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Wavves - Interview
loudfarm.com featured content for Tuesday 9.1.09
Nathan Williams was 12 years old when he first got busted. While he was off skateboarding with some friends one afternoon, his mom and dad found something shocking in his room. In the bottom of his favorite tin of G.I. Joes, hidden carefully under the dislocated legs of action figures and plastic weapons, was the last thing many parents ever want to come across—a cassette tape of the Misfits’ Legacy of Brutality. This was not The Wallflowers Bringing Down the Horse album they bought him earlier that year. In fact, there was a good chance that little Nathan taped over that recording with Nirvana’s Nevermind or maybe even the Wu-Tang Clan. Straight. Up. Busted. While young Williams might have spent the better part of that evening explaining himself, it could be argued that moments like this actually helped him find his voice as an artist and the sound that was to become Wavves. In a remarkably short period of time, Williams went from a depressed college drop out, living in a shack behind his parent’s house in San Diego with four cents in his bank account, to being one of the most talked about artists of the moment. Within a year he released a handful of EP’s and albums, and was passed the torch as “The Next Big Thing” by countless music aficionados around the world. But with the hype came a bit of hating, and more than a few green-eyed musicians accused him of “co-opting” a low-fi sound. Now, while the idea of stealing, or for that matter owning, a particular sound is borderline insane, the wear and tear that came with this ascension did take a toll on Williams and he needed to cancel his last European tour before it was over due to an unfortunate and inebriated show in Barcelona. This is essentially where Wavves’ Wikipedia entry ends, but to turn the page on Williams would be foolish. It should be noted that it was a feeling of failure that inspired him in the first place. And if his first album of beautifully distorted pop songs was inspired by his own feelings of isolation and despair it is anyone’s guess as to what is in store for Wavves in the near future. A dozen new EP’s? International tours? World domination? God bless the haters.
Loud Farm: Journalists seem to like labeling you as a “slacker.”
Nathan Williams: I feel that I have been called a slacker and loser my whole life so nothing really has changed. It was kinda’ weird because at first journalists used “slacker” to describe the music and then it started to describe me.
LF:You talk about how it’s important for an artist to tell the status quo to “fuck off.” I’ve been to San Diego and dealt with that Republican macho crowd before and it sucked balls. Who do you think that initial “fuck you” was intended for?
NW: ? I suppose it depends when in my life we are talking about. At one point it could be my parents, a teacher or a boss. Hell, sometimes that could be for my friends, and those moments when you just want to tell everyone to fuck off.
LF: Is that what initially drove you towards hooking up to Garage Band?
NW:I just had nowhere else to go or anything else to do. I had dropped out of college for the third time. I quit my job. I couldn’t pay my bills, so I moved back home with my parents in this shack in their backyard. But I did have a computer, so writing and recording songs just became an outlet for me.
LF:The idea music being special and something adults don’t like is pretty rad. It speaks to how teenage imagination is like the best fucking thing in the world. How has that informed your music?
NW:I think that the way that this has all happened is just following that imagination. Never in a million years did I think it would have got to this point. I was just literally stoned out of my mind and sitting in my room with four cents in my bank account. No job, goals or aspirations. No nothing. I just decided to do what felt right to me, regardless of my parents and other people telling me I needed to do something with myself. The fact I could close the door of this shack and block out the distractions was the only thing that kept me sane. I was really depressed at the time. I felt like I was just going to work a shitty job the rest of my life and never play music.
LF:Soren Kierkegaard once said that “Boredom is the root of all evil—the despairing refusal to be oneself.” Do you think you could have found your voice without feeling like a failure? NW:It was weird that the answer to all the bullshit in my life was just telling people about all the bullshit in my life in a song. It is cool to see that I am not the only one who feels a sense of hopelessness inside sometimes. Everybody kinda' has this, but it’s weird to talk about. I feel that as soon as you talk about it or sing it…well, it just feels better.
It’s really nice to agree with somebody, “Yes, we are both fucked, but we know that we are both fucked.”
LF:By now I sure you are a bit tired of… NW:Oh the preface to these questions is always so funny to me… LF:Ha! You got me… NW:Yeah, like, “I don’t want to beat this with a dead horse, but I’m going to ask you anyways.” LF:Yeah, so I’m going to take that dead horse and swing it right into this phone. People got turned onto Wavves fast. Like really fast. And that is rad. But then you also had other musicians with green eyes saying; “Well he’s co-opting a low-fi sound.” You have one wasted night in Barcelona and people act like you have a personal vendetta against them. What have you taken from all of this hype? NW:For me it never did anything but help, just to know that everyone will have an opinion. There is just so much information out there, and so much without any kind of fact checking. Generally speaking 50 percent is just wrong information. It’s kind of like that game telephone. It starts out that I got fucked up at a show, then it becomes I threw bottles at the crowd, and then it turns into this inane thing that is completely untrue. It’s just out of my hands and I got to a point where I realized that there was no way I could care about it, because I would loose my mind. I just got a tougher skin and that has helped me day to day. In my mind there is no real problem, it’s just interesting to see how people can just turn on you quickly. It’s good to remember, especially in a business like this, because no one really gives a shit. People are going to move on to the next thing right away. It’s good to remember that I came into this by myself and I’ll leave it by myself. LF:Let’s say we could give you a soapbox. What rumors would you like to start about you? NW:(Laughs) I have dated 15 supermodels and I have a cabin. LF:Consider it done. NW:No, no, no. I never say anything like this ever, because I came into this to play music. It might sound selfish, but I just wanted to play music for myself. LF:Do you remember the first album that you hid from your parents? NW:The Misfit’s Legacy of Brutality cassette…they actually found it. LF:Where did you hide it? NW:I hid it in a green canister filled of G.I. Joes. One year I asked for Nirvana’s Nevermind and Legacy of Brutality, but instead got the Wallflowers and Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? LF:It’s like that Robert Frost poem where he says, “Two roads diverged in a wood…” You could have taken the Wallflowers path or hide Legacy of Brutality in a G.I. Joe bin. NW:Yeah. Actually, it was just an old tin, but I did play with G.I. Joes until I was like 12 or something. It was like “a problem.” LF:Did you ever put them on roads and watch cars run over them or burn their faces off with matches? NW:Oh yeah, we did all kinds of shit to them; blew them up with firecrackers, took them to public swimming pools and tossed them in. We had quite the time. LF:I hear you are a big fan of Price is Right? NW:Oh wow, yeah. I think Drew Carrey is an awesome host. LF:You know the Pricing Games that lead up to the Showcase Showdown? NW:Of course. LF:Which one would you just murder? NW:I think I would do well at Plinko. I like that one and the one where you have to choose the numbers to win the car. LF:How would you celebrate with Drew if you won the car? NW:We would probably have a friendly handshake. LF:What’s on the horizon for Wavves? NW:I’m recording the next record in Sacramento in an old church. It’s going extremely well. Interview by Patrick Knowles
