The Rentals |
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Fri. June 07.2002 9:20 AM EDT |
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Matt Sharp Preps Solo LP, Talks Weezer LawsuitRock band's former bassist says he never quit the group. by Corey Moss |
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Matt Sharp (Michael Goldberg) |
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After two years of living in seclusion, Matt Sharp is returning with a debut
solo album he hopes won't be overshadowed by his lawsuit against Weezer. Sharp is suing his former band over compensation for "Undone (The Sweater Song)," most of
"The songwriting stuff is a very small part" of the lawsuit, Sharp insisted. "Legal speak is not human speak, and it's real easy not to get a good idea of what it's really about," he said. "All I can tell you is I found out some things recently about their actions that really changed the whole thing and, all in all, really broke my heart. They left me no choice than to have to deal with it this way." Sharp, who formed the Rentals as a side project in 1994 but never returned to Weezer after 1996's Pinkerton, said there are many misconceptions about his relationship with Weezer, the biggest being that he quit the band. "It's simply not true," he said. "In no way did I ever walk away from those guys, quit or leave Weezer." When contacted Wednesday, Weezer had no comment, standing by their original statement that they would rather address the lawsuit in court than in the press. Whether a settlement can be reached before the matter reaches a courtroom, Sharp refused to speculate. One thing is for certain, he won't be rejoining the band as he claims to have been lead to believe when Mikey Welsh mysteriously left last fall. Weezer are ecstatic about new bassist Scott Shriner, and besides, Sharp isn't so sure he would fit in with the band's current sound anyway. "I don't have much in common with what they're doing anymore, probably. I have no idea, I haven't heard any of that stuff," Sharp said. "It's a different time." These days Sharp is playing sparse acoustic songs he wrote in a small recording studio in tiny Leipers Fork, Tennessee. The Rentals, whose second album of quirky pop, Seven More Minutes, was released in 1999 (see "Matt Sharp Finally Ready To Deliver New Rentals Record"), are no longer, Sharp said. The singer/multi-instrumentalist is mastering his self-titled album in Los Angeles this week and will begin shopping it to labels this summer. "I'm looking for people who aren't going to judge me by what I've done, but by what I'm doing," Sharp said. "I mean, you definitely can't be pogoing to this stuff." Aside from a bit of organ, Matt Sharp was recorded with just an acoustic guitar — no bass, drums or keyboards. The spare music coincides with Sharp's simple and somber lyrics. "The goal before going to Leipers was just to make something that doesn't have so many walls between what you are trying to say and what the person is listening to, how they take it in," Sharp explained. "Realizing you don't need orchestras and 5 million guitars and bashing drums and 20 tracks of Moog and all this stuff just to tell a girl she is breaking your heart, or whatever you are trying to say." The setting for the sessions, a farmhouse without a television and surrounded by open fields, had a lot to do with Sharp's new sound. "It was a pretty romantic time," he said. "It can drive you crazy, but it was a fabulous place just to do a lot of thinking. You're left to your own devices. Re-asking a lot of the same questions I hadn't asked in a while. 'What is it that turns you on?' Those kinds of questions." Looking back, Sharp regrets separating himself so much from the rest of the world, especially now that he has been back performing, playing small unannounced shows around the West Coast with former Cake guitarist Greg Brown. "It's very difficult in retrospect to understand why you haven't done this," Sharp said. "You go out and be with cool people who are moved by music into the same things as you. To deny yourself of that for a long time is really odd. I'm like, 'Ahhh, OK, I don't know why I did that.' " Matt Sharp track list, according to Sharp:
This report is from MTV News. |
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