Rivers Cuomo Had to ‘Ban’ Himself From Listening to ‘Mumble Rap’ While Recording ‘Pacific Daydream’

Rivers Cuomo ‘n the Weezer crew; Photo: Weezer.com

In a reverse golden journo question of ‘what influenced’ their new record, front Weezer brain Rivers Cuomo recently told Billboard that he had to “ban” himself from listening to certain types of music while recording their follow up to “the white album,” Pacific Dream (due October 27).

It certainly isn’t revelatory that Cuomo, like every artist, has an eclectic playlist setup, but it’s thoroughly entertaining that ‘mumble rap’ made its way into his life — until his bandmates and friends inspired an intervention of sorts.

Cuomo quipped on the obsession he had with the genre in the creation stages of the new album, “I had to ban myself from listening to Spotify’s Most Necessary playlist, the one with XXXTentacion and all the mumble rap.”

“It felt so creative and mind-boggling,” he explained. “I was listening to it all the time, and then I’d go to write a song and I’m doing mumble rap. And I’m like, ‘This is awesome!’ But I’d send it around to everybody and they’re like, ‘This is horrible!’”

Despite Cuomo’s draw to the oddities of music, Weezer’s guitarist and keyboardist Brian Bell admitted that “the secret to our longevity is the ability and desire to keep reinventing ourselves as best we can.”

The one thing Cuomo wanted from this new album was to “fucking break away from who we are and what we have always done and try to figure out something that’s totally different but incredibly amazing.”

Again, for people familiar with Weezer and Cuomo, this isn’t surprising. He’s always tried to reinvent his art, especially his own songwriting. The most glaring example is Cuomo’s side project, Scott & Rivers, a duo he’s apart of with Scott Murphy. Under that moniker, they released an album, Nimaime, that’s written entirely in Japanese.

And, according to Murphy, Cuomo was the one who “really wanted to do it 100 percent Japanese.”

So far Weezer have given the internets five singles from Pacific Daydream — “Feels Like Summer,” “Mexican Fender,” “Beach Boys,” “Weekend Woman,” and the latest, “Happy Hour.” Listen to all of them below.