Guitar World interview with Rivers Cuomo - November 2014

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==Transcript==
Weezer Heads Prevail
By Tom Beaujour
Unfazed by perennial reports of rock's death, WEEZER carry on with EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT IN THE END, their ninth, and latest, studio album.
“ROCK IS DEAD.
GUITAR IS DEAD.”
Weezer's 9th studio album, Everything Will Be Alright in the End, opens with these two dire statements, both uttered before the opening riff of "Ain't Got Nobody" kicks in. "All those voices you hear on the record are the voices that we've heard in our lives and in our careers in recent years,” explains Rivers Cuomo, Weezer's primary songwriter, lead guitarist and vocalist.
Thankfully, it seems that Cuomo and the rest of the band—guitarist Brian Bell, drummer Patrick Wilson and bassist Scott Shriner—chose to ignore the naysayers whispering in their ears. “Ain’t Got Nobody” is unabashedly rocking and guitar driven, and if anything, Everything Will Be Alright in the End sounds more like a rebirth for Weezer than a last gasp. Hard-edged numbers like the declamatory “Back to the Shack” and the pounding “I’ve Had It Up to Here” are arena-ready anthems, while more emotionally raw numbers like “The British Are Coming” and “Foolish Fathers” feature the plaintive yowl that turned the band’s second album, 1996’s Pinkerton, into a celebrated emo-rock cult classic years after its release and initial commercial failure.
Everything Will Be Alright in the End also marks the return of producer Ric Ocasek, who previously worked with Weezer on their 1994 self-titled debut (known by fans as the Blue Album) as well as on their also-eponymous 2001 comeback (dubbed the Green Album). The band spent three three-week stretches with the Cars frontman at Los Angeles’ storied Village Recorder studios, and according to Cuomo, this third-time collaboration was a charm.
“Recording this record felt like much more of a creative process than making the first album,” he says. “Because when we made that record, we’d been playing the songs for
a year and a half in the clubs and there had been several rounds of demos. It felt like
the songs were pretty much done and there wasn’t room for much more creativity once we got into the studio. And then when we made the Green Album, I didn’t want to hear from anyone. This time, there were a lot more unfinished parts, and there was a lot more work left to be done, so it was wonderful to have this amazing creative talent sitting there right next to us in the trenches.”
Bell Weather
As Rivers Cuomo's sonically savvy guitar partner, Brian Bell gets plenty of chances to shine
Ask Rivers Cuomo about Brian Bell, and he's quick to point out that Weezer's second guitarist is absolutely integral to the Weezer sound. "For lack of a better term, Brian has a lot more style, sonically and feel-wise, than I do," Cuomo says. "So when there's a lone guitar that isn't just chunky power chords, that's usually a spot for him to shine. A perfect example would be the beginning of 'I've Had It Up to Here,' on the new album [Everything Will Be Alright in the End). I tried to play it a hundred times, and it was completely technically correct, but it was just dull sounding. Brian did one take and it was just perfect."
"I don't have a back catalog of classic rock riffs that I fall back on," Bell says when asked how he keeps his parts fresh and exciting. "I try to make my own riffs that hopefully could become classic...if I could be so bold!"
When it came to choosing guitars for Everything Will Be Alright in the End, however, Bell relied on a pair of classic vintage instruments to record the bulk of his work. "I have an amazing 1964 Gibson SG that I used a lot on this record," he says. "And then, when the parts call for it, I have a beautiful 1967 Tele Thinline that I've had since the Pinkerton years. Those are basically the two axes that I've been using in the studio."
Bell relied on a pair of vintage Silvertone 1485 amps when recording the new record. "I have one with a 2x12 cabinet that overdrives in exactly the right way when you crank it up, and another that's a 6x10 that I usually just keep on the vibrato [tremolo] setting," he says. His main live amp, a Matchless, also figures prominently on the album.
"I always like combo amps, which is good, because Rivers is more of a closed-back-4x12-and-head kind of guy," Bell says. "I like the extra top that I get from the combos, and it works with the fact that the chord voicings in my guitar parts are often in a higher register. I'm always looking more at the top of the chord and at whatever more interesting inversions are available to me. Then, when I can sneak them in, I will!"
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