 Wheezing it out
FOLLOWING in the neurotic footsteps of metal legends Metallica in their film Some Kind of Monster, indie rockers Weezer found they needed the calming touch of a therapist to record their latest album.
In the downtime between albums, each band member went their separate ways. Frontman Rivers Cuomo headed back home to the east coast to complete a degree at Harvard, drummer Pat Wilson and guitarist Brian Bell had solo projects, while bassist Scott Shriner did the great American road-trip thing.
Shriner found his way to a dusty, rocky place known as the Four Corners, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet.
He would not have realised the symbolism, but it is fair to say Weezer had come to that critical point, where, to keep the band going, the four members had to come together to discuss their feelings.
Some of the problems had been building since the band hit the big time in 1994 with their geeky hits Buddy Holly and Undone (The Sweater Song) .
"The guys had some old beefs," Shriner, who joined the band after The Green Album, says from his LA home.
"I think the way Rivers (Cuomo) used to conduct his life wasn't working. Pat and Brian were not really telling him about how they really felt.
"It's tough. Being in a band is like being married to four people at the same time."
Ironically, the one thing the four-piece all agreed on was their therapist had to go.
"We had a lady come down a couple of times to help us, but we all agreed she was stupid, so we kicked her out."
Enter renowned producer Rick Rubin as makeshift group counsellor. Shriner says Rubin got everybody talking about their "beefs" so that when a problem arises they now vent their feelings rather than let them fester for years.
The next step was to whittle down the 40 songs Cuomo had written into what would become their fifth album, Make Believe. It was the album Shriner, for one, thought was coming out at least two years ago. But the enigmatic Cuomo had other plans.
"Rivers decided he wanted to collect his thoughts and see if he could come up with the best songs he could.
"In a way, he's such a genius he'll keep adjusting things and making the melodies simpler and simpler until there is only two notes in the whole song and then it's 'OK, dude, that is a little too basic'.
"So, we all got together and said, 'we have to make this record'."
If Cuomo is the procrastinator trying to get his self-deprecation on paper and into song, Shriner is the pragmatist who just wants to get on with the job. That job, coincidently, does not involve trying to get a TV spot on popular program The OC.
"We will not be on The OC ," Shriner laughs.
"I don't think they'd want us. We're too old."
Make Believe is out now. |
