Wavves’ Nathan Williams crashed and burned at last year’s Primavera Festival, or so it was reported in the indie blogosphere of which he was the latest lo-fi darling. Watching the footage it isn’t as grand a meltdown as many suggested and in hindsight it was probably what Williams needed; to shake off some excess baggage, recruit Jay Reatard’s rhythm section and record his finest album in King of the Beach. Amid a busy US tour Williams phones in to report on life on the road and the creation of his new record.

Life in a touring van is a well documented world of tedium. From the sound of the banter between Williams and bandmates Billy Hayes and Stephen Pope, humour is what keeps them sane – or insane. “Definitely having the same sense of humour and the same murderous rage is helpful, it keeps everyone on the same page. It’s good when we say ‘What are we going to do tonight – oh we’re going to murder’ and there isn’t somebody like ‘ oh my god what?’ – Let’s go find a victim. Apart from getting sick the tour has been going really well. A lot of murders and child abductions – that kind of thing. Just a normal Wavves tour with aliens, marijuana, ambulances and fire trucks,” says Williams.

The big shift in the world of Wavves came in the form of recording in a professional studio with an external producer. With the change in scenery came a bigger, bolder and more assured sounding Wavves and it was that type of sound that Williams was hoping to master. “The majority of the songs had been written almost a year ago. It was also that I got to write the songs and then sit on them and not be so involved in recording them straight away. That gives it a lot more depth I think. Billy and Stephen both wrote for the record so it’s a lot more diverse and thought out,” he explains.

Though Williams loved the experience of the studio there were some elements of it that he didn’t enjoy. “ The producer, Little Denis Herring – that’s what they called him in high school – narced on us for smoking weed. He got mad at us once for that which felt like we were getting in trouble with security guards in high school. It was weird at the beginning with a lot of label stuff. They tried to get me to record with studio musicians and it was really shitty but finally we said ‘no we’re not going to do that, this is how it’s going to be’. Once we got into it it was pretty smooth sailing,” Williams recalls.

The sound of Wavves is a clever, fizzing fusion of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The Beach Boys and Pavement on speed and Williams confirms they were key influences on the band. “I think all of us listened to alternative nineties music, that were our formative years and what the record was based on. I just love melody in songs, which probably comes from older music we listen to.”

Live, the new rhythm section add the same heady rush and pummel that characterised their playing with Jay Reatard, though Williams offers some other angles on what they have brought to Wavves. “About 2.5 feet in height, 420 pounds in weight, an insatiable craving for marijuana and a bad attitude,” he laughs. In-jokes abound and in the background the rest of the band join in, contributing “We like aliens and sluts so we think that will be the recurring them for Wavves. We don’t like cats anymore, we like crying on cats.”

Wavves are taking it as it comes and definitely making sure they don’t take anything too seriously. With a fantastic new album and a bunch of touring ahead of them – including a visit to Australia early in 2011 – they leave us with one burning question… “Do you think if you made a pipe out of weed you could smoke weed out it and not ruin the pipe?”

this interview first appeared on FasterLouder