Rivers Cuomo | |
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.jpg) Cuomo performing at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo in 2025 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Peter Kitts (1985–1987) |
| Born | (1970-06-13)June 13, 1970 (age 55)[1] New York City, U.S. |
| Origin | Mansfield, Connecticut, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1985–present |
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Spouse | |
| Website | riverscuomo |
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Rivers Cuomo (/ˈkwoʊmoʊ/KWOH-moh; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock bandWeezer. Cuomo was born in New York City and raised in several Buddhist communities around the northeast US until the age of 10, when his family settled inConnecticut. He played in several bands in Connecticut and California before forming Weezer in 1992.
After the success of Weezer's debut, theBlue Album (1994), Cuomo enrolled atHarvard University, but dropped out after recording Weezer's second album,Pinkerton (1996). He re-enrolled and graduated in 2006. ThoughPinkerton is now frequently cited among the best albums of the 1990s and has beencertified platinum, it was initially a commercial and critical failure, pushing Cuomo's songwriting toward pop music for Weezer's next album, theGreen Album (2001). Weezer has released more than a dozen albums since.
Cuomo has released several compilations of demos, includingAlone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007) andAlone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2008), and has released thousands of home recordings on his website. He has collaborated with artists includingHayley Williams,B.O.B.,AJR,Todd Rundgren andPanic! at the Disco. With the American songwriterScott Murphy, Cuomo has released two Japanese-language albums asScott & Rivers.
Rivers Cuomo was born on June 13, 1970, in New York City to Frank Cuomo, of Italian descent, and Beverly Shoenberger, of German-English descent.[2][3] Frank was a musician who played drums onWayne Shorter's 1971 albumOdyssey of Iska.[4] According to one account, Cuomo's mother named him Rivers either because he was born between theEast andHudson rivers in Manhattan or because she could hear a river outside her hospital window. However, his father said Rivers was named after the soccer playersRivellino,Gigi Riva, andGianni Rivera, all of whom were playing in the1970 World Cup in Mexico.[5]
Cuomo was raised inRochester, New York, at theRochester Zen Center. After his father left in 1975, his mother relocated the family toYogaville, anashram inPomfret, Connecticut. Cuomo attended the Pomfret Community School and his mother married Stephen Kitts.[6] In 1980, when Yogaville relocated toVirginia, the family stayed in Connecticut and moved to theStorrs/Mansfield area.[7] During this time, Cuomo attended Mansfield Middle School andE.O. Smith High School. He was a member of the high school choir and performed in a school production ofGrease as Johnny Casino.[8][9][10][11] While in high school, Cuomo attended a summer program at theBerklee College of Music.[12] He was a fan ofhair bands during this time, such asKiss andQuiet Riot.[13] He also changed his name to Peter Kitts while in high school,[14] but after graduating, he reverted to his original name.[15]
One of Cuomo's earliest music projects was theglam metal band Avant Garde.[16] In 1989, after playing several shows in Connecticut, Avant Garde moved to Los Angeles and changed its name to Zoom. It broke up in 1990.[17][18][19] During this time, Cuomo attendedSanta Monica College.[20] In 1990 and 1991, while Cuomo was writing material for what became Weezer's debut album, he was aroadie for the band Kingsize.[21] He also worked atTower Records onSunset Boulevard, where he met the drummerPatrick Wilson.[22] Cuomo moved away from metal and absorbedalternative influences such asNirvana, thePixies andSonic Youth. He also listened tothe Beach Boys andthe Beatles, which influenced his songwriting.[23] He did not want audiences to realize he had once been a metal musician, as "there was so much anxiety about authenticity at the time".[22] He also thought of himself as a singer for the first time.[22]
Cuomo formed Weezer in 1992 with Wilson, the bassistMatt Sharp and the guitaristJason Cropper. "Weezer" was the nickname Cuomo's father gave him when he was a toddler.[24] On June 25, 1993, Weezer signed with DGC, a subsidiary ofGeffen Records. They released theirself-titled debut album, commonly known as theBlue Album, in May 1994. Cropper was fired during the recording and replaced byBrian Bell.[25]
