Photo: Loccisano/Getty(Ritter), LaVeris/FilmMagic
Of the countless bands that cite Weezer as an influence, few can claim that they’ve ever inspired Rivers Cuomo and Co. But now All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter and guitarist Nick Wheeler have bragging rights as the exception to the rule: the pair were invited to write a song with Cuomo for Weezer’s upcoming album Raditude, and their collaboration “Put Me Back Together” appears on the disc, due November 3rd.
“I was playing Weezer songs when I was 13 at parties, so now I can die happy,” Ritter tells RS. Both AAR and Weezer share the same label, so after a couple phone calls, Ritter and Wheeler found themselves being picked up by a Lincoln Towncar and shuttled to Malibu, where Cuomo was waiting for the pair in a shed behind his house. Once there, “I pulled out a chorus that I’d been carrying around for a couple years from my pocket,” Ritter says. “I thought there was a reason why I didn’t use it, but I knew, after hearing him doing the song, I dropped to my knees and exalted to the sky.”
“Put Me Back Together,” the fifth track on Raditude, is the song that accomplishes the difficult task of following up the Lil Wayne collaboration that precedes it, “Can’t Stop Partying.” “I brought out the chorus, I started writing the verse, he started writing lyrics, and you can tell his hand is in the lyrics,” Ritter said of working with Cuomo on the track. “I just kept my head down, I was nervous as shit. I was shaking in my boots, literally. I just kept my head down and hummed until he said ‘That’s cool.’ ”
Ritter also recorded some “tasteful” backup for the track, but he’s unsure himself whether his studio contribution made it onto Raditude. Ritter, w...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily