Rivers Cuomo

The Weezer frontman on rock at the Grammys, covering Toto’s ‘Africa,’ learning to code, and that ‘SNL’ sketch

Weezer’s leader on the Grammys, Toto’s “Africa” and that wacky SNL sketch.

Weezer’s career has seen more than a few surprise twists over the years, but the pop-cultural renaissance they’ve enjoyed lately — a chart-topping cover of Toto’s “Africa,” a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album for 2017’s Pacific Daydream, December’s bizarrely hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch about Weezer superfans — is unprecedented even for them. “For whatever reason, the last few months have brought a lot of really good luck,” says Rivers Cuomo, 48. “It’s like, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’ ” The frontman called from his L.A. home studio to talk about the band’s remarkable hot streak, plus its upcoming Black Album, due out in March.

That Weezer sketch was SNL’s most talked-about moment in months. What did you make of it?

They really nailed it, right? I still can’t believe it. It can’t be that big of an audience that would appreciate such a specific little niche as the Weezer fandom.

At one point in the scene, Leslie Jones says, “Weezer died when [original bassist] Matt Sharp left.” Then Matt Damon retorts, “Weezer didn’t start until [current bassist] Scott Shriner got there.” Care to comment?

[ Laughs] It’s so deep, man! Who even knows what they’re talking about? I’m totally honored, but I hope people weren’t changing the channel.

The sketch did capture something about the intense loyalty that some fans have to specific parts of your band’s history. Why do you think that is?

I wish I knew. It’s almost worthy of an academic study to figure out what’s going on in the psyche of these few hundred thousand people. I feel like it must come back to something in the four of us, or something in me — some character flaw or some quirk of my personality.

Maybe it’s just that Weezer appeal to nerds — like the arguments about which Star Trek series is best.

In our case, we’re real people, not fictional characters, so there’s nothing to argue about. But I like that. I would add that nerds also like to catalog and collect things and notice the tiny differences from one product to the next. It makes sense, because I’m a nerd.

Your cover of “Africa” became Weezer’s biggest hit ever on alternative radio. Did that surprise you?

Yes! We didn’t send it to any radio stations as a single. We had another song that we were planning on coming out two weeks later. But “Africa” exploded on its own, and we had to stand on the sidelines with everyone else and watch as it won the game.

The idea to cover that song started as a joke that a fan tweeted. Are you going to try for any more memebased hits?

I mean, I just don’t think there’s another “Africa” out there. It’s a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. But we’ll defi- nitely be listening to random teenage girl fans in Ohio on Twitter from now on, I’ll tell you that.

If you win Best Rock Album this year, it will be only the second time Weezer have taken home a Grammy, after Best Music Video in 2009. Did it bother you that you got no love from the Recording Academy back in the Nineties?

I don’t think I even knew what the Grammys were. Grammys, Oscars, Tonys — I had no idea what was what, and we were so critically reviled that it never occurred to us that we would win anything.

You’re up against Greta Van Fleet, Fall Out Boy, Alice in Chains and Ghost this year. Do you like any of those bands?

Greta Van Fleet has a song that’s incredible — so incredible that I thought it was a cover song. So I looked it up on Wikipedia and was surprised to learn that it’s actually theirs. They’re such a bull’s-eye for the category, too. They stand for rock & roll, and Weezer from day one has always been an awkward fit for the rock category, as much as we love it.

Speaking of critical backlash, Greta Van Fleet have run into some of their own. Do you identify with them?

I’m guessing they get criticized for being extremely derivative, and we didn’t get that one. Although someone did call us Stone Temple Pixies. I remember that from a local paper on our first tour. That really hurt.

What else have you enjoyed listening to lately?

I made a Spotify playlist that updates automatically every day based on an algorithm that I wrote. That’s what I listen to all the time. I really like the 1975 — it reminds me of the Eighties.

Did you say you wrote an algorithm?

I enrolled in Harvard’s Intro to Computer Science online course about three years ago. It’s pretty much taken over my life. I’ve written all kinds of programs to help me with creativity, and also to help optimize the bus routing on the next tour.

What’s it been like working with producer Dave Sitek, of TV on the Radio, on Weezer’s new album?

It’s so cool. Dave is close to our age, but he’s from the completely other side of the alternative Nineties. His point of reference is more Beck and the Beastie Boys, which is so different from where I was coming from with the Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins side of alt-rock.

I’m stoked.