The Max Bemis Cherry Soda album, a collaborative record between Say Anything and Wavves, is hanging in the balance after allegations surfaced that Bemis sent inappropriate messages to underage fans, prompting Wavves to publicly sever ties with the project.
Allegations and postponed shows
Say Anything announced on Instagram on 29 August that Bemis would postpone a series of upcoming acoustic performances, citing the need to ‘prioritise his mental health and personal well-being.’ The announcement came after screenshots of alleged flirtatious messages between Bemis and two teenage fans were shared to the Say Anything subreddit the previous week, setting off a wave of reaction across the band’s fanbase and beyond.
Say Anything have not addressed the content of the allegations directly in public statements. The situation has, however, rapidly escalated from a question about Bemis’s conduct into a full-blown crisis around the collaborative record he had been working on with Wavves.
Max Bemis Cherry Soda album faces uncertain future
Cherry Soda, the Max Bemis Cherry Soda album made with Wavves, had been scheduled for release on 18 September via Rough Trade, with pre-orders still live at time of writing. Williams and Bemis first announced the record in July, releasing lead single ‘Deathx1k’ alongside a press release in which Bemis described the collaborative process warmly. ‘We kind of wrote to each other’s situations,’ Bemis said at the time. ‘We’re both very different people, but we get along really well. I think we brought out some of the stuff that isn’t most obvious in each other.’
That sentiment has curdled fast. In a Wavves Patreon chat viewed by Pitchfork, Williams wrote that ‘on a professional level [Bemis] was awful,’ adding: ‘I don’t want to be associated with the guy, and so it’s as simple as that. Whatever I lose doesn’t matter at that point.’ A statement shared to Wavves‘ official Instagram was blunter still: ‘Not sure what to say but fuck Max. Fuck Say Anything. I’m sorry y’all. I spent 11 months making this record and Max spent 4 days so I dunno exactly what I’m supposed to do. I’m sorry guys.’
Williams also claimed on Patreon that he composed the majority of Cherry Soda. When a fan raised the possibility of re-recording the material as a solo LP, Williams didn’t rule it out, saying it ‘wouldn’t be hard’ given that Bemis allegedly ‘barely wrote anything.’ The complication, Williams acknowledged, is practical: ‘the issue is 10,000 records [were] already pressed.’ Pitchfork reported it had reached out to Wavves’ representatives for comment.
It’s a grim situation for a project that had, on paper, looked like an interesting pairing. Two acts with devoted, long-standing followings, a record made over almost a year (at least on one side of the collaboration) and a release date weeks away. The question of what happens to those 10,000 pressed copies, and whether Williams pursues any kind of solo version of the material, remains unanswered.
Say Anything have not issued any further public statement beyond the 29 August Instagram post. Whether the 18 September release date holds, gets pulled, or shifts into something else entirely is, for now, unresolved, though with Williams’s public statements as unambiguous as they are, the original version of Cherry Soda as a joint Say Anything and Wavves release looks increasingly unlikely to survive intact.
