The Big Picture

Weezer members were nervous to be on set for the movie “Family Switch” but found comfort in each other’s support. The band discusses their favorite Weezer songs and their experience performing opening for Kiss. Rivers Cuomo reveals his experience scoring a film and talks about the abundance of unreleased Weezer songs.

In Netflix’s The Family Switch, members of the Grammy Award-winning band Weezer make surprise appearances in the holiday film, giving Collider’s Steve Weintraub the opportunity to chat with Rivers Cuomo and Brian Bell. Check out the full interview for their experience on set and their epic plans for Weezer (The Blue Album)’s 30th anniversary coming up next year!

Starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, Family Switch puts a holiday spin on the body swap trope when it introduces viewers to the chaotic Walker family. Between college interviews, promotions at work, tryouts for the U.S. national soccer team, and Bill’s (Helms) big performance with his cover band, there’s been very little time to spend on each other. In the days leading up to the holidays, however, Jess (Garner) and Bill put their foot down and corral the family for a rare celestial event where their lives are thrown into a tailspin. Every single one of them, down to the baby and the family dog, swap places and will have to confront their differences in order to work together to set things right.

During their interview, Cuomo and Bell share why they were nervous stepping on set for Family Switch, how they worked together to deliver their performances, and reveal a whole scene cut from the film. They talks about the OG bodyswap movie and who in the music industry they’d most like to trade places with for a day. The pair also discusses scoring for 2021’s The Space Between, their feelings on AI within the industry, and the upcoming 30th anniversary of Weezer (Blue Album) and what they’ve got planned. Finally, they also reveal they wrote a sequel to “Undone (The Sweater Song)” titled “CEO.” Check it out the video above, or you can read the interview transcript below.

Family Switch When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the Walkers to wake up to a full body switch, can they unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal, and soccer tryout? Release Date November 30, 2023 Cast Jennifer Garner , Ed Helms , Emma Myers , Brady Noon , Rita Moreno , Matthias Schweighöfer , Bashir Salahuddin , Fortune Feimster , Xosha Roquemore , Paul Scheer , Andrew Bachelor , Pete Holmes , Naomi Ekperigin , Dan Finnerty , Cyrus Arnold Rating PG Runtime 101 minutes Main Genre Comedy

COLLIDER: I like throwing some curveballs at the beginning. There’s going to be people out there that have never heard a song by Weezer, so I am curious if someone has never heard anything by Weezer, what is the first thing you’d like them to listen to and why?

RIVERS CUOMO: Well, I find it hard to believe. I think a lot of people think they’ve never heard a song by Weezer, but then when you play them “Island in the Sun” or “Beverly Hills” or something, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard Weezer.” But yeah, start there. Why not? “Island in the Sun,” closing in on a billion streams.

That’s such a crazy number.

BRIAN BELL: What’s our latest single, Rivers, from the last record?

CUOMO: Our last record didn’t have a single.

BELL: What was our last record? [Laughs] There’s so many of them.

CUOMO: We had a cover of “Africa” that got pretty big on the radio.

BELL: Okay, we had Black and then Van Weezer…

CUOMO: OK Human.

BELL: I know what I’m thinking of, all my favorite songs. One of my favorite records of ours is our OK Human record.

CUOMO: We put down the electric guitars and played along with an orchestra, so that was a real treat for us.

You guys have been able to tour the planet and perform for all sorts of people. When was the last time you were actually nervous before stepping on stage to perform for someone or a group?

CUOMO: Well, I was nervous at the shoot for this movie, Family Switch.

BELL: That is a good question because at some point, as far as playing a Weezer set, the nerves kind of, for me, just vanished. I can’t pinpoint when exactly that was, but a lot of it has to do with preparation and being prepared, and also knowing the material so well. It is also good to have new material and do things that don’t necessarily make you nervous but make you excited. That’s kind of the goal to keeping it fresh for yourself.

CUOMO: I think I was nervous a few months ago. We opened for Kiss at their last show ever in Australia, and they’re like my childhood heroes. I walked out on stage, and it’s this massive stadium filled with Kiss fans, and of course, everyone in the audience has the Kiss makeup, so it looked like thousands of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s staring back at me as I was trying to sing Weezer songs. It was pretty nerve-wracking.

I actually went to a premiere in Hollywood and I was seated next to Gene and his family, and it took everything to not talk to them about Kiss because Gene was right next to me. It’s Gene Simmons.

CUOMO: Those are the real rock stars there.

How Weezer Rocked Their Way Through Their ‘Family Switch’ Scene

Rivers, you mentioned you were a little nervous. You actually have real dialogue in Family Switch, not just a word or even one sentence, real dialogue. How nervous were you before stepping on set to do something like that, which is definitely not in your normal wheelhouse?

CUOMO: Actually, it really helped to have Brian there because he’s been taking acting lessons and I could see how he was preparing. He would give me help from time to time, like, “This is what we should do. This is what you should think about,” and it gave me a lot of reassurance.

