Weezer wants to be the first band on Mars
Weezer wants to be the first band on Mars
The rock band Weezer has been around since the early ’90s but front man Rivers Cuomo said when it comes to doing business not much has changed from the band’s early days. Cuomo’s business is writing songs, he said, “in fact, it’s very similar to how it was when I started in ninth grade in 1984.” Their new album, “Pacific Daydream,“ just dropped so we asked Cuomo and band member, Brian Bell, to sit down with us to take our money and career inspired personality questionnaire.
Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Brian Bell: Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you ________.
Rivers Cuomo: It can pay for the private plane to your gig so you don’t have to do a bus tour or van tour. I just saw that SpaceX is going to make this rocket, or they have the rocket but they’re going to set it up so that you can get from LA to Tokyo in 24 minutes or something. So …
Bell: We’re going to be the first band to tour in the SpaceX rocket. That’s our goal.
Cuomo: The touring is going to be crazy.
Bell: First band on Mars: Weezer. You heard it here first.
Cuomo: In the next life, what would your career be?
Bell: I think an architect.
Cuomo: Yeah. Well you have a great house, great furniture. You’re kind of an amateur interior designer, great personal style.
Bell: It’s all connected. You know, I guess I first got interested in house architecture by delivering food in Laurel Canyon, way back in the early ’90s. I got to go into some of these houses and I had no idea that a house could cause, you know, a feeling of creative space. It was a good job delivering food — you were on your own and you think a lot.
Cuomo: I delivered pizza for Domino’s and on New Year’s Eve I got a $20 tip. I’ve never forgotten that, it’s just made my life.
Bell: Rivers, how have you seen the business of your music change … from when we started?
Cuomo: I don’t know I’m not really focused on the business. My business is writing songs and playing shows and it’s pretty much the same as it was when you started in 1992. In fact it’s very similar to how it was when I started in ninth grade in 1984. I never would’ve guessed that I’d spend so much time sitting at a computer all day, as a musician.
Bell: I don’t think anybody thought that.
Cuomo: Yeah, but you know I guess when I was a kid I thought computers were cool so I’d probably be happy about it.
Bell: Rivers, this is a good question I think: What advice do you wish someone gave you before you started your career?
Cuomo: Well I don’t know if I could have heard it but I wish I could have heard it if somebody told me “look, you don’t have to be so miserable and depressed and feel so hopeless. You’re going to make it. You’re going to be fine. You’re doing great, put one foot in front of the other and things are going to work out.” There’s just so much self-doubt and pain in the early days and it was all for nothing.
Bell: Yeah. It would be nice to have some sage come say “yeah you guys are going to make it. Everything’s going to be just fine.” But you know it’s part of the struggle and life in general, right?
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