Wavves and Say Anything are merging their respective takes on coastal pop-punk for a new collaborative album called Cherry Soda. It’s out September 18 via I Surrender. The lead single, “Deathx1k,” gets a cheeky stop-motion video directed by Jelly Eyes, featuring claymation versions of Nathan Williams, Max Bemis, and a handful of other critters who get up to no good. Check it out below.
Produced by Aaron Rubin, Cherry Soda is 10 songs long and co-written entirely by Williams and Bemis. In a press release, Williams revealed that he was inspired to collaborate with the Say Anything frontman after digging through Bemis’ catalogue and being surprised at the range of his sound. “I wanted to see what an early 2000s Wavves emo record would sound like,” said Williams. “That was the idea: to make a mall emo record.”
Bemis adds: “We kind of wrote to each other’s situations. We’re both very different people, but we get along really well. As writers, we pushed ourselves. He became more emo and I became more Wavves-y. I think we brought out some of the stuff that isn’t most obvious in each other. I may be singing stuff that sounds kind of bleak, but that’s kind of like Nate’s whole shtick, although he’s actually a very sweet, sensitive guy.”
Read about Wavves’ classic surf-punk record King of the Beach in The Top 50 Albums of 2010.
Cherry Soda:
01 Keep What Hurts
02 Deathx1k
03 Gone Away
04 So Low
05 Still Alive
06 Cherry Soda
07 Sell You Hope
08 Litterbug
09 Pretend Again
10 Pinesol