#that vinyl i got was warped so fucking bad dude

[endious]

WOW my day gets worse when i thought it was better !!

[galadrieljones]

As You Were (Chapter 5)

Fandom: The Last of Us | Pairing: Joel x OC | Content: Fix-it | Rating: Mature

Masterpost

When Joel and Ellie take a wrong turn on their journey from Pittsburgh to Wyoming, they find themselves lost in, what feels like a time warp: a beautiful place with a dark and dangerous secret. While there, they meet Cici and Noah, a mother and son fighting tirelessly for survival, and who have recently endured a terrible tragedy on their family farm. Amidst their joint desire to find hope for the future, the two groups decide set out west together, changing the course of the story (as we know it), and the very course of their lives.

This is an AU, starting after the events of the Summer chapter in the first game, and extending into the timeline of the second game. Joel lives.

Chapter 5: Living Room Jam Session

"There are a million ways we should have died before today, and a million ways we can die before tomorrow. But we fight, for every second we get to spend with each other. Whether it's two minutes, or two days, we don't give that up. I don't wanna give that up."

That night, Cici went out to the circuit breaker next to the shed, and she switched on the electric fence. It worked after all.

“It’ll use up a lot of fuel,” she said to Joel. “But we can’t risk it.”

The farm was peaceful. Almost like nothing had ever happened. A couple cows had escaped, earlier that day. Joel had offered to help wrangle them, but Noah said don’t bother. “We can’t feed them anyway." He shrugged. He slaughtered a cow in the early evening. He showed Joel how to clean and butcher the meat, and how to salt and cure it for longer term use. They had steaks for dinner that night, prepared this time with a few potatoes, seasoned with dill from the garden, which was picked almost clean.

Joel was beginning to gather that their time on that farm was coming to a rapid conclusion. They couldn’t stay there, not much longer. If there were spores in the tributaries, that meant they could get into the water table, too. Cici and Noah knew this. They had been making four hour drives to the Fox River in Fon du Lac for several months now, bringing back water sourced from Green Bay. They said this was how they were able to trade for their fuel for the generators, from the Amish on the other side of the hill—making long drives to clean water. Even with the rain, they could no longer water their crops or sustain their livestock, and the Infected were becoming more of a threat every day. They had a lot of reserves, but it was only a matter of time before they ran out of food, or worse. Like Cici had said, him and Ellie showing up like they had, it was almost happenstance.

“I can get you your fuel tomorrow,” said Cici. They were still outside, leaning against a tree, looking at the circuit breaker. “You made good on your bargain. Thank you, Joel.”

Joel had got a big old cut on his forehead from the events down at the trench. She had patched it up for him with alcohol and gauze. Hadn’t made a fuss, just did it. “Cici, I know we ain’t known each other that long, but I ain’t leaving you and Noah here to deal with this all by yourselves.”

“You don’t owe us anything.”

“I know that,” said Joel. “And trust me, I been wrestling with it myself. But it don’t change anything.”

Cici straightened up off the tree and looked around. Her hair was down now, kind of tangly and windswept. Noah and Ellie were inside the house. “Noah said he told you about LaCrosse.”

Joel looked down at the grass as if to count the moonlit blades. “He didn’t go into a lot of detail,” he said. “But yes, he gave me the gist. Said your husband, he died in a fire. I’m sorry, Cici. I truly am.”

She just shrugged her shoulders. “We never got to find out, what’s been going on,” she said, blinking back tears. “We couldn’t stay, after it happened, and then we couldn’t go back.”

“Noah wants me to come with him,” said Joel. “Back. To LaCrosse. He asked me after dinner.”

“There’s no point,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do. Even if you find the source of the problem, the farm is too far gone to save.”

“I think it’s more about closure,” said Joel. “He didn’t say as much, but I get it. I told him I’d go. I hope I ain’t crossing any lines in doing so.”

She closed her eyes.

“Me and him are gonna head up tomorrow,” he went on. “I figure, the sooner the better. Shouldn’t take more than a couple days. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come with us, or if you'd be okay staying here, with Ellie. I don’t want to take her, because she’s just a kid, and she’s been through enough, and I don’t know what the hell we’re getting into up there, but I won’t leave her here alone.”

