Rivers Cuomo

Rivers Cuomo (born June 13, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the rock band Weezer. He has also released works under his own name, and has contributed to numerous songs by other artists. Rivers Cuomo was born on June 13, 1970 in Manhattan to father Frank Cuomo and mother Beverly Shoenberger. His mother claims he was named "Rivers" because she first heard the sound of a river outside her hospital window after Rivers' birth. His father claims that he was named after three players from the Soccer World Cup of 1970: Rivelino, Riva, Rivera; all three of which played one another one week after June 13. Rivers was, according to his brother, Leaves, almost named "Apple"–most likely because he was born in New York City. Rivers was raised in upstate New York at the Buddhist Zen Center. There, Rivers' father farmed cows until he left the family in 1975. Afterward, he was mostly absent from Rivers' youth. Rivers and Leaves followed their mother, Beverly, to Yogaville where Rivers remained for the rest of his childhood. There, Rivers was known as "Rama." Said Rivers, "You have to realize we were living in an enclosed community of Hindus. We lived in an ashram. Isn't that insane?…It was a very mellow childhood." Beverly remarried to Stephen Kitts who became Rivers' stepfather. Rivers' first musical love was Kiss. In 1977, a young girl whom Rivers was friends with (presumably the one on the Buddy Holly single) played Rivers the Kiss record, Rock and Roll Over. Rivers would later say that this "directed the course of life." At an 8th grade talent show, Rivers and Justin witnessed some classmates covering "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot. Rivers and Justin noticed girls rushing the stage and "everyone freaking out", so the two decided to form their own band, Fury. Inspired by the performance, Rivers asked his parents to buy him a guitar for his fourteenth birthday. On June 13, 1984, Rivers received his first guitar, a Stratocaster copy. Rivers learned the Ace Frehley solos and would attempt to play them for his mother. Said Rivers, "I'd play her the 'Shock Me' solo from Alive II because I thought that was the greatest. She told me that it sounded like a dying cat." The first song Rivers wrote was "Fight For Your Right". Rivers described it as, "…a Kiss style heavy metal anthem. It's funny that I basically do the same thing now. Come up with a metal riff and sing it. I've barely evolved." Tuning into local radio, Rivers got into Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, both of whom later would Rivers sing "taught how to shred." Rivers identified with heavy metal and felt that it was the sound of his generation. He chose to identify himself as a "metalhead." Rivers once took a Quiet Riot album cover to the hair salon and said, "Make me look like Carlos Cavazo". He then said, "My mom got so upset, she got in the car and drove home without me, which was, like five miles away." Ten days after Rivers received his first guitar, Fury began holding rehearsals. Fury was the band Rivers formed with Leaves, Justin and their mutual friend Eric Robertson. In September of 1984, Fury played their first show. One year after Fury's formation, Rivers wanted to play a heavier metal and his friend Justin agreed. The two began writing as members drifted in and out. At the time, Rivers was writing his own guitar parts as well as covering Metallica and Connecticut natives Fates Warning. He even went so far as to take guitar lessons from Fates Warning's Jim Matheos. Eventually, Rivers and Justin would call the band "Avant Garde". Rivers has since said, "We were anything but." Eventually, Kevin Ridel was cast as the lead singer. Rivers took Avant Garde incredibly seriously and had the band rehearsing four times a week for hours on end. Any member that Rivers thought was not taking the music seriously, he kicked out. First, Eric Ridel, their rhythm guitarist was kicked out for partying. Even Justin Fisher was confronted by Rivers about his one night of partying. Rivers had a profound influence on members of the band. Even at E.O. Smith, Rivers was considered to be the leader of ten to twelve heavy metal fans by his junior year. Rivers has referred to himself as "an outsider, but…I've always been a leader too. I always had a group with me. I gradually attracted a really close group of outsiders to me." In 1989, Rivers and Avant Garde moved to Los Angeles. While there, the band played a few big shows and eventually changed their name to Zoom in an attempt to make themselves more marketable and focused. At the time, Rivers was attending the Guitar Institute, but not attending classes. He received notice that he would not graduate. At the time, he was also working at Tower Records in LA. At Tower, Rivers came in contact with Pat Finn. Cuomo's time at Tower opened his eyes to a whole new sound of music. "The Pixies are one of the bands that really blew my mind when I first moved to LA and started to discover cool music," Rivers said. Rivers also was turned onto Nirvana. The first song he heard by them was "Sliver", and Cuomo says that when he first heard it he started to dance. During the winter of 1990/1991, Rivers, now twenty years old, wrote songs like "You Overpower Me", "Anything for You" and "Xmas in L.A.", which was a musical letter home about being away from home for Christmas. To work with his new songs, Rivers formed a band called Fuzz with Patrick Wilson and Scottie Chapman. The band eventually dissolved/fused into 60 Wrong Sausages. With his life finally looking up again, Rivers was also a 4.0 straight-A student at Los Angeles Community College. Rivers continued to record his own songs and then took them to whatever project he was pursuing at the time. Rivers