TheBlue Album wascertified platinum on January 1, 1995, with sales of over one million.[26] Cuomo tired of the monotony and loneliness of touring and developed a "huge inferiority complex" about rock music, saying: "I thought my songs were really simplistic and silly, and I wanted to write complex, intense, beautiful music."[27]
In April 1995, Cuomo hadextensive surgery to extend his left leg, which was 44 millimetres (1.7 in) shorter than the right. This involved the surgical breaking of the leg bone, followed by months of wearing a steel brace and painfulphysical therapy.[28] The procedure affected his songwriting, as he spent long periods hospitalized under the influence of painkillers.[29]
In late 1995, Cuomo enrolled atHarvard University to study classical composition. He toldThe New York Times: "The only time I could write songs was when my frozen dinner was in the microwave. The rest of the time I was doing homework."[30] He auditioned for theHarvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum chorus, but was not selected.[31] He became introverted and grew a beard, mentioning in a letter to the Weezer fan club that students wearing Weezer T-shirts did not recognize him.[32]
Cuomo had planned Weezer's second album to be arock opera,Songs from the Black Hole, but he abandoned the project as his songwriting became "darker, more visceral and exposed, less playful".[33] Realizing he did not enjoycontemporary classical music, and missing Weezer,[30] Cuomo dropped out of Harvard two semesters before graduation.[30] He expressed the isolation and sexual frustration he had felt at Harvard on Weezer's second album,Pinkerton, released in September 1996. With a darker, more abrasive sound than Weezer's debut,Pinkerton was initially a commercial and critical failure, but attained acclaim later.[34]
AfterPinkerton, Weezer went on a three-year hiatus. Cuomo enrolled at Harvard twice more and completed semesters in 1997 and 2004.[30] During the 1997 semester, he played with a new band,Homie, in Boston. In February 1998, Cuomo disbanded Homie and moved to Los Angeles to work on new Weezer demos with Bell and Wilson, but the sessions were unproductive. In 1998 and 1999, he lived in an apartment under a freeway inCulver City, California. In an essay for Harvard, he wrote: "I became more and more isolated. I unplugged my phone. I painted the walls and ceiling of my bedroom black and covered the windows with fiberglass insulation."[30]
Disappointed byPinkerton's reception, Cuomo returned to simpler songwriting with less personal lyrics. He said that Weezer's subsequent albums, theGreen Album (2001) andMaladroit (2002), were "very intentionally not about me. Not about what was going on in my life, at least in a conscious way."[35] He also developed a greater appreciation for pop music, feeling that its multiple disciplines—including lyrics, improvisation, and image—produce a multifaceted art "that moves people and is important, and relevant to our culture in a way that serious classical music isn't right now".[27]
In June 2006, Cuomo graduatedcum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Harvard[36] and was elected toPhi Beta Kappa.[37] On December 6, 2009, Cuomo suffered cracked ribs and internal bleeding when his tour bus hit an icy road inGlen, New York, and crashed. Weezer canceled their performances until 2010.[38][39]
During Weezer's hiatus afterPinkerton, Cuomo formed a new band,Homie, and performed what he called "goofball songs" for his "country band". An album was planned, but only one studio recording, the song "American Girls", was released.[citation needed] Cuomo has contributed to recordings by various other musicians (Crazy Town,Cold,Mark Ronson).[citation needed] He managed the bandAM Radio in 2002 and 2003; he and the frontman,Kevin Ridel, went to school together.[40]
In early 2004, Cuomo joined ex-Weezer bassistMatt Sharp onstage atCalifornia State University, Fullerton. They worked on a record together in February that year, but the material remains unreleased.[41] In March 2008, Cuomo began a YouTube video series in which he wrote a song in collaboration with YouTube viewers.[42] The finished song, "Turning Up the Radio", was released in 2010 on the Weezer compilation albumDeath to False Metal.[43]
In December 2007, Cuomo releasedAlone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, a compilation of his demos recorded from 1992 to 2007.[44] It was followed byAlone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo in November 2008.[45] In November 2010, Cuomo releasedAlone III: The Pinkerton Years. It was sold exclusively with a book,The Pinkerton Diaries, collecting Cuomo's writings from thePinkerton period.[46]Pitchfork awardedAlone III 7.3 out of 10, writing: "Alone III casts the creative up-ramp toPinkerton as an inspired if not always productive time for Cuomo—you can practically visualize his brain giddily whirring with a flood of new ideas and classicist ambitions ... If you value these archaeological digs as an opportunity to construct an alternate band history,Alone III is easily Cuomo's most worthwhile project since, well,Pinkerton."[46]
