Alt-rock pioneer, hair metal aficionado, and tech titan? Weezer frontman and guitarist Rivers Cuomo has put his web programming lessons to good use by launching a streaming service that makes thousands of the Los Angeles rock band’s demos available to the public.
Available via Apple and Google Play, Weezify is a testament to Cuomo’s productivity, and not just in computer science – it hosts almost 3,500 demos in total, recorded between 1975 and 2017, many of which pre-dated Weezer.
According to the description on the Apple App store, the project took Cuomo the whole of 2021 to make. Users can follow playlists, create their own or buy bundles of demos.
A Harvard graduate, Cuomo checked back in with his alma mater to take an online CS50 course, learning programs such as Scratch and Python, and making his demo recordings available via his website, Mister Rivers’ Neighborhood.
Speaking to TechCrunch+ in 2020, Cuomo revealed that he documented all of his songs on Microsoft Excel and Access, but as the database grew, with more meta data to manage, it led him to an interest in programming.
“By the end of the course, I was writing programs that were really helping me manage my day-to-day life as a traveling musician and then also managing my spreadsheets and managing my work as a creative artist,” he said.
As for Weezer, 2022 is forecasted to be a big year, with their four-album Seasons [stylized SZNS] project to be released Vivaldi-style, with each album corresponding to spring, summer, autumn and winter, and each following a different them and style.
Get the Weezify app from Apple or Google Play, or connect with Cuomo and the Weezerverse at Mr Rivers' Neighborhood.
