Weezer thought it would be seen as “new Nirvana”, not nerdolas

The look of Weezer can fool a lot of people. Despite their appearance considered “conventional”, the American musicians make up a long-lived rock band, with more than 30 years of activity — disregarding the hiatus between 1997 and 2000.

Many may know this, but in 1994 the reality was different. And the cover of the debut album, eponymous and informally called The Blue Album, Did not help. The album released on May 10, 1994 brought a portrait of the four musicians being who they are and without extravagant visuals.

The music videos released at the time and the stage posture itself reinforced this. Despite the vocalist and guitarist Rivers Cuomo be a big fan of names like Kiss It is Van Halenhe and his partners — the drummer Patrick Wilsonthe guitarist Brian Bell and the already absent bassist Matt Sharp — were more concerned with the sound than the look.

On the other hand, this resulted in not very pleasant comments at first. During an interview with Louder, Cuomo revealed that he was waiting for the Weezer being defined as “the next Nirvana”. As a result, the group was characterized as “the revenge of the nerds.”

“When we did the Blue Album, I saw myself in a completely different light. I thought we would be next Nirvana, that we would be taken very seriously as an angst-filled rock band. And I was completely shocked and surprised and disappointed when we released the record and found out that the press was, ‘This is a bunch of geeks. Revenge of the nerds!’.”

The situation, in fact, surprised rivers. The musician admitted: “That line of thinking had never occurred to me.” And there was no point in fighting it.

“It was universal all over the world, it was what everyone said about us. So I think it must be true. I just don’t fit into it and I don’t even realize it. Place me in general society and I stand out as a misfit.”

Concern about the image of Rivers Cuomo and Weezer

Still during the interview, Rivers Cuomo was asked if he has any concerns about how he is perceived. He admitted that he did.

“Yes, it seems that I am not as skilled at managing my reputation as some other artists are. I know some people think I’m a weirdo. But I think once people get to know me, most people like me and find it easy to relate to me.”

Being a famous musician, however, that doesn’t matter. The image that the media and the general public builds about the artist ends up weighing more.

“Being a high-level musician, people don’t really know you, they just get first impressions or distant impressions and that has often been quite negative about me. That matters to me.”

Fortunately, none of this harmed the Weezer. O Blue Album it sold more than 3.5 million copies in the United States alone, achieving triple platinum certification. It also broke out in the United Kingdom and Canada, among other countries. His biggest hit is “Buddy Holly”, a song that reached second place on the US alternative chart. Not bad for nerdolas.