Wavves: Surfing the Zeitgeist

Setting the blogosphere ablaze with pure sun-drenched euphoria in recent months, Nathan Williams has endured – rather than enjoyed – an unlikely ascent thus far. Lauren Mayberry talks noise, porn and not really giving a crap with Wavves

When I call Wavves, the seaside moniker of Nathan Williams, San Diego native and one-man purveyor of stoner-noise-pop, he seems to have forgotten about his interview with the dear Skinny. On the fourth attempt, he answers with a gravelly drawl. "I just woke up, my head’s a bit...” Williams tails off. At first, it's hard to imagine that this voice, laden with apathy and last night’s beer, belongs to the wunderkind being salivated about all over the blogosphere. But once you listen to Wavves, it starts to make sense.

At times appearing deliberately obscure, at others pure golden surf-pop, Wavves’ music sometimes seems like an accident, but it's never for the faint of heart. “Everyone has a different way of looking at it. I don’t know how I'd go about describing it,” says Williams. Bobbing alongside peers such as Times New Viking and No Age, with a helping of Beck, instrumental noise tracks slide between sun-spat melodies and complementary Garage Band-esque production, allowing many a reviewer to hail him as the next lo-fi messiah. Only, Wavves doesn’t care about that – or much – apparently. “People ask me all the time whether the hype has had a negative impact, but in the end, there’s nothing I can do about it. If they like it, cool. If they don’t… whatever, you know?” The internet, arguably the catalyst in Wavves’ uber-hype, elicits palpable disinterest from Williams. “I go online and look up video game websites and porn – that’s about it. I hate MySpace.” Of the apparent surge in alt-noise outfits, Williams is similarly dismissive. “There are good bands out right now – Blind Dogs, Woods, Pens – but I don’t know if 'alt-noise' is what I’d call them, genre-wise. It’s labelling, but I guess that’s what people do.”

Wavves’ sunkissed cacophony is all about nostalgia for the ordinary, and being young. “I just write about whatever – stuff I’ve been doing, going to the beach, getting bored, getting drunk, hanging out or feeling stupid. All kinds of normal shit.” So Bored, his riotous previous single, now seems to make more sense. And it also seems to be going down well. Having only been active since February last year, Wavves is about to release Wavvves, a redux version of his properly-self-titled 2008 debut, and is playing the Pitchfork stage at Primavera Sound festival in May as part of his second European tour of the year. Not bad for a formerly unemployed, 22-year-old college drop-out and self-confessed beach bum. “Everything just came about because I was bored, working in a record shop in San Diego. I quit my job, and I dropped out of college – I had a lot of time on my hands.”

Signed to Bella Union in April, Wavves seems amped to have found anyone who would put out his material, let alone an imprint so impressive. Simon Raymonde, Cocteau Twins bassist and Bella Union founder, listed Wavves as one of his recommendations for the year before any question of signing Williams arose. Accidentally impressive is Wavves all over. Soon to be embarking on an album of new material, Williams is continuing in the vein of his previous 7-inch vinyl releases that caused all the commotion, recording and producing everything himself, enlisting friend Ryan Ulsh to drum on tour. Yet, this is not a conscious choice in order to be the poster child of grassroots production or DIY. “In most cases, I would rather do it myself, because it’s just harder to explain to other people. It’s more of a comfort issue than having a certain ethic close to my heart,” he says.

For all that Wavves doesn’t say during our interview, a healthy measure of irony is rolled in. “I feel like self-promotion should be all about having fun, but if it’s not, I don’t want to be doing it. It’s real cheesy when people take themselves too seriously.” Williams exemplifies this with the array of YouTube videos adorning his MySpace profile – Kate Bush, a surreal cartoon by skull-emblazoned US skateboard company Powell Peralta, and the Olsen twins (“That video is amazing, are you kidding?”).

As for current endeavours, Williams is staying on the road: “I’m basically touring for the rest of the year, then taking time off to record this new album and hang out.” Maybe the professional slacker act is just that – or maybe it’s not. If you asked Williams, the response would, in all likelihood, be a sigh, shrug and uttering of nonchalance – but at least you can’t say it’s all gone to his head.