Cuomo has made cameos in music videos includingthe Crystal Method's "Murder" andthe Warlocks' "Cocaine Blues". He also makes a guest appearance onSugar Ray's "Boardwalk", the first single on the group's 2009 albumMusic for Cougars. Cuomo featured on the song "Magic", onB.o.B's debut albumB.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, released in April 2010. In a May interview withHitQuarters, producer-songwriterLucas Secon confirmed that he had recently worked with Cuomo on both aSteve Aoki single and "some Weezer stuff".[47]
In 2011, Cuomo collaborated with Japanese singerHitomi for her firstindependent albumSpirit, in the duet "Rollin' with da Homies", which he co-wrote. He was also featured on theSimple Plan song "Can't Keep My Hands Off You"[48] andMiranda Cosgrove's song "High Maintenance".[49] In 2013, Cuomo released a self-titled Japanese-language album withScott Murphy[50] under the nameScott & Rivers. The album debuted at #1 on the iTunes Japan alternative charts. It was physically released in Japan and digitally worldwide oniTunes.[51] In 2015, Cuomo appeared onBig Data's song "Snowed In", from its album2.0.[52] In the same year, he produced a pilot for a sitcom based on his life,DeTour, starringBen Aldridge as Cuomo. The pilot was not picked up.[53] In 2016, he wrote the song "She Makes Me Laugh" forthe Monkees' twelfth studio album,Good Times!.[54]
In 2017, Cuomo featured in RAC's "I Still Wanna Know", as well asVic Mensa's "Homewrecker", which sampled Weezer's "The Good Life". The same year, he co-wrote and appeared onAJR's "Sober Up". "Sober Up" reached number one on theBillboardAlternative Charts, becoming Cuomo's first song as a solo artist to reach number one on Billboard's Alternative chart.[55] Cuomo also co-wrote the song "Why Won't You Love Me" on5 Seconds of Summer's 2018 albumYoungblood. In 2018, he helped write two songs, "Clock Work" and "Dancing Girl", forAsian Kung-Fu Generation's 2018 albumHometown.[56] Cuomo also performed a live cover ofToto's "Africa" during the homecoming halftime show at Santa Monica College.[57] Also in 2018, Cuomo released a single called "Medicine for Melancholy", produced by AJR. In 2019, he wrote and performed "Backflip", the theme song for theNetflix seriesGreen Eggs and Ham.[58] In 2020, Cuomo released more than 2,000 demos and home recordings on his website.[59]
In November 2022, Cuomo released theIndonesian-language song "Anak Sekolah", originally by Indonesian singerChrisye.[60] Cuomo later performed the song live with Weezer during its headline appearance atSoundrenAline 2022 inJakarta. According toCNN Indonesia, the idea to cover the song had come from Cuomo'sDiscord server, after he had asked fans about Indonesian-language songs he could perform for Weezer's Indonesia show.[61]
Appearing on theSong Exploder podcast in 2016, Cuomo explained the process he used to write albums such as theWhite Album. He sometimes uses the piano to write vocal melodies he would not create through singing, and vocally improvises melodies for guitar solos, to avoid guitar habits and create solos "you can sing along to" with "space in [them] because I have to breathe".[62] He maintainsSpotify playlists of music with chord progressions for inspiration.[62]
Cuomo has atenor vocal range.[63][64][65][66] Cuomo's process of writing lyrics involves writingstream-of-consciousness thoughts in his journal, highlighting interesting lines, and adding them to a spreadsheet organized by the number of syllables they contain andstrong-weak emphasis. He finds lines that fit the melody and assembles them in a way that suggests a story.[62] Cuomo's lyrics rarely use profanity; according to Cuomo, "Weezer came up at a time whenJane's Addiction releasedNothing's Shocking; everyone was trying to be controversial. We looked back to rock and roll's pre-drug days—to the clean images of the Beach Boys that felt, ironically, rebellious."[67] Cuomo has experimented with various means of "concentration" to aid his songwriting, such asfasting.[27]