“It’s okay,” said Cici. She didn’t even try to argue. “I’ll stay. I don’t—I can’t go back there anyway.”

“Do y’all have anywhere to go?” said Joel. “I mean, aside from this farm? Noah mentioned family down in Moline. The I-80 runs right through there. I don’t know what we’ll find, but we could take you.”

Cici shook her head slowly, staring at the earth. “My sister-in-law was trying to get back there like six months ago. She said she’d come back for us, if it was all clear, but we never heard from her again.”

“I heard about some turf wars going on in the Quad Cities,” said Joel. “Just warning you. It was the kind of place too small for a QZ, but it was too big and too isolated to try and save. The military all but abandoned it. Now that was years ago. Things could have changed. Either way, it’s right on the Mississippi, so if your little problem extends into Illinois and Iowa, it probably ain’t gonna be pretty. But we can try.”

She took a deep breath, and she opened and closed her fists a couple times. She had little bones. She was small, but she wasn’t a weakling. “I wanna think about it.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s go inside,” she said, pulling herself together. She had this way of tucking her hair behind her ears. It was like hitting a reset button or something. Truth be told, he was a little confounded by Cici. Not in a bad way. He just found it very hard to predict her, despite her seeming steadfastness, as a woman. “Ellie and Noah are into the vinyls," she went on. "Who knows what they’ve got playing in there.”

“You guys got a ton of records,” said Joel as they headed back to the porch in the moonlit grass. “What is it with that? You just collectors or something?”

“My husband was,” she said. “William. He used to say that if the apocalypse ever came, at least we’d still be able to listen to music.”

“Well, he was right,” said Joel.

The seemed to comfort her. He saw her almost smile, out the corner of his eye.

“What’s this band called again?” said Ellie. She was sitting on her knees on the floor, in the middle of a big old pile of records. Noah was on the floor nearby, sifting through the pile one-by-one. It had been a long time since he’d really taken inventory, since before his dad died.

He picked up the vinyl, examined it front and back. “The Wallflowers.”

“The Wallflowers?” said Ellie. “Weird name, but I like it.”

“Do you know what a wallflower is?”

“Uh,” said Ellie, “like a flower that…grows out of the wall?”

Noah was amused. “It’s a metaphor. It’s like, somebody who stands on the sidelines. They don’t really get in on the action.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” said Ellie.

“The singer for this band is Bob Dylan’s son.”

“Neat,” said Ellie. “Who’s Bob Dylan again?”

Noah started going through a stack on his left, where he kept the sixties stuff. “This guy,” he said.

“Ah,” said Ellie. “The Blowing in the Wind guy. Very cool.”

“Did you guys ever listen to music in the QZ?”

“Yeah,” said Ellie, “but we didn’t have records. And everything I wanted, I had to steal or trade for with my ration cards. It was like, music or food sometimes. I had a walkman though, so I would just listen to tapes.”

“Do you still have it?”

“No,” said Ellie. “It broke like a thousand miles ago.”

“Bummer,” said Noah.

“Pretty much.”

They listened to the song. It was called “Josephine.” I know you’ve been sad. I know I’ve been bad. But if you’d let me, I’d make you ribbons from a paper bag.

“What do you think this song is about?” said Ellie.

Noah thought about it, looking up at the ceiling. “I think it’s like, the end of a relationship,” he said. “The guy messed up, but he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for Josephine anyway. He’s apologizing, and he knows he can’t get her back, but he still loves her. That’s what I get from it, but it sounds dumb as hell when I say it out loud.”

Ellie examined the sleeve. It was just a whole bunch of yellow stars on a black background. “It’s not dumb,” she said. “It’s just really sad. Why doesn’t he think he’s good enough?”

“I don’t know,” said Noah. “Why does anyone think anything?”

Ellie thought this was kind of funny. “Good point.”

“Let’s try this one,” said Noah.

He took the Wallflowers record off the platter, put a new record on.

“What’s this?” said Ellie. “Lightning Bolt. Pearl Jam? I think I’ve actually heard of these guys.”

“This one’s got a story behind it. You want to hear?”

Ellie straightened right up. “Hell yeah.”

