‘JINX’ is Bringing Love and Light Back to Waterparks

PHOTOS BY EMILY ENTZ, DESIGN BY SOPHIA EARLEY

Lead singer Awsten Knight tells Pleaser about the making of their sixth studio album JINX; years of soundbites made final, starting over, and balancing the personal and private

Waterparks’ sixth album could have started at the beginning with singer Awsten  Knight speaking to his inner child on the first single, “RED GUITAR.” Instead, the first track goes further back, traversing heaven and hell with one question: “If the only point of life is not to die, can you tell me why?”

Starting on such a grand scale is intense, but that’s just the kind of band that Waterparks is. Every choice from lyrics to production is pushed and pulled, experimented with to see just how far a song can go, and where it needs to come back to in order to become a finished thing. It goes on and on until a sample of a glass breaking recorded in 2020 or a riff from 2018 finds its perfect place — for only a fraction of Knight’s massive library of ideas, that’s on JINX.

When we met up in LA to talk about the album, he scrolled through hundreds of audio files to play us demos and layers, some of which even he had forgotten were part of the songs’ evolution. And though this is, in fact, standard practice for their music, he said JINX was made through uniquely constant editing, whether self-audited or critiqued by a small circle of trusted collaborators. 

“No other Waterparks album was rewritten that many times. There’s always more lyrics that don’t get used for songs, but when I say ‘RED GUITAR,’ or lyrics are confidential, or ‘PROWLER,’ all had enough material for, like, four more complete songs each,” Knight told Pleaser.

“If it wasn’t good enough for Greatest Hits or INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, it’s not good enough for JINX.” 

Given Knight shared that “Never Bloom Again,” released on FANDOM in 2019, was started before the third EP Cluster from 2016, the long lives these 13 tracks have had is a feat. It’s also a big part of why you’ll find few demos leaked from Waterparks; every piece is subject to becoming a dozen other songs in the future.

Categorically, Waterparks doesn’t fit in any one box — which is just the way they like it. The three-piece made up of Knight, guitarist Geoff Wigington and drummer Otto Wood have been making music that blends rap / hip-hop lyrical inspiration, pop punk intensity and much more for well over a decade. But there are trademarks within their music that any fan would recognize: the sense of play in the production, a few snarky lyrics, Knight’s vocal range from falsetto runs to nearly screaming, and always, a deep honesty that feels impossible not to give into. 

Introducing the world of JINX

Waterparks is known for creating a new identity with every album era. Between Knight’s hair color, the storyline of a tour show and the production leaps new songs will take, there’s heavy anticipation to be immersed into each new world. Their albums have so far been named alphabetically, and fans are always speculating about what will come next. 

JINX is the successor to INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, an intense album exploring religious guilt and deep internal struggles. However, a whole second edition of that album existed, intended to be “starting over with love, luck and light,” only to be cancelled after numerous hurdles. Staying in that world felt hard, and the band was going through a team reconstruction; “love and light” came to feel entirely the opposite of their real life. JINX is the aftermath, the clean slate. 

“The songs feel like life in the way that one feels like they’re getting close to something and by acknowledging these things, it feels like I’m f*cking it up. Or by writing a love song, it’s jinxing myself. Everybody’s biggest enemy is themselves.”

The title itself is a reflection of this ironic, self-cursed feeling; a tongue-in-cheek admission of how many things went wrong no matter the good intention behind them.

“I was already leaning that way because of how everything was going. I was like, ‘Everything's just so f*cking weird.’ And then, two friends, three days apart were like, ‘What if it was called jinx?’” Pointing to the ceiling, he said, “That’s the universe, you know what I mean? Because I think psychic sh*t’s real. Unless they’re in Beverly Hills, then they’re not real.” 

PHOTOS BY EMILY ENTZ

Beyond the five singles they’ve released over the last year, some of the other eight songs have been played in pieces or in full at live shows for a while now. As has become Waterparks tradition, their last tour was the name of a song off this next album — “PROWLER.” That show was built in chapters of “primary human emotions,” one of which was surprise, which had new songs every night and aptly featured bites for fans to get ready to memorize. 

Knight said just a day after “RED GUITAR” was out, crowds had spent so much time transcribing snippets that they knew all the lyrics in time for a secret show in Pomona, CA. The same was true of “ANY MINUTE NOW,” which they played live for some two weeks before releasing it. Knight said the latter specifically was a song that felt special for listeners who can recognize how much of the band’s history it reflects.  

“It feels like something that people would hold with them for much longer,” he said.

“When I have a new song, when I finish a demo or whatever, it feels like I have an inside joke with myself…It’s like letting them into the huddle a little bit. Like, ‘Guys, check this sh*t out.’” 

