“This is the most I’ve grown as a person between albums. It’s a blank slate, a rebirth”: Why Waterparks risked it all on JINX

“What’s your favourite sequel?” Awsten Knight asks us. His choice, it turns out, is the second instalment in the Austin Powers saga, The Spy Who Shagged Me, closely followed by horror hit The Conjuring 2. We’ve got on to the topic because we’re discussing Waterparks’ forthcoming sixth studio album, JINX, the record the Houston trio – completed by guitarist Geoff Wigington and drummer Otto Wood – made instead of the sequel to 2023’s INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, which was going to be called INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2: LOST IN THE PROPERTY.

The band nixed that release in August 2024, which came as disappointing news to fans, though they will no doubt be thrilled with the opus that’s sprung up in its place. JINX is a meta-masterpiece-in-waiting, full of sumptuous songs, clever lyrics and even guest appearances from blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and legendary composer Danny Elfman.

The fact those two incredible cameos are on the same track – JINX’s opener, no less, TELL ME WHY – is illustrative of an album that’s packed to the gills and succeeds in Awsten’s mission to create “timeless” songs, given that it sounds like it could have been recorded last week or 50 years in the future and sent back to save civilisation. The frontman understandably can’t wait to introduce the world to it, then, as he opens up about rapping, taking inspiration from Backstreet Boys album titles, and self-awareness fails within the Waterparks fanbase…

At the time of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2’s cancellation, you suggested “the universe is working against this project and I’m tired of fighting it”. Presumably JINX has been easier by comparison?
“I wish I could say yes! That was the idea, but it was honestly so much harder. I don’t want to sound dramatic but we really struggled over the last three years to make this album, and I always felt it was leading to something better. When we were working on INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 2, it felt like I knew the ending. It felt like we’d just done it with INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, so it felt like dragging ourselves through the same obstacles for a reward I felt less invested in. I’d start thinking, ‘Let’s say [IP2] goes really well, then I’d be stuck talking about religious trauma for the next three years.’”

When you spoke to K! in October, you said: “There’s no point in giving somebody something that isn’t your best effort, because if they’re willing to take the time to listen to you in the age of digital-shit-noise, then they deserve your best effort.” Do you think bands have to work harder nowadays to cut through all that noise?
“Yes and no. I think yes, in the way that you owe it to yourself to make your best shit, because if you’re making something that’s permanent, and you don’t give a fuck, and you’re not putting your best foot forward, then what the fuck are you doing? I operate on instinct a lot and if something doesn’t feel right, spiritually even, then I’ll abandon it. Making an album isn’t just making an album, or isn’t just recording an album – it’s everything. It’s so life-consuming. I genuinely think making an album is like 20-to-25 per cent the music.”

You also discussed your mission to make “timeless songs” for the record that’s become JINX. How does one go about testing the timelessness factor?
“What happens with me is, I’ll make a song and think, ‘Motherfucker… I’m good!’ Then I’ll go have coffee or lunch with someone and ask them what they think. And if I play new music for someone who’s in front of me, I can instantly find everything that’s fucking wrong with it. I hear it with their ears and pick up on little cues they’re giving away – and that’s so valuable! It forces you to confront your flaws a little bit. But with JINX, I can play any song to anyone and just be like, ‘Can you fucking believe we did this?’ I don’t mean to be egotistical sounding – it’s just the Waterparks is my favourite fucking band in the world!”

That’s how someone should feel about their own band, right…?
“Exactly. I mean, imagine if I had a fucking restaurant and I was like, ‘Yeah, this food is okay…’ You’d want to be saying, ‘Everybody should get in here and eat it every day!’ I want people to hear this album every day. I want them to start their fucking morning listening to it. (Starts singing the lyrics to TELL ME WHY) ‘If the only point of life is not to die, can you tell me why…’”

TELL ME WHY is an existential song and has some excellent lyrics, including a reference to ‘Your earthly exit interview’. On top of all that, it features Mark Hoppus and Danny Elfman, seemingly as an angel and devil, respectively. How the hell did that happen?
“Danny Elfman’s involvement came via [producer] Zakk Cervini – big shout-out! I was at Zakk’s home studio, mixing TELL ME WHY, and he had a Danny Elfman thing on the wall because he’d worked on one of his albums. So I asked, ‘Do you think he would ever be interested in playing the devil on the track?’ Zakk said, ‘I bet he would – let me ask.’
“Danny said he was down, then asked when we needed it. Technically, we needed it a week later, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He said, ‘Sorry, I’ve got some stuff to do this week,’ and then, two days later, I saw him on SNL playing drums with A$AP Rocky.
“When he had time to do it, I gave as few directions as possible, as this is Danny-fucking-Elfman we’re talking about – one of the greatest composers to ever exist. He sent back six or seven versions of each line and they were all awesome. That was one of those times when things felt like a simulation.”

And how did it go with Mark H?
“So we recorded Mark’s part at his home studio. It was so goddamn surreal. Walking in and looking down to see a little file of [blink-182’s second album, 1997’s] Dude Ranch test pressings was nuts. As soon as Mark was in the booth, I remembered what a distinct voice he has. No-one else sounds like him. And he fucking nailed it. On the first take we could have gone home, but he ran the lines a few times. He was awesome.”

There’s a line in If Lyrics Were Confidential that says, ‘I hate 50 per cent of our fans, and the other half understands.’ Presumably you wrote that because fans listening to it wouldn’t actually know which camp they fall into?
“That’s the best part of it! That’s why the line works… nobody is going to be thinking, ‘Oh yeah, that’s me – I’m a fucking terrible asshole.’ Even the biggest punishers are going to fucking hear that song and say, ‘Yeah, fuck that other half!’”

There’s some highly serviceable rapping from you on that track. Was it your mission to showcase your flow on this album?
“I love hip-hop, and I think I look up to more hip-hop artists than people in bands. I think the reason I leaned on that vocal delivery is because I had a lot to say. There were a couple of drafts where I tried being more sing-y, but it just felt goofy. Hip-hop and hardcore both have this way of delivering how you feel in an almost more cathartic way. I wanted the energy to match how aggressive the things I’m writing about make me feel.”

JINX is the latest in your alphabetical album titles. What’s the impetus for that title, aside from its need to start with a ‘J’?
“I’m just obsessed with album titles that feel fucking giant – like that Backstreet Boys album, [1999’s] Millennium… Whoa! I had JINX written down a long time ago. Three years ago, we were in San Diego and Zakk [Waterparks’ day-to-day manager] said, ‘What if the album is called JINX’? I was like, ‘Oh my god – there it is!’”

Do you feel, in scrapping an album, you lost some momentum that you need to make up for with JINX?
“Momentum always comes back. Hype, or whatever synonym you want to use, fluctuates. But this album is worth every flower in the goddamn galaxy, and I think people are going to agree when they hear it, because there’s not one song on here that doesn’t deserve the world.
“It’s the most I’ve grown as a person between albums. We parted with our longtime team; we parted with our label; we parted with everybody. I dyed my hair blonde – blank slate, rebirth. It’s been fucking hard, man. I like stability and consistency, and I didn’t have that while making this album – granted things have got to a better place.
“The clear-cut answer about momentum is: my competition is me. And yeah, I’ve got some ground to cover, but I think with how incredible this album is, we’ve got the ammo we need to get where we’d like to go.”

Waterparks’ new album JINX is due out on July 24 via BMG

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• “If it’s not fun, then what are you doing?” Making a scene with Michael Clifford and Awsten Knight