very much enjoyed collaborating with Pat Wilson. The two would pen songs together such as "The Pop Screen" and "What's Goin' On?" while Rivers wrote his own more somber pieces such as "Sing to Me Slow" and "I Got So Many Problems." These early songs were the basis of 60 Wrong Sausages. With 60WS, Cuomo recorded the Cholesterol EP. He was also helping Kevin Ridel record for his Christian rock band, The Truth. Cuomo was mostly an engineer and aided backup vocals and guitars where needed on songs such as "My Salvation", "Eyes of the Children" and "I Belong to God". Rivers rehearsed with 60WS until they played their one and only show on Thanksgiving weekend. Rivers was slowly losing interest in the band and was more excited in his own material. Feeling inspired by Pixies and Nirvana, Rivers and Pat set out to collaborate on a 50 song collaborative project. According to Jason Cropper, Rivers sensed alternative music was about to explode. It was this belief that guided his new songs like "Why Do We Hurt Each Other?", "I Need Some Touch", "2-2 Tango" and "My Name is Jonas". Jason also recalled the first time he and Cuomo heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the Italian restaurant where they worked. After the song finished, Rivers was upset that it was Kurt who had written the song and not himself. Jason said, "My fondest, pre-Weezer memory is I'm cooking, Rivers is cleaning, and we're both standing in the same kitchen, and that song comes on the radio, in like the first week of its release, and Rivers says, 'I should have written that.' And I'm like, 'Yeah. That's totally true.' Because the music he was writing was improving in quality every day. Every day he wrote a better song." Rivers thought it best that the band have a large catalogue of songs before they even began playing. That way, they wouldn't waste studio time and would be more focused and cohesive when they finally formed. "I didn't want to get back into a band until I felt like I had a bunch of songs that were good and that had cohesive style", Rivers said. "So I just wrote songs and didn't play at all for a long time. 'Undone', 'Jonas', 'Only in Dreams' and 'The World Has Turned and Left Me Here' were all written before we even played together." Pat's enthusiasm for the songs led to them getting in the hands of Matt Sharp. Matt was so impressed that he came down to Los Angeles to help form Weezer. On February 14, 1992, a still-unnamed Weezer held their first rehearsal. The vibe was so strong and positive that they practiced for several days in a row, recording the fourteen songs they played on their third practice. Cuomo said, "When we first started practicing, I mean from our very first rehearsal, I thought to myself, 'We're amazing. This is incredible! Everybody's going to love us!" Unfortunately, the band did not take off as quickly as Rivers had hoped. "Nobody would come to our shows for months and months and months," Rivers said, "I mean, we were playing the songs that became big hits…" Cuomo also said, "We would always be last slot on the bill at 1 A.M. when everyone was leaving. So we had really low self esteem." After two do-it-yourself tours, Rivers said, "I remember Matt and I just finally collapsing, like, nine months into the whole thing and just looking at each other and saying, 'We must be crazy. We must have bad taste.' Because we thought this was cool and nobody was getting it." Weezer did eventually generate a buzz though, and it was enough to capture the attention of a strong LA fanbase, and even some label interest — in which Todd Sullivan decided to sign Weezer on. Rivers quickly wrote some new songs in a fit of happiness and nervousness. Following Weezer's success, Rivers was worried that the band was made famous from the gimmicks of the "Buddy Holly" video and not his songwriting. He removed his glasses because he felt they were also a gimmick. He began to talk less and took complete control of the band. He felt somewhat cheated that the rock star life was not like the life Kiss promised him when he was younger. Beginning to question his rock star life, Rivers wrote the song "Longtime Sunshine" while at home for Christmas in 1994. In it, he contemplated going to an East cost college, leaving the rock star's "lonely life behind" and confessed he would be satisfied in the simple things. Rivers also began to outline what he saw as the next Weezer album. Rivers felt that Weezer was too simple and basic and was intending to go to Harvard to learn classical composition. This paved the way for Songs from the Black Hole and eventually Pinkerton. Rivers used the money that success afforded him to have corrective surgery on his leg, which had been shorter than the other since birth. Rivers found himself wanting a place where he could retreat and become invisible. He grew a beard, put on his glasses and attended Harvard. At Harvard, Rivers began to abandon his space opera concept. A bad case of writers block kept Rivers from writing any material for quite some time. The only thing Rivers knew was that Weezer's next album should be completely without gimmick. At Harvard, Rivers was unrecognizable to most. He walked with a cane, had a thick beard, long hair, and thick glasses. According to Rivers, fans would walk by in Weezer shirts and not recognize him. Rivers writers block let up when he received a letter from a Japanese fan girl. The letter would inspire the song "Across the Sea", and help to kill the Black Hole project. The song's lyrics reveal that the letter meant so much, and he was in such need of attention, that he would lick the envelope where she licked it, and have sexual fantasies about the girl. Around this time, Rivers was also reading lots of Joe Matt comics, studying classical composition, had