Wavves re-records ‘Cherry Soda’ without Say Anything’s Max Bemis after allegations, sharing new single ‘Pinesol.’
Nathan Williams has decided that the cleanest way out of a collaboration gone wrong is to erase it entirely. On September 14, the Wavves frontman announced a fully re-recorded version of Cherry Soda, the album originally conceived as a joint project with Say Anything‘s Max Bemis, stripped of any trace of his former collaborator. The revised record arrives October 30 via I Surrender Records, led by the new single “Pinesol,” and the accompanying press materials make no mention of Say Anything whatsoever.
The reversal follows a swift and public unraveling. Cherry Soda was announced in July and slated for release September 18, produced by Aaron Rubin and previewed with the singles “Deathx1k” and “Still Alive.” Then, in late August, a 17-year-old posted an account on the Say Anything subreddit alleging a months-long inappropriate relationship with Bemis conducted over text, social media, and phone calls, sharing purported screenshots. Additional young fans subsequently came forward with their own accounts. Bemis canceled a run of solo shows, with Say Anything’s accounts citing a need to prioritize his mental health, and he has not publicly addressed the allegations.
A Clean Break, at a Cost
Williams did not hedge. “Yeah I’ve seen it. not sure what to say but fuck max. fuck say anything. I’m sorry y’all,” he wrote on Instagram, adding that he had spent 11 months making the record while Bemis spent only days on it. In messages to fans, he was blunt about his reasoning. “I don’t want to be associated with the guy, so it’s as simple as that,” he said, noting that Bemis “barely wrote anything” despite being credited as a songwriter on seven of the album’s 10 tracks.
The decision carries a steep price. Williams estimated the move could cost him around $200,000, with 10,000 vinyl copies of the original version already pressed. Rather than salvage those, he returned to the studio to rebuild Cherry Soda as, in his words, a proper Wavves album, absorbing the loss instead of releasing anything tied to Bemis. It is a rare instance of an artist eating a significant financial hit to sever an association on principle.
Reframing the Record
Freed from the collaboration, Williams has recast Cherry Soda around his own long-standing impulses. “I’m a very curious person creatively,” he explained. “I wanted to see what an early 2000s Wavves emo record would sound like. That was the idea. To make a mall emo record.” That framing arguably explains how Bemis, a defining voice of 2000s emo, entered the picture in the first place, but the new version relocates the concept entirely inside Wavves’ world.
Lead single “Pinesol” signals the reset. Williams has said the track was inspired not by anything autobiographical but by true-crime cold cases, specifically stories of people using household cleaners to cover their tracks. “I got tired of writing about myself so I went Forensic Files on it,” he said. Musically, it blurs the Green Day and Nirvana touchstones that have always run through his catalog, a reminder that Wavves’ garage-pop instincts survive intact without a co-pilot.
The episode arrives amid a broader reckoning across music scenes over how the industry handles allegations against established artists, particularly those involving minors. Williams’ response, immediate distancing and a willingness to absorb major losses rather than profit from a compromised project, stands as a notably decisive example. He has framed the choice in the simplest possible terms, and his actions have matched his words.
For Wavves, a band that has spent more than 15 years turning lo-fi restlessness into some of indie rock’s catchiest fuzz, Cherry Soda now becomes something it was never meant to be: a solo statement forged under difficult circumstances. Whether the re-recorded album stands on its own artistic merits will be judged October 30. But the story it tells about accountability, about what an artist is willing to walk away from, is already clear. Williams looked at the situation, did the math, and chose the harder, more expensive path.
