I\u2019d walk in and would never have heard the music. This was so incredibly different.\u201d The no-click approach, he adds, means \u201cthere\u2019s actually some life in the music that I haven\u2019t felt in such a long time\u2026 I think Pat has kinda always wanted to do that, and maybe just from my outside-inside observation, Rivers really made the shift to come to a middle place and start listening. When those two are getting along and working together, the band just flourishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCuomo first reached out to Swedish producer \u00c5hlund after admiring his work with Ghost. \u00c5hlund had just finished a Show Me the Body record with Blume, so he suggested they again produce as a team, combining his attention to songcraft with what Cuomo describes as Blume\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cbrutal, raw energy.\u201d \u201cKenny brought this kind of educated-thug vibe,\u201d Shriner says. \u201cHe\u2019s six-foot-seven, big solid dude, very physically intimidating \u2014 and I just appreciate that. This guy\u2019s a real force, he\u2019s got the knowledge to back it up, and he\u2019s a massive Weezer fan. In his words, he wanted to make the most violent Weezer record ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBlume pushed the guitar sounds toward desert-rock sludge, relying on a secret weapon: a tiny Gibson amplifier from the 1940s. \u201cIt looks like something you\u2019d buy in a Sears catalog back in the mid-20th century,\u201d says Cuomo, who packed the album with even more tasty solos and fills than usual. \u201cBut if you turn it up all the way, it sounds brutal. It\u2019s actually quite a bit like what our guitars sounded like before we made the Blue Album, before we started working with Ric Ocasek. It felt like coming home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCuomo acknowledges that the current, belated viral success of \u201cGo Away,\u201d\u00a0 his 2014 duet with Best Coast\u2019s Bethany Cosentino, inspired him to turn what became the album\u2019s second single<\/a>, \u201cWe Might As Well Be Strangers,\u201d into a collaboration with Wednesday\u2019s Karly Hartzman. Blume started playing Wednesday\u2019s music for Cuomo his first day at the studio, so Hartzman was a natural choice. Shriner was so fond of the song\u2019s pre-duet version that he initially resisted the guest vocal \u2014 \u201csomebody outside of the family comes in and starts singing, and it\u2019s like, I wanna stay in the Rivers zone\u201d \u2014 but came around: \u201cIt took on a different life form. I think it\u2019s gorgeous now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe album\u2019s opening track, \u201cSay Yes,\u201d with its memorable declaration, \u201cI only get one weird life I get to live,\u201d was another song that transformed along the way. \u201cOriginally it was called \u2018School Sucks,\u2019 and I was writing to my middle-school son,\u201d Cuomo says. \u201cTelling him, \u2018I get it \u2014 homework sucks, teachers suck, all this really sucks. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u2019 But nobody wanted to hear me sing \u2018school sucks.’\u201d The song is still, at heart, addressed to his son: \u201cWe put so much pressure on kids and try to scare them into doing this dull stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band kicks off its Weezer: The Gathering tour in September, the same month as the 30th anniversary of Pinkerton, but they aren\u2019t thinking much about celebrating it, on stage or off.\u00a0 \u201cI haven\u2019t heard any special plans,\u201d Cuomo says, though he emphasizes he remains a fan of the album, after expressing shifting opinions on it over the years. \u201c\u200aI don\u2019t remember what you heard last, but I do think it\u2019s good.\u201d For his part, Bell is more into the idea of celebrating 2001\u2019s Green Album when its 30th anniversary rolls around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band is already meeting about production and set design for the tour, which they expect will include four or five tracks from The Gold Album each night. \u201cCan you imagine the four of us all working together and feeling good and excited about going on tour?\u201d asks Shriner. \u201cYou think every band feels that way?\u00a0 For everybody to be kinda stoked at the same time is a pretty big deal. This may be the most authentic, positive joining of the four of us in my history with the group.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWilson agrees: \u201cWhat other band from our origin era is hitting creative strides like we are? It feels like chi has been unblocked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tCuomo puts it more simply: \u201cI really love spending time with these guys and goofing around. I guess when you\u2019re younger, you just take it for granted. I just really value them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBell arrived at his interview with some thoughts he\u2019d written in advance about the philosophy behind the album\u2019s title.\u00a0 \u201cGold doesn\u2019t necessarily represent what you would think, which having a hit, or currency, or gold-plated,\u201d he says, reading from his notes. \u201cIt\u2019s more in line with the expression \u2018Stay gold,\u2019 which Ponyboy says in The Outsiders, which essentially means having a sense of wonder. This album is about getting back to that sense of wonder as a band.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midway through Weezer\u2019s The Gold Album, due Aug. 21st, Rivers Cuomo offers an apparent glimpse into his onstage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[318288,88,309279,216,39406,313666,318289],"class_list":["post-740454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-brian-bell","tag-entertainment","tag-kenny-beats","tag-music","tag-patrick-wilson","tag-rivers-cuomo","tag-scott-shriner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}