Weezer having fun with hit out of Africa
Song started by fan has become band’s biggest in a decade
It started on Twitter, as these things often do. A then-14year-old Weezer fan named Mary (@weezerafrica) began a public campaign to persuade the alt-rock band to cover the 1982 Toto hit Africa. For months, she kept at it, tweeting at the band’s members: When would they bless the rains down in Africa?
Weezer eventually complied, and were shocked when their cover hit No. 1 on iTunes.
One of the internet’s few universally beloved comfort food songs, Africa is the gift that keeps giving: Weezer hasn’t had a hit this big in almost a decade.
The band is in the middle of a tour with the Pixies (they are coheadliners, though Weezer plays last).
Bassist/sometime vocalist Scott Shriner, who joined the band in 2001 as a replacement for Mikey Welsh, got on the phone to talk about Weezer’s unlikely resurgence, and his former life in the Marine Corps.
The following is an edited transcript of that conversation:
Q: Would you have believed it, if someone told you a few years ago that you’re going to have your biggest hit of the decade, but the bad news is, it’s going to be Toto’s Africa?
A: It’s a great story how it started, with a fan reaching out, and us tweeting back. Then we released (a cover of Toto’s) Rosanna, that really confused everyone. I guess we were just kind of doing it for us, because it was fun, having no idea it was such a good story.
Q: She says she’s a 14-year-old girl, but lots of people on the internet say they’re 14-year-old girls. Has anyone actually confirmed that?
A: Yeah, I’ve seen her on the news. They went and interviewed her and confirmed that fact, that it’s not a 57-year-old guy.
Q: And she just wanted the soothing unity of Toto’s Africa?
A: She had this idea, she thought it was about time, and we just said “yes.”
Q: Africa is all over the internet. There’s even dancing dog memes. What is it about that song?
A: Obviously, it’s a world class hit song, so there’s that, and it’s just kind of globally relatable, somehow. I don’t know, it’s a massive song. Wasn’t it in Season 2 of Stranger Things? It started with that, and a lot of younger people became aware of it.
Q: When you guys released Rosanna first, were you just trolling?
A: We just wanted to do Rosanna for fun. It has such an insane drum beat, (drummer Patrick Wilson) took it as a personal mission to master it. We did both, we just put Rosanna out first to keep everybody guessing. We’re fun like that.
Q: Then it becomes this huge internet hit, and you play it on the Jimmy Kimmel show.
A: Yeah, that’s the first time we ever played the song live. Q: Were there nerves? A: Yeah. I put a picture on my Instagram of the three of us, me, (frontman Rivers Cuomo), and (rhythm guitarist Brian Bell), just staring off in different directions, not talking at all. Just like, “We’re going out to play this on television. We’ve never played this before. Oh my God.” We’re all having our own personal freak out crises.
Q: Does this hit lead to more people coming to the shows?
A: We’ve had more walk-ups lately, people buying a lot of tickets at the door. I think having this little booster hasn’t hurt. What will it lead to? It will lead to harder drugs.
Q: Does part of you wonder if you’ll be tied to Toto’s Africa forever, and have to play it all the time?
A: Yeah, I think Rivers said as much: “OK, now we get to play this for the rest of our career. Ready? Go.” How can you be mad? The whole amphitheatre lights up and sings along. No matter what I think about a particular song, to see everyone have such a great time, you can’t help but have fun.
Q: Before you joined Weezer, were you a fan?
A: Yeah. My friend took me to see them at Club Lingerie, saying, “You’ve gotta see these nerds stand up there and play these killer songs.”
I went and saw them, and it was a completely different kind of music that I hadn’t seen at that time.
Q: Years after that, you get a call, and it’s Rivers. But you’re not sure if it’s Rivers?
A: No, I was sure. You know his voice. That was back in the old tape answering machine days. It was like, “Hey, Scott, it’s Rivers. Will you come over and fill in for us?”
Q: Was there any question you were going to do it?
A: There was no question that I was going to go and gush all over them, and completely not be cool. They didn’t want me in the band, they just wanted someone to fill in. Rivers is like, “You’re never gonna be in this band. We just need somebody to fill in while Mikey gets it together.” . . . I didn’t know I was in the band ’til we did the photo shoot for the album artwork for Maladroit. No one was talking to me. It was like, “OK, show up tomorrow.” (Then) “Show up tomorrow.”
Q: You used to be in the Marines. How does that very regimented life butt up against the life you have now?
A: It kind of helped shake the way I was raised, to be ready and fearlessly charge into challenges you would usually say “no” to.
Q: So it’s not like you still make your bed perfectly at seven a.m. every morning, and then stand next to it?
A: Yeah. My closet looks killer. My wardrobe case, when you open it, my shirts are all lined up. It’s ready for inspection, basically. It helps me feel calmer, when there’s order in things.