River Cuomo of Weezer Wrote a Computer Formula for New Album

2017-10-07

Charles Ken

River Cuomo says Weezer churned out feel-good, summery songs on their latest album

It’s no secret that Rivers Cuomo of Weezer isn’t your typical rock star. After all, he’s a Harvard graduate and certainly sheds that “rock star” image.

When Cuomo started working on Weezer’s new studio album “Pacific Daydream,” he looked up thousands of riffs and ideas he had saved on his computer, and some of those were created as far back as 2000. He ended up penning a special formula in Google Sheets to help organize all of those ideas by tempo and key. In essence, Cuomo wrote a computer formula to help with the new album.

“Then I can see which ideas are most likely to fit with each other,” Cuomo told Rolling Stone. “I’ll find an idea and be like ‘Whoa! I don’t even remember making this!’ It’s kind of like collaborating with myself.”

Cuomo crafted “Pacific Daydream” with the help of technology, and in turn, the album is nothing like past albums. Cuomo says the guys didn’t even record “Pacific Daydream” in the studio together, calling the method “completely unrecognizable from what I grew up with.”

“Things have been evolving this way for years, now,” he added.

So, what does “Pacific Daydream” sound like? As with the lead single “Feels Like Summer,” the tracks has a fun, summery vibe.

“There’s always a part of me that just loves super-joyous pop music,” Cuomo said. “I just get so excited when (Carly Rae Jepsen’s) ‘Call Me Maybe’ comes on… It’s hard for me to be divisive in a song.”

The Weezer boys will drop “Pacific Daydream” on Oct. 27. Listen to a new song off the record, “Weekend Woman,” below.

Photo credit: Anne Erickson

Charles Ken
Latest posts by Charles Ken (see all)
Posted by Charles Ken | Alternative, Music, Rock News

Related Posts