Writing a song can be as easy as swiping right.
That's what Rivers Cuomo learned making Weezer's latest self-titled album (out Friday), when he joined Tinder in search of songwriting inspiration. The married frontman, 45, made his platonic intentions clear from the get-go, noting in his profile that he was not looking for a date, but new perspectives and experiences.
"I actually didn't meet (anyone) in real life — it was more like a text relationship," Cuomo says. Sometimes, "I would copy and paste from our conversation right into the song," while others, he would channel dating app hang-ups into lyrics. On the rollicking Thank God for Girls, for example, he laments: "I wish that I could get to know her better, but meeting up in real life would cause the illusion to shatter."
The reticent rocker put himself out there in other ways, too: wandering and watching passersby at Venice Beach near his home in Santa Monica, Calif. "I love to be around people, but I'm not super interactive. I'm just like a fly on the wall," Cuomo says. "I wake up in the morning and write down the stuff I remember from the night before. Then I go through that with a highlighter and highlight the interesting lines, and jumble them all up to create a new story."
Weezer is the nerd-rock icons' 10th album and fourth to share the band's name. (Keeping in tradition with their 1994 debut, unofficially known as the "Blue Album," this effort has been dubbed the "White Album" for its cover color.) The project got underway just a few months after the group released its well-received Everything Will Be Alright in the End in fall 2014, when Cuomo teamed up with producer Jake Sinclair, 31, whom he met briefly back in 2009. Coincidentally, Sinclair fronted his own Weezer tribute band growing up.
"He knows his Weezer and knows what Weezer was really influenced by," says Scott Shriner, 50, the band's bassist since 2001. "He really gets it, but he also listens to all kinds of music, so he has a fresh approach and we got to bring some cool new sounds. At the same time, (he) doesn't lose what is so wonderful about Weezer."
For Cuomo, "Jake knows me inside and out, so it's really comforting to have somebody like that in the studio." While Sinclair's aim was to evoke the spirit of Weezer's Blue Album and beloved 1996 Pinkerton, "I'm always the guy that wants to throw out the rule book and do things radically different, so we were at opposite poles. Through that tension, we end up with the sound of the White Album."
Cuomo says he is already halfway through writing the "Black Album," which he expects to release next year and vaguely describes as "more Downtown LA" than their latest. Before then, Weezer will hit the road with longtime friends Panic! at the Disco for a joint tour this summer, which launches June 10 in The Woodlands, Texas.
Twenty years in, Cuomo sees that they still draw crowds of all ages. "We're kind of doing our own thing, which is basically how it's always been," he adds. "We didn't fit into the grunge scene and I don't think we really fit into any scene now. People really recognize us as our own genre: just good, catchy songs that rock."