“Okay,” said Noah, looking down at the sleeve. It was like this big, red eye, full of white lightning bolt decals. “So apparently like, this album was supposed to be released a few weeks after the day the outbreak officially hit in 2013. It got pushed back like everything else, and then the stores all closed and it just like, never happened. My dad had really been looking forward to it, so like six weeks after shit went dark, him and some guys went to a Best Buy up in Madison and looted all these unreleased vinyls from the warehouse.”

“Holy shit,” said Ellie. “That’s fucking awesome.”

“I know. He said he had to get by military guys and everything.”

“Dude, your dad was a total badass,” said Ellie. “You should be proud.”

At first Noah got quiet. Ellie hadn’t thought anything of it. She’d never had a dad, or a mom, or anyone to be proud of like that. She just thought it was so unbelievably rad that he had a story like this to tell other people, about his dad. Eventually, Noah smiled. She smiled along with him. He said, “There’s one song on here I like a lot.”

“Play it,” she said. “As long as it’s not about people breaking up. Because that shit sucks.”

“It’s not,” said Noah.

He set down the needle, and together, they listened.

The song was slow and beautiful, thought Ellie, but it grew. Piano—crisp and clean and rushing as the river—gave way to a man’s voice and the guitar, big as a boat. She sat without talking. She tucked her hands in her lap and looked down at her wrists. She closed her eyes and tried hard to let the music overwhelm her. It was hard for Ellie to let things overwhelm her. She wore heavy armor. She would make a joke. She would roll her eyes.

But this was different than the other song, thought Ellie. It was sad, maybe sentimental, but it was a good kind of sentimental. All the missing crooked hearts, they may die, but in us they live on. I believe. I believe 'cause I can see. Our future days. Days of you and me. It was strong, and it seemed to be about trying. Like, trying to be better, through the eyes of someone else. Loving, and being loved, even when it’s hard. You have to try. It put her back in time, almost to another universe, but she hammered it away. She liked this song much better than the last song. She wished to live inside the music.

When it ended, she looked at Noah, who was looking at the ceiling again, leaning back on his hands and listening, with intent. The song had filled the house with a purifying energy and brought it down, made it simple. The bad things that had happened that day, they were clean.

“That one was awesome,” said Ellie.

“Are you okay?” said Noah. He seemed like he was half-joking, but sort of earnest. It was enough joking to make her smile, but not too earnest to freak her out.

“Oh,” said Ellie, looking down at her shoe laces. “I’m fine. I just—these songs sort of remind me of someone I once knew. In another life I guess.”

Noah waited what seemed like a long time before he spoke again. He was mulling it over, with his elbows now resting on his knees. Then he said, “I get that.”

They played the song again. Then, they couldn’t take it anymore. They took it off and put on some emo shit by a band called Coldplay. It was kind of terrible, they agreed, but they listened anyway, as it was like a dream.

A little while later, Joel and Cici came back inside. Joel held the door for her and once they were in the living room, raised his eyebrows and made fun of the Coldplay.

“You guys okay in here?” he said. “Sounds like you made a wrong turn somewhere.”

“Oh, we’re great, Joel,” said Ellie. “You guys are seriously missing out on our jam session.”

“Ha,” said Cici.

Joel stretched and got real big, and then he leaned against the kitchen table. He seemed kind of faded, thought Ellie. He had that cut on his eye. He seemed very tired. “It’s been a long day,” he said. “I think I’m ready to head up. You wanna come Ellie, or you fixing to stay awake a while longer?”

Ellie got up and wiped her hands on her jeans. They’d gotten kind of dusty from handling all the vinyls. “I’ll come up,” she said. “I’m pretty wiped.”

“I’ll have breakfast ready early,” said Cici.

“Sounds fine,” said Joel.

“See you guys in the morning,” said Noah. He glanced up at Ellie then, as if thankful for something.

When they got upstairs, Ellie went to look in the mirror on the bureau and she took down her ponytail. Her hair felt like a rat’s nest. She started to brush it out, aggressively.

“Where’d you get that hair brush?” said Joel, taking his shoes off.

“Cici let me borrow it,” she said.