Cuomo creditedthe Beach Boys as a major influence on his early songwriting. He toldUpset: "I remember when I was 21 or 22, right when Weezer got together. I went to the local used record shop in Santa Monica with the intention of buying a classic album that was going to be a huge influence on me and my writing for Weezer. I flipped through all the records and I narrowed it down to two records. One of them wasLed Zeppelin, the other wasPet Sounds by the Beach Boys. It was almost a coin toss but I ended up going withPet Sounds, and I really came to love the melodies and the chord progression and the emotion on that record. It has to be one of the biggest influences right when Weezer was starting out."[68]
Prior to the formation of Weezer, Cuomo was interested inheavy metal and "hook-heavypunk-pop".[69] On tour with the band after theBlue Album, Cuomo listened extensively to the operasAida (1871) andMadama Butterfly (1904), the rock operaJesus Christ Superstar (1970), and the musicalLes Misérables (1980), which influenced the composition ofPinkerton and the unreleasedSongs from the Black Hole.[70]
Cuomo's other influences includethe Beatles,Kiss,Nirvana,Giacomo Puccini,Green Day,Jane's Addiction,Iron Maiden,Slayer,Judas Priest,Cat Stevens,Lou Barlow,the Who,Pixies,Stevie Ray Vaughan,Elliott Smith,Mike Smith, andSonic Youth. Many are referenced in Weezer's 2008 song "Heart Songs". In the late 1990s, Cuomo created an "Encyclopedia of Pop" for himself, a three-ring binder in which he examined pop and rock songs by artists including Nirvana, Green Day, andOasis.[71][72]
Cuomo recorded theBlue Album with aGibson Les Paul Special, aGibson Les Paul Junior, and aFender Jaguar borrowed from producerRic Ocasek.[73] His amp was a vintageMesa/BoogieMark I.[73] For touring, he initially used a sonic blue WarmothFender Stratocaster copy withSeymour Duncan andDiMarzio pickups alongside Marshall amps, but the guitar was split down the middle onstage in 1997 and eventually retired in 2000.[74] In recent years, he has used additional Warmoth Strat copies (in blue, seafoam green, black and blonde), as well as aGibson SG painted white with a Seymour Duncan bridge pickup. During theHella Mega Tour in 2021, Cuomo was seen playing aJackson Rhoads (he had recently usedRandy Rhoads's solo on "Crazy Train").[75] The guitars are plugged into aKemper Profiler amp.[76]
Cuomo took a vow ofsexual abstinence from 2003 until his marriage in 2006, and considered his celibacy a positive influence on Weezer'sMake Believe (2005).[77] On June 18, 2006, Cuomo married Kyoko Ito, whom he met in 1997 at one of his solo concerts at theMiddle East club inCambridge,Massachusetts.[78][79] He proposed to her in Tokyo in 2005.[80] The wedding was on a beach on Paradise Cove inMalibu, and all of Weezer's past and present members exceptMikey Welsh attended, as did Cuomo's old bandmateKevin Ridel andMake Believe producerRick Rubin. They have two children.[81]
Cuomo was born with equally long legs, but as he grew, hisright leg grew nearly two inches longer than his left. After theBlue Album's success, he underwent theIlizarov procedure to correct the condition. This involved surgical breaking of the bone in his leg, followed by several months of wearing a steel brace that required self-administered "stretching" of the leg four times daily. Cuomo likened the process to "crucifying his leg".[28]
Cuomo has been vegetarian since childhood.[82][83] In 2002, he told an interviewer that he might like to start eating meat regularly and said he had done so in the past, and ate beef in Tokyo.[83] Cuomo practicesVipassanā meditation and was a student ofS. N. Goenka.[84] As of 2009, he also teaches children's meditation as taught by Goenka.[85] Cuomo helped acquire music rights and provided financial support for the 2007 documentaryThe Dhamma Brothers, about Vipassanā meditation being instituted in an Alabama state prison.[86]
Cuomo was a fan ofsoccer at an early age.[87] He wrote the 2006 song "My Day Is Coming" in tribute to theU.S. men's soccer team, and in 2010, wrote "Represent", an "unofficial anthem" for the U.S. team, which was released as a Weezer single on June 11, the day before Team USA'sWorld Cup opener againstEngland.[88] In early 2008, Cuomo played in theMia andNomar Celebrity Soccer Challenge and scored a goal in the game. The video for "Lover in the Snow", from theAlone album, deals with this game and his childhood love of soccer.[88] In August 2009, Cuomo participated in the Athletes for Africa 5v5 Charity Soccer Tournament in Toronto, alongside actorMichael Cera.[89][90]
Cuomo performed at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidateAndrew Yang inIowa on November 1, 2019, though he did not explicitly endorse Yang.[91][92] Cuomo's hobbies includecomputer programming. He took theCS50 course and maintains aGitHub profile and aDiscord server.[93][94][95]
With Weezer
With Scott and Rivers
Homie
Solo
Singles
Weezify demo bundles
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