Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has opened up about his plans for the band’s future – now that they’ve accomplished their yearlong ‘SZNZ’ challenge – and the melancholy he feels being in “this bizarre in-between part” with no new report on the playing cards.
The band launched the fourth and last instalment within the ‘SZNZ’ collection, ‘Winter’, on December 21 (the primary day of the titular season in North America). It adopted on from the ‘Spring’, ‘Summer season’ and ‘Autumn’ EPs, and featured a extra pensive, emo-inspired palette of sounds and themes. Chatting with Consequence, Cuomo defined that he aimed to give attention to a selected emotion to signify every season, “and for winter, it was unhappiness”.
On how that translated to the EP’s musicality, Cuomo mentioned: “The unique inspiration was that I wished to attempt to incorporate some ’90s-era singer-songwriter types like Elliot Smith, acoustic fingerpicking and simply hotter acoustic sounds.
“For our earlier album ‘Autumn’, we had been going for dance rock, like Franz Ferdinand, and it had extra synths and stab-y guitars, and that we thought it’d be distinction to go for one thing very heat and acoustic – after all, combined with an enormous Weezer guitar sound.”
Now that the ultimate ‘SZNZ’ report is out, Cuomo admitted that he feels a type of “postpartum despair”, not understanding the place the band will head in its subsequent period. “This at all times occurs after we end engaged on an album,” he mentioned, noting that ‘SZNZ’ “actually occupied most of my time for the final couple of years”.
The singer and guitarist continued: “It’s been an unbelievable pleasure to work on. And out of the blue, now it’s over. And it’s out of my fingers. And it feels untimely to only leap into the subsequent one, though I’ll do this. So I’m form of on this bizarre in-between part the place I don’t know who I’m or what I’m presupposed to be doing. So, I’m sorry, I assume that isn’t as as optimistic as I ought to really feel proper now!”
As for what Weezer can count on within the fast future, Cuomo teased that the band “have an enormous tour announcement coming quickly”. On why they haven’t launched into a headline tour in a number of years, he defined: “For the final 5 to seven years, we preserve getting geared as much as do our massive headline tour.
“After which simply as we’re about to place it collectively, one thing else comes alongside, like, ‘Hey, do you need to be a part of the ‘Hella Mega Tour’ and tour with Inexperienced Day and Fall Out Boy and do stadiums? You simply get to play 60 minutes, nevertheless it’d be a terrific alternative to win over some new followers, and it’ll be enjoyable to be with these different bands,’ after which we’re like, ‘Ah, okay, yeah, I assume we gotta do this! That appears like enjoyable.’
“After which yr after yr goes by like that, and we nonetheless haven’t accomplished the large headline tour. However we’re about to make an announcement that’s going to repair all of that.”
Weezer had been initially meant to plug ‘SZNZ’ with a five-week Broadway residency, however that was cancelled earlier this yr attributable to low ticket gross sales. However, followers in Arizona will be capable of see the band stay on the baseball-themed Innings Competition subsequent February, the place they’ll carry out alongside the likes of Inexperienced Day, Eddie Vedder, The Black Crowes and The Offspring. They’ll additionally play the Railbird pageant in Kentucky come June.
Elsewhere within the Weezer camp, the band are at present gearing as much as ship a televised tribute to The Seashore Boys. In his interview with Consequence, Cuomo mentioned of that challenge: “We’re within the midst of determining which Seashore Boys songs we need to cowl, and oh my God, it’s extremely enjoyable. It feels so good to play and sing these songs. And I’m reminded of how a lot I used them as a mannequin once I was first beginning out writing songs for Weezer.”