“Right,” said Joel. He put his face in his hands then, scrubbed them down his cheeks. “Ellie—"

She stopped mid-brush, turned around. “Noah told me about LaCrosse,” she said. “I wanna come.”

Joel took a deep breath, as this had caught him by surprise. “Ellie, no.”

“Well what the fuck?” she said. She set down the brush on the bureau, hard. “Why the hell not?”

He just took to staring at her. She wasn’t actually that mad, he thought, she just seemed genuine in her confusion. “Because,” he said. “I got no idea what we’re walking into up there.”

“Oh, but you did in Pittsburgh, when you drove us straight into a fucking trap?”

“That is beside the point.”

“How, Joel?” said Ellie. “Noah is only four years older than me. I can hold my own.”

“Those are four critical years, Ellie,” said Joel. He was trying not to raise his voice. “And honestly, it don’t matter whether you can hold your own, because this thing going on in, it ain’t about you. It ain’t about me neither. You understand? It’s about Noah atoning with his dad’s death. He needs help, and he asked me, and I am providing that for him.”

“I can help,” said Ellie.

“I know you two get along,” said Joel. “But you're helping most by staying put.”

“What about Cici? She doesn’t wanna go?”

Joel waved her off, started rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “No,” he said. “Cici’s made her peace. Or what’s left of it.”

“She doesn’t seem…at peace.”

“I didn’t say she was at peace. I just said she’s made her peace.” Ellie seemed to understand this, and now, he could tell she was just scared, of being left behind. “Look, Ellie,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t come. That’s the end of this conversation. But we’ll only be gone a couple nights. You got Cici with you. She might seem quiet, but I think she's pretty hardcore, and you two got the electric fence. Me and Noah, we’ll be okay.”

“I know,” said Ellie, like she was defending herself. She had flipped open her switch blade, was studying the tip. “I know.”

“We good then?” said Joel.

She hesitated, but then she closed up the knife and flopped back onto the bed. “Fine,” she said.

He was relieved.

“But then you better fucking bring something back for me.”

This surprised him. He gave her a look. “Bring something back?” he said. “Like a souvenir?”

“Yeah,” she said. “A souvenir.”

“A souvenir from LaCrosse?”

“You heard me.”

Joel tugged the covers back, was getting ready to crawl beneath. The day had become a heavy weight, all of it resting right on his eye lids. He was glad it was all okay. “All right,” he said, yawning. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“Good,” she said.

“Now get some goddam sleep.”

“Ay ay, cap’n.”

A few minutes went by. Joel was about ready to get under the covers for good when Ellie said, “I gotta pee.”

He looked at her. “Now?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” he said. “Okay. Just—just be quick.”

“You think I wanna take my time peeing in that thing? Outhouses are like the one bad thing about this place. Other than the whole, contaminated-water part, I guess.”

Joel took a breath, told her he would leave his lamp on. “Just hurry, and turn the lamp down when you get back.”

“I will,” she said.

Ellie went pee in the outhouse and did her best not to make any sounds. When she got out, she didn't feel tired, so she went over and stood by the river like a detour. She did not plan on staying long. She just looked at it, right down into it, and then it blinked back at her like the little bitch it was, bubbling deceptively in the moonlight. She  suddenly hated that something so innocent could also be so deadly, and so fucking sad. The night was cooling down but it was still humid. She switched open her knife and wiped the sweat from her forehead on the back of her hand. She switched her knife closed again, then open again. She tried thinking about anything else, but that stupid Pearl Jam song had awakened something inside her.

“I haven’t seen you in…in I don’t know how long,” she said.

"Forty-five days?” said Riley. She was nervous. “Well, forty-six. Technically. Wanna know what I’ve been up to?”

The rain outside was like a drum. Ellie didn’t care. “All this time,” she said. “I thought you were dead.”

Riley felt everything, but just like everybody else in the whole wide world, she couldn’t show it. “Yeah,” she said. And she took off the dog tag. “Here. Look.”

“God fucking dammit,” said Ellie. She was on her knees now, overcome by something, and she stabbed the knife into the river bank. “Stupid fucking bullshit. Fuck you.” She stabbed it again, and then she felt like a complete dumbass, put it away. She thought about crying but she stared back at the river instead. “Go away,” she said.

