Weezer have been teasing a new album. The band recently announced a North American arena tour called Weezer: The Gathering with the Shins and Silversun Pickups as support, and today they're sharing the lead single called "Shine Again."
"Shine Again" was first distributed to fans via USB drives at an intimate performance last week. We still don't know the LP title, but we do know that it'll be the group's first for Reprise/Warner Records and it's produced by Kenneth Blume, who helmed last year's Geese album Getting Killed. During a Q&A on Discord, Blume said Rivers Cuomo met Cameron Winter during the sessions, which was an "incredible moment." Blume continued, "I joked that rivers passed the test and he could join geese now and he immediately just said '.......geezer?'"
In the Discord Q&A, Kenny Beats was asked, "Were the instruments on the album recorded together, or one at a time? And if so what did you usually start with?" He answered, "Every single song on the record was started all together, in the room at the same time, no tempo references. No matter what the tracklist ends up being." He later elaborated, "There is 0 grid on the record, 0 click track anywhere."
In the Q&A, Blume said he and co-producer Klas Åhlund discussed incorporating "tones from Desert rock bands like Kyuss .. kind of like stoner metal tones. Nothing to do with the writing, just as references sonically." Per Blume, "Shine Again" is a good example of where Weezer's heads are at on this record. He says despite his background in rap, no hip-hop production techniques were used except for possibly in vocal production. It sounds like he studied Weezer's White Album ahead of the sessions too: "I studied white because I wasn't familiar. Can see why Weez heads love it so much. I studied a lot of Weezer, really really hard. Every day and night before and after I was with them. Absolutely 0 exaggeration."
Today also happens to be the 10-year anniversary of the White Album, but their 2014 Bethany Cosentino collab "Go Away" is what's currently going viral on TikTok. To celebrate, Rivers Cuomo and co. teamed up with the Best Coast singer to perform it on the rooftop of Los Angeles' Hinano Cafe. It was a part of their Initiation Week, which has also involved pinball and pickleball tournaments. Hear "Shine Again" below.
