Wavves has officially scrapped their forthcoming collaborative album with Say Anything, titled Cherry Soda, following severe allegations against Say Anything frontman Max Bemis. Wavves frontman Nathan Williams stated on Patreon and social media that he no longer wishes to be associated with Bemis, leaving a 10-track project and 10,000 pressed vinyl records in limbo.
- The Project Collapses: Wavves and Say Anything announced Cherry Soda in July, produced by Aaron Rubin with singles like “Deathx1k” and “Still Alive.”
- Heavy Financial Hit: Nathan Williams estimates a personal loss of roughly $200,000, noting that 10,000 vinyl copies are already pressed.
- The Allegations: The fallout follows screenshots shared on the Say Anything subreddit by a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old detailing inappropriate conversations with Bemis.
Unraveling an 11-Month Solo Effort
When Wavves and Say Anything first teased their joint endeavor in July, it was billed as a collaboration. But the math behind the studio doors looks vastly different today. According to messages shared by Williams on Patreon and cited by Paste, the collaborative billing masked a solitary workflow. Williams asserts that he spent 11 months building the record largely by himself, while Bemis logged four days in the studio.
Here is the kicker: despite Bemis receiving songwriting credits on seven of the album’s ten tracks, Williams claims the Say Anything frontman barely contributed to the actual writing process. “I made it by myself,” Williams wrote to fans. “It’s in all ways just a wavves record.” This disparity has turned a routine album rollout into an expensive administrative nightmare. With 10,000 physical vinyl copies already pressed and a scheduled release date of September 18 on I Surrender Records, as reported by NME, Williams calculates the financial fallout at around $200,000 out of pocket.
The Reddit Disclosures and Immediate Industry Fallout
The swift unravelling of Cherry Soda began when multiple young women posted accounts and purported conversation screenshots on the Say Anything subreddit. A 17-year-old fan detailed a six-month communication timeline in which Bemis allegedly engaged in sexualized dialogue while fully aware that she was a minor and a trafficking survivor. A second account from a 19-year-old surfaced soon after, featuring screenshots where Bemis discussed being single and his attraction to younger people after she questioned their age gap.
The blowback was immediate. Bemis abruptly called off an upcoming run of solo performances. Say Anything issued a public statement announcing that their frontman was stepping away “due to the need to prioritize his mental health and personal well-being.” Notably, that band statement bypassed the allegations entirely and did not address the specific claims circulating online. Meanwhile, Williams took a far more direct approach on Instagram, posting, “yeah Ive seen it. not sure what to say but fuck max. fuck say anything. I’m sorry yall.”
Can Cherry Soda Be Salvaged from the Rubble?
The music industry is no stranger to shelved projects, but indie collaborative albums rarely implode this close to a street date. Williams has floated the possibility of rescuing the material by stripping out Bemis’ footprint entirely. Because Williams maintains that Bemis contributed very little to the foundational creation of the tracks, cutting the singer out remains a logistical possibility—though it would force a hard reset on a release calendar that originally pointed to mid-September.
For an independent artist, eating a six-figure loss on pressed vinyl while scrambling to restructure a major release is a brutal test of resilience. Say Anything had only recently returned from hiatus in 2022, riding a 20th-anniversary tour wave for …Is A Real Boy in 2024. Now, that momentum has slammed into a wall of community accountability and swift artistic dissociation. As the industry watches to see if Wavves will salvage the master tracks under a solo banner, the broader indie landscape is left reckoning with the fragile economics of collaborative projects gone wrong.
| Project Detail | Original Plan | Current Status |
|---|---|---|
| Album Title | Cherry Soda (Wavves & Say Anything) | Scrapped / Potentially Reworked |
| Scheduled Release | September 18, via I Surrender Records | Delayed |
| Physical Production | 10,000 vinyl copies pressed | Financial loss estimated at $200,000 |
| Songwriting Credits | Bemis credited on 7 of 10 tracks | Facing removal by Nathan Williams |
Where this leaves the master recordings remains an open question, but the bridge between the two camps is permanently burned. Drop a comment below with your thoughts on whether indie artists should completely re-record troubled collaborations or just start from scratch.