“Ellie?” said someone. It was Cici, she was calling out to her from the porch. It must have been too long. “Ellie, you okay?”

“Shit,” said Ellie. "I'm okay." She got up, frantic, and her knees were all wet from the river bank. “I'm okay. I'm coming."

"Just checking," said Cici.

When she got back up to their room, Joel was under the covers. The lamp was dim. He lie very still, on his side, facing the wall, and she stood watching him for a second to see if he'd roll over and scold her or something. But he seemed like he was sleeping, and she was relieved. She didn't know why she cared, but she did. So she turned down the lamp right away and tried to be as quiet as she could so as not to disturb him. She took off her shoes and set them down silently, one by one. Then she took her jeans off, too, hung them over the bedpost to dry. She only had the one pair. She got under the covers and pulled them up to her chin, trying to sink into the mattress, forcing her brain to shut the fuck up. Please. For once, just shut the fuck up. But then,

“'Night, Ellie,” said Joel. He had not moved, by the dim light of the moon coming through the window.

She was near on startled. His voice was really deep and it always filled the room no matter how quiet. “Oh, shit,” she said. “Sorry, Joel."

"That's okay," he said.

"‘Night, Joel.”

Days of you and me.

***

On the record player: “Josephine” by The Wallflowers, “Future Days” by Pearl Jam, “The Scientist” by Coldplay

[externally-upset]

i feel guilty i really enjoyed being in the poppunk scene and its crazy how 20-30 yr old dudes in bands could get the attention of teens and other 20-30 yr old dudes but i purged my closet and all thats left from warped is what im selling weird but yeah i feel bad i ignored that scene now but if i got back to try to feel nostalgic i feel like meh its not a jam for me like when you mentioned la dispute idk how i was able to sit down and listen too all that yellling but in a way i wish

Y'know I that's what started to push me away from the Pop Punk scene, noticing how certain artists interacted with the younger audience. It felt really weird and I was getting uncomfortable. I started breaking away after what happened with FPS because fuck that guy and then completely broke away after what happened with moose blood. I definitely sold all of my stuff, like a few years ago I had a huge vinyl records collection, something like 250 pieces but it's mostly gone now. I think I can still listen to bands like La Dispute because they weren't doing the whole sad boi thing that a lot of bands were doing. That and I grew listening to heavy metal so screaming I'm songs is no big deal to me

[circlesandsoundwaves]

“We can actually do it.”: Interview with Waterparks

Photo and Interview by Molly Louise Hudelson.

If you’ve been following the pop-punk scene over the past two years, chances are you’re familiar with Waterparks. The Houston-based group recently wrapped a tour with All Time Low, and in addition to a North American headlining tour earlier this year, they’ve also shared the stage with Sleeping With Sirens and Good Charlotte.

I met up with Awsten, Otto, and Geoff for an interview before the first of two Philadelphia shows last month, and it was a fun one. There was a lot of laughter and joking around, but when it comes to the band, they do mean business. Selling out most dates of their first headlining tour taught them that “we can actually do it”; and they’re now “much more confident” heading in to a headlining tour in the UK.  Read on for my interview with Waterparks, where we talked about the tours, their recent experience as Emo Night DJs, and more!

