The Brag

Wavves
Sweet Valley High
By Matthew Hogan

There really are few artists around today that embody the spirit of rock’n’roll quite like Nathan Williams, leader of noisy surf rockers Wavves. With his constantly fuzzy guitar, party lifestyle and onstage meltdown history, Williams has attracted many followers (I’m looking directly at you, Bleeding Knees Club) – but could he be turning his back on the guitar in favour of a beat machine?

“I’ve just bought a house in East LA and my little brother has moved in here with me, and we’ve been working on a project together that’s kind of beat-oriented, called Sweet Valley,” reveals Williams, before a voice chimes in on the other line: “Nathan, there’s something in the garbage disposal – you’ve got to pull it out, man!” “That’s my little brother [Kynan] right there,” the frontman explains. “We’ve done a couple of remixes – we’ve remixed Gift Of Gab – and we’re talking to some labels right now, and we have a mixtape probably coming out in the next month or two.”

Inspired by the instrumental hip hop of the late great J. Dilla, Sweet Valley also draws on more prosaic influences from the Williams’ childhoods. “Ky, what do we use to create beats?” Nathan yells. “A lot of Casios, glockenspiel, guitar, a lot of records; we plug stuff directly into the Nintendo and SNES and Sega and sample some games of our past. We try to find mostly nostalgic sounds; we got this cool Muppet Babies Casio keyboard the other day…”

Wavves fans fear not: Williams is not quitting his day job. In fact, when we chat he’s just returned home from the studio, where he’s been working on the full-length follow-up to the Life Sux EP, with producer John Hill (best known for working on shiny pop from Rihanna and Christina Aguilera, as well as Portugal. The Man and Wu-Tang). Predicting a September release, Williams gives us a hint of a change in direction for the band. “It probably won’t be as, I guess, lo-fi sounding,” he says. “It will be different. I feel like – I mean, it’s not all the way done yet, and until it’s fully done I couldn’t really tell you – but it sounds like the obvious next step of Wavves for me. But people always seem to be shocked at new things, so who knows?”

In addition to creating short sharp jams, Wavves also excel at inventive merchandise. I mention that their herb and spice grinder was noticeably absent from their most recent Australian tour… “We had trouble getting them over,” says Williams. “We might not have been able to ship them or something… I don’t remember. There was a law. I think that Australia has a paraphernalia law or something like that.”

“…But I thought they were just for grinding herbs and spices?” I offer. “Oh yeah,” he chuckles. “It’s my “herb and spice” grinder… and coffee, sometimes… We’ll definitely try to bring them this time. We have like a package this time, with a lighter, grinder and papers. So hopefully we can bring ‘em!”

To tide you over before their trip to Australia for the regional Groovin The Moo festival, and some big city headline shows, the band has just released their very own video game, which keeps in line with that nostalgic ‘90s theme. “It’s kinda like Paperboy,” Williams says about the online Flash game Weed Demon. “You ride through the streets and deliver weed and fight acid demons and get up to no good. It’s only online now, but I’d like to see it as an iPhone game down the track. We’ve also got a comic book coming out, so I’m keeping busy!”

What: Given To The Wild is out now
With: Argentina
Where: The Metro Theatre
When: Thursday May 10