Say Anything and Wavves unite for collaborative mall-emo album Cherry Soda
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Say Anything and Wavves, two acts that emerged in the 2000s with contrasting approaches to pop-punk, have announced a collaborative album titled Cherry Soda. The record unites their respective frontmen, Max Bemis and Nathan Williams, who wrote the songs together with the aim of crafting an "early 2000s Wavves emo record" — described in the piece as a "mall emo" project. The pairing is presented as an unlikely one, given Say Anything's turbulent Warped Tour history and Wavves' origins as a lo-fi, noisy solo act.
The 10-track album was recorded with Blink-182 collaborator Aaron Rubin and is due out on 18 September via I Surrender Records. It follows Wavves' 2025 comeback album Spun and Say Anything's covers collection …Is Sleazy. The lead single, "Deathx1k", is a pop-punk anthem with a chorus about running out of drugs and comes with a claymation video from director Jelly Eyes; the tracklist also includes songs such as "Keep What Hurts", "Cherry Soda" and "Pinesol".
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Say Anything and Wavves are two American bands that both came up in the pop-punk and emo scene of the 2000s, though they took quite different paths. Say Anything, fronted by Max Bemis, became known for a chaotic, confessional style and a rocky history on the Warped Tour circuit, the touring festival that shaped much of that era's punk and emo scene. Wavves, led by Nathan Williams, started out as a lo-fi, noisy solo recording project before evolving into a full band.
The two frontmen have now written and recorded an album together, working with producer Aaron Rubin, who has previously worked with Blink-182, a band widely seen as a touchstone of the pop-punk genre. Because the two acts have such different sounds and backgrounds, their teaming up is being framed as an unusual pairing worth noting in its own right.
This project arrives as both artists have been in active phases: Wavves released a comeback album in 2025, and Say Anything recently put out a collection of cover songs. The new collaboration is being pitched as a nostalgic nod to early-2000s emo and pop-punk styles, which matters to fans of that era as a reunion of sorts between artists who helped define it.
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Originally published by Stereogum as “Say Anything & Wavves Announce New Album Cherry Soda: Hear “Deathx1k””.