THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Like Nathan Williams’ earliest music, Wavves’ new album Spun took shape in a small shed behind his parents’ house. It’s known as the hideaway. It’s the place where Williams made music before he became known for his uncanny ability to write songs that sneered at the world while evoking pathos, sympathy, and a deep understanding of how sometimes we’re our own worst enemies, and that can be OK.
Over a decade prior to Spun, Williams released King Of The Beach, an album that delivered on all of the promise of his first two homespun records, Wavves and Wavvves. King Of The Beach catapulted the band to worldwide acclaim as one of the new darlings of indie rock. It was a cocky collection of pop-punk gems that brought fame so rapidly it also, in part, lead to a widely publicized on stage meltdown at Primavera Fest.
Wavves recovered, as they always do, and eventually entered the major label system, where the band released two albums before Williams became disillusioned by the lack of creative agency available to him. In 2017, he self-released You’re Welcome on his own label Ghost Ramp before returning to Fat Possum (the home of his first three albums) for Hideaway.
Fast forward to 2024, when an older, wiser, and slightly less stoned Williams reunited with longtime bandmates Stephen Pope, Ross Traver and Alex Gates for a new full-length.
Wavves heralded Spun with Goner, a Travis Barker-produced song that arrived alongside a Brandon Dermer-directed video filmed at Wavves’ recent Zebulon charity show. Dermer previously directed Wavves’ 2013 video for That’s On Me and has directed videos for Barker’s Blink-182, among others.
“I had this song I had been sitting on, always revisited it and tried to record it a bunch of times but it was never just right,” Williams says. “Eventually it was giving me PTSD. I was talking to Travis about doing some songs together and when I opened up the vault to him, this one jumped out so we laid it down and finally we got it right.”
