Will Matt Sharp Ever Play With Weezer Again
Matt Sharp Breaks His Silence
By Chris Bruce
on his new album, his past, his friendships and more than
Some may say it's easy to intermission away as a solo artist when yous've got a built-in fan base. Merely Matt Sharp might beg to differ there. Sharp, who is well-known as both the former bass player for Weezer and frontman of The Rentals respectfully, is now set to bare his soul as a solo artist with the release of his self-titled solo debut.
The anthology, released in May, comes on the heels of a like-minded EP, 2003�s Puckett'south Versus The Country Boy which Sharp recorded subsequently putting The Rentals on the backburner and enclosing himself in the one gas station town of Leipers Fork, Tennessee. The acoustic, heartfelt audio fabricated it quite a departure from anything he has done before, which made the album�s completion quite an accomplishment despite the loose objectives behind the it�s creation.
"In that location weren't very many definitive goals with this record. At the start, I was just trying to detect my phonation," says Sharp. "We weren't considering, going into these recordings, that nosotros were making a proper record. We were just trying to document ideas as they came, and then take a step back from it subsequently and meet what was there."
The 1999 Rentals anthology Seven More Minutes was a very upbeat new moving ridge rock affair; much more than busy than their 1995 debut The Return Of The Rentals, which is a considerable feat. Later on touring for the record, Sharp had to come to a decision of whether or non to construct another Rentals album.
"I was sort of faced with the question of whether I'm going to go make another record with The Rentals and deport on knowing what I know how to exercise, or just make a different choice and try to figure out how to arroyo a kind of music that I wasn't that experienced with recording," says Precipitous.
"I was listening to a lot of music at the time was more than of an individual sitting down and telling you a story with not a lot of production and those kinds of things. I didn't really know how to make that kind of a record, so I figured I should just cut myself off for a while and see if I could."
Somber and crafted songs are what listeners can expect to observe here, with little to no trace of the Rentals synth-soaked pop/rock sound. "Adieu West Coast", for instance, tells not of sweaters or quirky dear stories, but rather a melodic tale of visiting an old friend'southward grave, while "Let Me Pass" is an insecure scribe of different obstacles that make it the way of life.
"The biggest differences are sonic," says Precipitous. "The intent with the final Rentals record was to be as explosive and as celebratory as possible. It was constantly vying for your attending. But this record is quite a big stride away from what I've done in the by. I don't think the music itself is that advanced, but because where I've come from its not exactly a shine transition from i record to the next."
The release of this album does not find Sharp as nervous as some might expect. Despite a relaxed creative stride and the album's numerous delays, Sharp has already taken many of the songs out on more half a dozen tours of the U.S. in the past couple of years.
"It's a strange thing to have gone out and performed quite a few of these songs for people earlier the record has come up out," says Abrupt. "And it'south been a very humbling feel in knowing that the people come to see me every dark are open to hearing all these songs that they've never heard before."
Weezer fans were bewildered to hear almost Sharp'southward reconciliation with the ring's singer and creative power, Rivers Cuomo. Since Sharp and the band parted ways in 1998, there had been little to no communication between the once great friends, relieve a 2001 lawsuit in which Abrupt sued the ring for royalties and creative credit concerning songs he was said to be involved in writing for Weezer's first two albums, 1994'southward Weezer and 1996's Pinkerton. Only and so, at one of Abrupt'due south shows in February, Rivers himself fabricated a surprise advent and played four songs with Abrupt, making the cease of hostilities official. Fans have been dying to know what the catalyst of this reunion was.
"A bunch of people take asked me that since we did that show, and I think I've answered it wrong each time I've given an respond," says Precipitous. "Merely I realized recently that at that place was a person that I ran into at an art opening downtown in L.A., an old friend of mine from a long time agone and we hadn't seen each other in a years and years. I hadn't been the greatest person to him, and if anybody in the world had reason to be angry with me information technology was him. Simply he was really happy to see me and incredibly open and we've since become quite good friends once again," says Abrupt.
"That inverse my mind about being close-minded with those kinds of relationships and I think that information technology was him beingness open to me that permit me be sort of open to Rivers when he came and said we needed to talk, asking if there was some manner nosotros could exist involved with each others' lives musically and just in general again."