BELL: I don’t remember saying any of that stuff, but I do remember thinking [about] the training that I’ve had that started, maybe, in 2017 and then through Zoom, et cetera, et cetera, going, “Okay, this is not past you. This is something that you can handle. It’s just Ed Helms. Just make him the focus of your attention.” I think I might have said something like that, and, “Everything will be fine.”

The movie is not about us. It’s about the situation, it’s about the story. And McG, the director, was so easy to work with and made us feel so comfortable in this world where we really only had what’s called sides. We didn’t have the script to understand where we fit in and where these lines belong because it is a comedy. Actually, there was a whole thing that got cut out — maybe a DVD version will have that scene — and there are many lines that we actually said that got cut out, as well. It was all about, for them, making it work with the pacing of the movie, so that’s why everything kind of was like [snaps]. It’s a lighthearted and all-inclusive family Christmas movie and it succeeded at that.

100%. That, and a body swap movie.

BELL: Which, to me, the original was Jodie Foster, Freaky Friday. I saw it in the theater. It kind of blew me away how fun it was, and then watching it again as an adult you realize, “Oh my god, the mother was only about 20 years old [laughs] and can ride a skateboard!”

That’s a whole other thing. I actually want to ask you guys a body swap question, but I want to pull it into music. If you guys could switch bodies with any previous person in the music industry, who would you switch places with and why? Let’s go with anyone. So if you could switch with Gene Simmons or you could switch with Robert Plant or Beethoven, or whoever.

BELL: [Luciano] Pavarotti, and have a voice that just filled up a room. I’d like to know what that feels like. Maybe Josh Groban and I could be Sweeney Todd on Broadway. I think that’d be cool.

Rivers Cuomo Scored ‘The Space Between’
Image via Paramount Pictures

Rivers, have you ever thought about scoring a TV show or a movie, or has the band ever asked to score a film a lot like with music or the way Queen did Flash Gordon or Highlander?

CUOMO: That would be cool.

BELL: We’ve surely been asked, I’m sure.

CUOMO: Nobody’s asked the band. I was asked to do a few songs for a movie that came out last year with Kelsey Grammer.

BELL: Oh yeah, that was cool. It was about a songwriter. Yeah, that was really great. It was [Kelsey Grammer] and this girl that was on a show called The Affair, the daughter from The Affair, [Julia Goldani Telles]. It was a very good [movie].

CUOMO: The Space Between. It was really cool because it was about as a singer-songwriter, like in the James Taylor or like Elliott Smith vein, and so I got to step into this other role and write from a completely different perspective, very acoustic and introspective. At first it was hard and I just kind of sent them basically Weezer songs, and the music director was like, “No, no.” Eventually I got it and it was super fun, so you can find that on Spotify.

I know that you guys have a lot of unreleased songs. Do you think you have more than what’s in the Prince vault or do you think Prince has you beat?

BELL: [Laughs] It’s a good question.

CUOMO: I think we have more because we’re closer to the digital era, and so I think more of my life has been recorded into a cell phone and voice notes. I record everything and it’s just an endless supply.

I’m just imagining. Do you guys think you have 1,000 or even 2,000 unreleased songs? Is it a level like that? Do you have songs that you could actually push play and it’s a full song or is it a lot of snippets and ideas, but not fully fledged compositions?

CUOMO: Well, I have a website called Weezify.web.app and they’re all up there, at least up through, like, 2018, and there’s about 3,500. Now, a lot of those are exactly what you described, snippets or alternate versions of another song. So, I don’t know, I’d say there’s gotta be at least 1,000 unique songs.

BELL: I have an app that Rivers made…

CUOMO: Wait, Brian, don’t tell anybody about that.

BELL: Sorry. I don’t have an app that Rivers made. [Laughs] Not to rub that in for all those Weezer fans who wish they didn’t have an app that Rivers didn’t make, but just to say that this guy knows code well enough to make an app? That’s crazy.

Weezer Gives ‘The Blue Album’ Its Due Respect for 30th Anniversary
Image via ABC

I won’t get you in any trouble, I’ll switch to something else. We are approaching the 30th anniversary of The Blue Album, which is May of next year. I know that you guys are thinking about doing something cool for the 30th anniversary. Do you know what you’re doing for the 30th anniversary?

CUOMO: We’re putting the ideas together. It feels like the interest and the passion for that album is just off the scale. I know with the 20th anniversary I didn’t do anything. I was like, “Eh, I don’t care,” but you can’t ignore it this time. It’s just this tidal wave of passion. So, we are going to give it its due respect and come out with a really amazing deluxe package with a bunch of additional material, and of course we’ve gotta do some kind of epic tour.

That’s what I was gonna ask you. I looked on the website last night just to see your touring schedule for next year and I know you’re playing in Oklahoma, I think on the 29th of December, and then you’re doing a tour next summer. Is there something more for The Blue Album that you’re thinking about because it’s the 30th anniversary?