CIRCLES & SOUNDWAVES: For the record, could you each tell me your name, what you play in Waterparks, and a fun fact about yourself?   Awsten Knight: Awsten, I sing in Waterparks, and it's not fun to be in Waterparks. That's my fun fact. Otto Wood: Hi, my name is Otto, I play the drums in Waterparks, and I miss having fun. Geoff Wigington: Hi, my name is Geoff, I play guitar in Waterparks, and I have fun in Waterparks.   C&S: You're on the All Time Low tour right now; you did a tour with Sleeping With Sirens last fall, you've done some touring with Good Charlotte, and then you did your first headliner this spring. I read something from earlier this year where you said that you felt like on support tours, you had training wheels.   AK: Yep.   C&S: And then all of a sudden for a headlining tour, you're pushed out on your own. What did you learn from being on a headlining tour?   AK: That we can actually do it and it's not that scary- kinda like a bike. GW: I definitely love doing a headline tour more than a support tour. AK: The whole training wheels thing, that was because I didn't know what the draw would actually be like in terms of people caring.   C&S: Most of the shows sold out.   AK: Yeah, the majority of them. There was only a couple that didn't. One of them I was so mad- capacity was 600 and it was at like, 584. I was like, "fuck." I was mad. I was like, "Guys, we should maybe buy however many tickets."   C&S: The headliner was incredibly successful- has that affected you at all or given you any confidence going into another support tour like this?   OW: Oh, we're so not grounded anymore! [Awsten and Geoff laugh.]   C&S: What do you mean?   OW: [Laughs.] Our egos are hugely inflated. AK: We all have our own bus now. GW: Yeah, this is actually the first time we've talked to each other in months. AK: You're bringing the gang back together. OW: Yeah. Thank you.   C&S: Well, I feel honored that I can be the one to bring Waterparks all back together.   Last night you played Boston and after the show, DJ-ed Emo Night. [They all laugh.]   AK: Yeah.   C&S: What were your personal guidelines in putting together your setlist?What were your criteria in choosing songs?   AK: Hits. OW: Play all the hits. AK: Just the hits. OW: All the hits. AK: The night before, in the hotel room, I was sitting at my computer, and looped the intro to "I'm Not Okay" by My Chemical Romance so it would just start over when the vocals come in. I did the same thing with "Welcome To The Black Parade." I thought it would be really funny but everyone was just really drunk and singing very loud and did not notice. So I just looked at Otto and was like, "It's not working."   C&S: I've never been to an Emo Night but what I've heard is that everyone gets really, really drunk.   GW: Everybody's super drunk the whole time, and if you're not drunk, you're not really gonna have that much fun. OW: I miss having fun.   C&S: I saw on Twitter that you played a TED Talk during Emo Night? [Otto and Geoff burst out laughing.]   AK: Yeah. They cut it short.   C&S: That's very disappointing- Emo Night censorship.   AK: I know. I got through about five minutes of the TED Talk I wanted them to hear.   C&S: What was the TED Talk about?   AK: Oh, it was about getting your life together, so it was a good time for them to hear it. The people that were in charge kept coming up and going like, "Hey, I think you're losing them!"- I was like, "I don't think so." OW: They're like, "Hold on, hold on." AK: "Just give it another minute." And finally they came and played- I don't know, The Used or something.   C&S: Wait, so someone cut off your TED Talk?   AK: Oh yeah, dude- a lot of our stuff kept getting [cut off]. OW: They hijacked our playlist. We had a whole thing set up and I'd say half the set or more wound up being an outside influence- "You should play this now." I was like, "I guess."   C&S: If you had had full control over the playlist, what would it have been?   AK: The thing is, we had to put in a couple staples just so they wouldn't be permanently mad. Duh, you have to play "I Write Sins", duh you have to play "Cute Without the E." We came out to "What If God Was One Of Us?"- with balloons and everything- but it wound up being instrumental so I had to sing it, so that was weird. I was asking a lot of rhetorical questions between lines. OW: And then we rolled right in to "Who Let The Dogs Out?".   C&S: That's a little bit of a switch-up from the typical Emo Night. OW: Right. And then right on in to "I'm A Believer", "Good Girls Go Bad", "Welcome To The Black Parade" intro loop over and over again. We tried to play "Humble"; that didn't work out. We tried to do a TED Talk; that didn't work out. We did "Cute Without The E." AK: That worked out. OW: I think that worked out because that was kind of in line with what everybody was cool with. "I'm Not Okay" intro loop, we were gonna play "How To Save A Life" by The Fray- that didn't work out.   C&S: See, even though The Fray is not an emo band, that song makes me feel emo.    OW: It makes you emote.   C&S: And it's from the right era.   