Cuomo and Sharp played two of Abrupt'due south songs followed by two Weezer standards for the roomful of fans, and Precipitous remarks that despite all the please and positivity, information technology was still a bit nerve-wracking.
"I was playing guitar, then it was a trivial flake dissimilar. When we did �The Sweater Song' I but kinda played the bass line from what I could remember," says Sharp. "I was really thrilled that I remembered where the solo modulates. The fact I guessed right fabricated me get some stupid sense of pride that I could recollect this really easy song."
Cuomo sang the loftier choruses and played backup to Sharp for the offset two songs, before information technology switched around to the format that the fans knew and loved. For "Undone � The Sweater Song" and "Say It Ain't So", Precipitous dusted off his trusty falsetto.
"I hadn't done that in a really long time and information technology was actually an incredible thing," says Sharp. "Somewhere in at that place is that desire to want to be like Smokey Robinson, a part of me that never ceases to enjoy singing in sort of a Southern falsetto voice. It reminds me of an onetime Southern woman. It's always a joy."
Rumours near Sharp and Weezer accept flown high and wide since his departure. Many fans were convinced that when Weezer's 2nd bassist Mikey Welsh went missing just before they were ready to film a new video for the song "Isle In The Sunday," Sharp was called to supercede him in the video, and perhaps even in the band.
Abrupt, somewhat hesitant to answer, starting time described the complexities behind the entire state of affairs. "In that location is no fashion e'er to depict, unless you are in the grouping, how Weezer actually manages to function at all� how anything starts, or how annihilation works," says Abrupt.
"And it'southward impossible to explain to anybody how the guys and I split. Something that is always told is that I quit the group or that I left the group or whatever, which couldn't be further from the truth. Simply to explain the real respond to information technology is almost impossible."
Just there is some truth to the rumor, as unlikely every bit some thought it was. "I did get a phone call from them around the time of that video, merely I couldn't explain to you that it meant one thing or the other. It did mean something I'm guessing, merely since it never happened, information technology never happened." says Precipitous.
Precipitous's lawsuit against the band in 2001 was a change of stride from the silence that befell his separation from the band three years prior. The lawsuit is now no more, and it is withal unclear every bit to what exactly took identify, simply it'southward non hard to describe a decision.
"Rivers and I, we've resumed our friendship, so brand of that what you volition," says Sharp. "The conform itself is something that was, for me, the absolute final resort. It was something that I was basically forced into doing, and it was the last thing I wanted to do considering it was very important for me non to soil those memories that I have of those times. So information technology was really something that I really didn't desire to be involved with but was an absolute necessity when the time came."
Some may note that the album credits on Weezer's recently released deluxe edition of their debut were not altered in any way; songs were still for the about part credited to Cuomo.
Precipitous has now found a niche for himself, musically, and while fans may not know what to look of him next, he can assure them that they tin can at least look something. After promising Matt Sharp for a few years now, he got them used to waiting.
"What's squeamish is that I don't feel like that is going to be the case for the future for me," says Sharp. "Lots of really nice things seem to be going on, the plates been more full and I've been much more open to collaborating with people and merely being out there."
Sharp recently finished recording keyboard parts for the upcoming anthology by Canadian rockers Tegan and Sara. The feel, he says, is browbeaten just past his excitement over the project. "Before [If It Was You, the pair's 2nd record] I was listening to so many lone writers with downtrodden words and acoustic guitars and actually just somber songs," says Abrupt.
"Their record really knocked me out of that. I loved beingness on tour with them final year, then to be asked to be in whatever style involved with them coming into the new record was like being xviii years sometime and existence asked to play on the new Smiths tape or something."
So while fans may not find the aforementioned kind of Matt Sharp that they fell in dearest with over the years, the intentions behind his new album equally well as the finished production is an interesting view of what Sharp is capable of.
"Information technology was the most honest arroyo I could accept," says Sharp. "I guess that in the stop at that place was probably other choices I could have made that would have been more financially viable or commercially successful, merely they just didn't feel similar the most honest choices. I only didn't find a lot of award in continuing on just because information technology would be the easiest path."
His album, he says, is probably the nigh comfortable when it's in the background, something you can take on and not necessarily take to focus on what you lot're listening to. Sharp may not be trying to grab people's attention much anymore, only that has made him that much more intriguing.
Source: http://www.furious.com/perfect/mattsharp.html