a strong interest in Madame Butterfly, and was inspired by the guitar stylings of Yngwie Malsteem. All of these things played a strong roll in the songs he wrote. "Across the Sea" featured references to Japanese culture, had chord changes, dynamics and complexity like that of a classical composition, and the guitar was fast and relentless much like Malsteem's. Furthermore, the idea of holding nothing back and exposing everything is similar to the comics Joe Matt makes such as Spent. Cuomo would also fall in love with girls at Harvard, most of whom he was terrified of approaching, one of which turned out to be a lesbian. This prompted the songs "Pink Triangle" and "El Scorcho". "The Good Life" chronicled the lifestyle of Rivers at Harvard. Rivers walked with an "old man cane", was "bitter and alone", was looking more bizarre than he ever had ("who's that funky dude?"), etc. "Falling for You", another song Rivers wrote at Harvard, made reference to the girl he sang about in "El Scorcho". hen it came time to record Weezer's second album Pinkerton, Rivers had taken complete control of the band. He was less social with his bandmates, he was more reserved, and he wanted no gimmicks. He wanted Pinkerton to have a raw and rough sound, which he said was closer to Weezer's actual sound. When Rivers toured for Pinkerton, he had more of a drive to make sure he was having sex with groupies and living the rock star life. After shows, Rivers would make conversation with girls (typically Asian), and often invite them back to his hotel room to have sex with. Rivers wrote of this in one of his essays, A Mad and Furious Master. In it, he writes, "Then one night, I plucked up my courage and boldly proclaimed, “OK, whoever wants to stay in the room has to . . . uhh . . . take off their clothes and…uhh…get on the bed”. The women tittered and most of them left, but four of them stayed, and to my amazement, did as I asked." Rivers also made arrangements so that 75% of all video footage in the music videos was of him. He arranged salaries to members based on contributions to the albums (which left him with a majority of the money). However, after Pinkerton's commercial disappointment, Rivers was somewhat embarrassed and ashamed of the album he had made. In 2001, Rivers said, "It’s a hideous record… It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won’t go away. It’s like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself." After Pinkerton, Rivers sought a less personal writing style and moved to Boston. Rivers is also notable for his "Alone" series of compilations, where he releases several demos from past and future Weezer songs. The first release was Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo in 2007, followed by Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo in 2008. Both discs contains detailed liner notes written by Cuomo about the creation of each song. A few days after the release of Alone II, Cuomo organized a hootenanny at Fingerprints Records in Long Beach, California wherein Cuomo performed vocals for songs accompanied by fans playing instruments. This performance was released to independent record stores the following year as Not Alone: Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints in both CD and DVD formats. A third installment in the Alone series, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years, appeared as a pack-in CD with the book The Pinkerton Diaries which documents Cuomo's life from the release of The Blue Album through the end of the release cycle for Pinkerton and includes photographs, essays, and journal entries from that period. In a USTREAM chat on September 5, 2010 and again in an interview with SPIN, Cuomo hinted that an Alone IV, V and VI would be released in the future, with Alone IV and V containing more of Cuomo's original demos while Alone VI would be cover songs. In the same SPIN article, Cuomo stated that Alone VI would “just be Rivers songs”. Cuomo later told fans that Alone VI would consist solely of cover songs. According to fans who attended Nerd Night around 2013 or 2014, Alone IV was, at the time, considered as a compilation of demos for already-released Weezer songs. These installments ultimately never materialized, however. In a 2017 interview, Cuomo expressed regret over releasing the existing Alone albums, telling Dazed, "I wish I hadn’t, but I did. It’s kind of embarrassing. If you search for my name on Spotify, that’s what comes up. I should put out something more pro also so people don’t think that’s all I do." In 2019, Cuomo described his more recent writing process as utilizing demos as far back as the early 90s, telling Alternative Nation, "The way I write now, I have a folder of about 1,400 demos. And I look at it through a program called Mp3tag. I’ll be writing a song, and I’ll know: “All right, I need a bridge that’s at 132 bpm, in the Key of A-flat major, and the bridge needs to start on the two chord, and the melody needs to be on the fourth degree of the scale.” I press “Go,” and Mp3tag returns the ten matching demos I have." In an August 2020 Riverpedia entry, Cuomo confirmed that he had no plans to continue the Alone series, instead preferring to keep recordings to himself in order to appropriate them for future Weezer songs. Cuomo apparently reversed this decision shortly thereafter, however, launching a demo storefront on riverscuomo.com in October of that year, selling hundreds of demos to individual users on November 11, and selling a compilation titled Alone IV: The EWBAITE Years on November 20. Later, many more bundles were available in the store. Some (including The EWBAITE Years) were later designated to a different Alone number. Read more on Last.fm. 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