Rivers Cuomo

Rivers Cuomo
Cuomo performing with Weezer at the Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2015.
Background information
Born	(1970-06-13) June 13, 1970 (age 46) New York City, New York, United States
Origin	Pomfret, Connecticut, United States
Genres	Alternative rock power pop pop punk emo indie rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Geffen
Associated acts	Weezer Scott & Rivers Avant Garde Zoom Homie Goat Punishment Sixty Wrong Sausages B.o.B Big Data
Website	riverscuomo.com
Notable instruments
Warmoth Fat Strat (1993-2001, 2012-present) Gibson SG (2004-2012) (1992-1993, 2002) Gibson Explorer (2001-2005)

Rivers Cuomo (/ˈkwoʊmoʊ/; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Weezer.　

Raised in an ashram in Connecticut, Cuomo moved to Los Angeles at 18, where he played in several rock bands before founding Weezer in 1992. Burnt out after the success of Weezer's self-titled debut album, Cuomo enrolled at Harvard University, but dropped out to record Weezer's second album, Pinkerton (1996); he later re-enrolled and graduated in 2008. Though Pinkerton was later frequently cited among the best albums of the 1990s, it was initially a commercial and critical failure, pushing Cuomo's songwriting towards pop music.

Cuomo has also released three compilation albums of home demos: Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007), Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2008) and Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2011). He has collaborated with a number of artists; in 2013, he and Scott Murphy released a self-titled Japanese-language album under the name Scott & Rivers.

Rivers Cuomo was born in a Manhattan hospital to parents of Italian and German-English descent. He was raised on Yogaville, an ashram in Pomfret, Connecticut run by the master yogi Satchidananda Saraswati. Cuomo's mother Beverly named him Rivers because he was born between the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan. His father, Frank Cuomo, is a musician who played drums on the 1971 album Odyssey of Iska by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. He has a brother, Leaves.