In the week of the release of their ninth studio album ‘Hurley‘, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has revealed the band are already working on the follow-up.
Speaking to Avclub.com, Cuomo outlined the new sound which is evolving on the new tracks, despite the group only recently finishing work on ‘Hurley‘. “We just started working on our 10th record,” he said. “I was talking to the producer and he was saying, ‘These songs sound totally different from ‘Hurley‘. That was kind of dark and the new songs sound like you’re 16, riding your bicycle to get a Slurpee.’
As a writer, I had no idea – I wasn’t shooting for anything different. That’s just what happened to come up.”
Meanwhile, Cuomo has also been speaking to BBC 6Music, on which he discussed the unconventional artwork for ‘Hurley‘, which features a photograph of the actor who plays Hurley on the hit TV show Lost, and has caused something of a stir amongst fans. “I just saw him backstage at the George Lopez show in LA and I love that show,” he explained.
'Hurley' artwork
“He’s such a cool character so I took a picture with him. Then I was looking at the picture later and just looking at his expression there is so much warmth and love, it’s really a striking image.
I thought on the cover of an alternative rock album it would be very freaky and it would definitely bother some people and excite some people, so let’s throw it on there and see what happens.”
Drummer Pat Wilson criticised the reaction to the cover from some sections of the media, who have accused Weezer of ‘selling out’. “Pitchfork’s like it’s an outrageous cover, really outrageous? are you outraged? it’s just a guy smiling, a large moonface smiling at you,” he said.
In addition to the new album, Weezer also hope to release a duluxe version of their second record ‘Pinkerton‘ in November.