When ‘Nevermind’ came out, my roommate had the CD. At first, I actually thought, ‘This is too polished and commercial.’ It was a little off-putting. But then I was like, ‘This is the best music ever.’ It felt so close to what I wanted to do. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
In some ways, I feel like I was Nirvana’s biggest fan in the Nineties. I’m sure there are a zillion people who would make that claim, but I was just so passionately in love with the music that it made me feel sick. It made my heart hurt. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
Certainly, the Beach Boys and the early Beatles records were a huge influence on me lyrically. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
It’s so important to me that I feel like I’m doing something that’s never been done before, whether that’s in the show, or I’m writing a song. I can exist in this little box here, but I have to do something new with it. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
I always like balance. If I’m playing rock music all the time, chances are I’ll start craving some lighter, poppier stuff, both to listen to and to play. I compare music to massage. If someone’s been working on your back for a long time, you really want them to move down to your legs or something. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
I do want to make music that people love, but I also want to make music that I love. I know I can’t please everyone with anything I do, so I don’t think too much about how other people are going to take things. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
I think if I wasn’t a musician, I would be a high-school band director or orchestra director. I like working with large groups of musicians and bringing out the dynamics and accomplishing something as a team. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
Weezer isn’t stuck in roles, so we just do what we want to do, what makes us excited. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote
I felt frustrated by the limitations of rock and the lifestyle of touring around on a bus and playing the same songs over and over. So I went back to school to study music, and one of the things I got into was the Italian opera composer Puccini. Rivers Cuomo Read Quote