On that track, the acoustic opening is backed with strings and builds into glittering synths that can be found on any of their albums. (If this sound happens to be your favorite, you might also like “Powerless,” “Lucky People” and “Fruit Roll Ups.”) The lyrics are cutting to a true human experience: “And ever since I was a kid / I wondered when the moment is / That life would just make sense to me somehow.” Choosing to release it as a single shows listeners early on how vulnerable the rest of this project is, being at times both tender and brutal.

The ones that come before the full project are, as everything with Waterparks, chosen carefully. But notably, the opening and closing tracks, “TELL ME WHY” and “GIRLS NEED GUNS,” have been kept (mostly) secret until today, which is especially impressive given how much excitement has built up for both already. “TELL ME WHY” is a true storytelling song, walking through an “earthly exit interview” spanning heaven and hell. It has a dream lineup of features to complete its cast, including Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 as God and Danny Elfman as the devil.

While the album could have ended on the powerful note that is “ANY MINUTE NOW,” with its ties back to track one, Knight made the choice to end on an entirely different message. “GIRLS NEED GUNS” is a reflection on the violence and inequality women face, particularly in the context of abortion care. After countless iterations of choruses and verses, he came to realize the message would actually be best coming from someone else: his mom. 

The track features just a fraction of a phone call full of accounts from her own life watching norms and laws change. Working on it, he said it became clear nothing could follow this — it needed to be given the time to sink in. While the previous track admits life is complicated, at times impossible, this closer steps back to see the world outside its narrator, too.

PHOTOS BY EMILY ENTZ

If lyrics were confidential…what would get said?

On previous albums, Waterparks has not shied away from talking about the hard parts of fame. They have a fan base that’s dedicated in a way many artists only dream of, which is at times both the problem and the reward. Songs on FANDOM (“Watch What Happens Next”), Greatest Hits (“Violet!”) and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (“REAL SUPER DARK”) have all spoken to complicated feelings about parasociality, privacy and connection. 

Fans will be familiar with this kind of honesty — though someone unacquainted might find new releases like “IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL” shocking. Not veiled in any kind of metaphor, Knight opens the first verse bluntly: “I hate 50 percent of our fans / and the other half understands.” But this is not done just in some kind of snarky spite; contextually, it’s just as open as other emotional songs.

“I feel like it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that stuff doesn’t exist,” Knight said.

“To me, what felt effective about it was…putting it after ‘RED GUITAR’ is like discussing things with your inner child…it’s such a fragile thing, straight into what makes this kind of dangerous.”

But JINX does not only exist to confront the loss of privacy that Waterparks has endured — it’s still a reflection of the good, messy parts of life, too. “BETTER THAN THERAPY,” “PLAYING MUSIC” and “NO NO NO NO NO” are still quintessential, exciting Waterparks love songs — the kind Knight says he could write a whole album of easily. They showcase his vocal range, featuring layers of addictive ad libs and have the kind of consuming instrumental that will inspire countless crowd surfers. In their discography, these songs could sit beside tracks like “Lucky People” (Entertainment), “Rare” (Entertainment) and “American Graffiti” (Greatest Hits). 

“It’s hard because you do need those walls, you need the other life. Because Waterparks life…it can be so soul demolishing that you need refuge,” he said. “It would also be disingenuous to not acknowledge that side of things too.”

On “MIRAGE,” a track balancing a delicate piano intro and explosive choruses (reminiscent of “Crying Over It All” on FANDOM), Knight sings of loss and grief, asking, “Why does time heal everything but me?” It’s followed by “TASTES LIKE TANGERINE,” a speaker-bursting, crunchy production track that’s likely the most experimental outside “TELL ME WHY.” This transition is a perfect representation of how a Waterparks album works, and is one of the most exciting parts of the first front to back listen.

“It’s that balance of being like, ‘Here’s a piece of my soul’ or whatever, but also not being like, ‘Come on in, take your shoes off.’ It’s trying to be honest and expressive without exploiting yourself to the extent that you live a harder life after the album is out.”

Creating and performing is a necessity for Awsten Knight. “RED GUITAR” creates a narrative between Knight and his child self, who asks, “Is this worth it?” And when I asked him just that, his answer was yes. In the song, he replies, “It’s our purpose.” Maybe that’s a bit of a sickness (his words), but mixed with a sense of determination to see out his vision and the beauty in some moments of genuine connection. 

“Working on things in a bubble the way that I do, or prefer to, with a tight group of three people tops…After doing it for so long, as a singer, as a performer, you need people to clap for you or you’re gonna f*cking die. At least I am,” Knight shared.

“It was just so much of the hard part that you need people to hear it when it’s over.”

At the end of it all, the hardships and revision that resulted in JINX is meant to be shared. And with the album finally being out in the world, what is Knight most excited about in what’s to come? Seeing you at the barricade.