CUOMO: Yeah, I think the public tour dates cut off in June and then there’s this very suspicious blank space in our calendar for the months after that, so I’d keep your eye on that.

[Laughs] Exactly. For fans, I am curious if you’re planning on releasing new music anytime soon, perhaps next year? What have you guys been working on if anything?

CUOMO: We’re always working. We just had a big listening session at my house. All the guys came over, I played them a bunch of demos, and they gave me their thoughts and feedback. It’s very exciting. Then we all went and played pickleball.

BELL: If only I had an app that had all these songs, but I don’t. All I know is that at that listening party I was stoked with what I was hearing. I think Weezer fans are gonna be stoked, and I think even non-Weezer fans, people who maybe have not even heard of Weezer, are gonna know of us finally. These songs are great.

CUOMO: This is the album – number 20.

I have complete faith.

BELL: It’s almost a shame it’s the 30th anniversary because I want people to hear these new songs. But just the laws of the universe have to do something for the 30th because it is a big deal.

CUOMO: Our manager said the problem is if you put out a new album at the same time as your 30th anniversary celebration of your first album, nobody’s gonna pay attention to the new one. It just gets lost.

BELL: I wanna know what metric somebody figured that out [by] because how many bands are around that long that have new music to put out that same year? I bet very few.

CUOMO: Well, I know one. Green Day is doing it right now. So, we’re kind of watching to see what happens to them. [Laughs]

BELL: Our brothers from another punk world.

Weezer’s “Undone (The Sweater Song)” Has a Sequel Titled “CEO”

I actually understand where your manager is coming from and think that it makes sense, as much as I want to hear new Weezer music, but that’s just me just speaking. I really want to ask you guys, do you know the band Coheed and Cambria?

CUOMO: Yeah.

I really enjoyed their song “Jessie’s Girl 2” with Rick Springfield. It’s very catchy and it’s different than what they’ve done and they made a sequel song with the original guy. It was a really good song. I wanted to know if you guys ever thought about essentially writing a sequel to a popular song, either that you’ve done or somebody else has done?

BELL: Is it, “I wish that I had Jessie’s girl, T-O-O?”

No, after this conversation listen to it on Spotify or wherever. It doesn’t make sense how good it is, and they did it with Rick Springfield. It’s really like a sequel to the song 30 years later.

CUOMO: Amazing. I’ll check that out. Yes, we do have a sequel. It’s called “CEO,” and it’s gonna be on our next album. It’s a sequel to “The Sweater Song.” It’s totally meta and mind-bending.

Are you joking or are you being completely serious?

CUOMO: Completely serious. Back me up Brian.

BELL: Am I allowed? Yeah, as of now there’s a song called “CEO.”

Rivers Cuomo Is Having Fun With AI

I cannot believe that my question led to that. “The Sweater Song” is one of my all-time favorites, so I can’t wait to hear it. The other thing I really wanted to ask you guys about is, obviously AI is something that everyone is talking about in the movie industry and in the TV industry with actors, but it’s also a very significant thing with the music industry. I wanted to know what you guys both think about AI and how AI might affect the music industry going forward.

CUOMO: You mean for creators or for the business side?

I think for everything. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but people could essentially go in and say, “I want AI to create a song like Weezer,” and they can sort of do that.

CUOMO: I want that.

BELL: That’s what we’ve been trying to do for 30 years!

CUOMO: Make my job easier.

But I am curious what you guys think about AI and its place in the music industry and what could possibly happen.

CUOMO: Well, on the business side I have no idea. I have no idea how the business works anymore, but I’m sure it’s gonna have a big impact. I’m just the wrong person to ask. On the creative side, so far it’s been just a brilliant tool and I’m having a lot of fun using it. When we put out our last record, before it came out I put up my lyrics to one of our songs, and I had Chat GPT write a song with the same title and I posted them both on Twitter and said, “Which do you think is the real Weezer?” And I won the battle on that day, but I think the day is coming where we’re gonna get beat, so we’ll see.

BELL: I think we’ll always need a human element in music. A lot of stuff I’m hearing, I’m like, “Wow, is this music?” I feel obsolete. And I’m sure it’ll even get worse with AI, but that being said, there’s things we can do that AI will never be able to do. So, I’m not too concerned. I feel like I like music that feels real, and so far it hasn’t tricked me yet.

My big thing and what I’ve talked about with a lot of people is the fact that right now AI is like the first iPhone. What I’m afraid of, and what I think people are nervous about, is what it’s gonna be like when you get to the iPhone 15 with AI, and how much more advanced it is.

BELL: It’ll have face recognition.

Oh, it’s gonna be scary, but Rivers just already demonstrated with Chat GPT that it’s in its infancy with being able to write a Weezer song. But in 10 years…

BELL: We have fun with it on tour, like, “Write a country song in the vein of…” some crazy idea, and we’ll laugh our asses off about the lyrics that come out. It is what it is.

Family Switch is available to stream on Netflix.

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