OW: From "How To Save A Life" into "How You Remind Me" from Nickelback. AK: That didn't happen either. OW: "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", "It's My Life"- we got to play some of that Bon Jovi. AK: They cut it off. OW: And then we got to play our song "Easter Egg" for a little bit. AK: We said we were gonna play it that night and everybody was disappointed that we didn't play it during our set. OW: We weren't lying, though. We did play it. AK: And then it got cut off for A Day To Remember- so, sorry.   C&S: You have a tour coming up in the UK, and that's your first headliner in the UK.   AK: And it's sold out!   C&S: How do you feel going in to that knowing it's sold out?   AK: Much more confident. GW: Yeah- it's gonna be really cool. I love the UK a lot. OW: Really good- maybe I'll start to have fun again.   C&S: What would allow you to have fun?   OW: If these guys will let me play bass instead of drums. AK: Nope!   C&S: So that leads in to the video for "Gloom Boys", where you have a potential bassist fighting off all your ex-bassists, Scott Pilgrim-style. The video is what, seven minutes long?   AK: Yeah dude. It was twelve and we were like, "Gotta cut it down." OW: It's a commitment.   C&S: So you weren't going to make a feature length film?   AK: It just didn't seem like the best idea, but... eventually.   C&S: There's a line in that song where you say, "I like happy songs with titles that don't match at all." When I listen to your album Double Dare, that's what I get out of it- it's a super, super catchy, fun record- but then I looked at the lyrics and I was like, "...oh." [Otto laughs.] Some of it's, like, real shit.   AK: Yeah, that's what that means.   C&S: In terms of other music that you're in to, what are some of your favorite happy songs with titles that don't match?   AK: I like a lot of music where it sounds poppy and happy and everything and then you can tell the lyrics and mood of it just don't match. Even if you switch it around and it sounds dark but it's a poppy and happy song- that's cool too. OW: I guess Alkaline Trio's good about that- Crimson, for sure, that record- album. Oh no- I said "record".   C&S: Can we not call an album a "record"?   AK: You can, as long as there's a [vinyl] record. We have a record of [Double Dare].   C&S: Are you big vinyl people?   AK: I go through phases of it- if it's one of my favorite albums or I'm obsessed with the art, I'll get it. But I don't collect to just have as much as possible.   C&S: I imagine it's hard on tour, too- to just physically collect a lot of stuff.   I saw the Digital Tour Bus video that you guys did on Warped Tour last year and there were all these boxes of stuff fans had given you. What is either the weirdest or the best thing a fan has given you?   GW: Somebody gave me a copy of Ocarina of Time 3D for my 3DS- that was super cool cuz I had it before and my system got stolen so I got to replay it. OW: Someone made me a needlepoint- my favorite film is There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis- and [the needlepoint] looks very innocent, it's a knitting of a milkshake and it's in bubblegum colors and it says "I drink your milkshake" on it- but if you know the context of it, it's very demented. AK: I like when people give me Whole Foods gift cards but as far as a thing that someone's made me, I got this voodoo doll of myself that I like to stroke and massage and give money to before I go to bed.   C&S: That's... genius. That's so cool.   AK: It hasn't worked.    C&S: Well, you can try.   Your album Double Dare came out last November, before that you had the EP Cluster, and then a couple EPs that you released before signing to Equal Vision. Over the years, how has your approach to songwriting changed? When you wrote Airplane Conversations that was before you had even played a show.   AK: Yep. I mean- just better at it. There's home recording involved when there wasn't before so you get to try out ideas and have a lot of options going- as opposed to being like, "Let's see what happens after we pay a bunch of money and this is fleshed out and complete and mixed and sounds good and then we can see if we wanna use it." That's not how it works- so having the freedom to do that just makes for better releases. OW: And you get to actually make things instead of trying to articulate it to someone later.  AK: Exactly- like any weird sounds or electronic stuff or whatever, you can just do it- instead of trying to be like- BRRLRLRRRLLLR- but saying, "make it sound like an icicle."   C&S: You won the Best Breakthrough Band award at the APMAs, you've been touring pretty much nonstop, and you put out an album less than a year ago- it's been a very good year for Waterparks. Where do you see yourselves or where do you hope to be a year from now?   GW: I hope to have at least three more buses.   C&S: Okay. So each of you has a bus, and then each of your personal assistants has a bus?   GW: No, no- one for each of our dogs.   C&S: Each dog has their own bus?   GW: Yeah. AK: I want to be friends with Pharrell. That's all I want to be different.   C&S: How do you respond to haters or any kind of negativity surrounding your band?   AK: No one hates us, we're the best band and- um… um... yeah. GW: That's how you actually do it right there.   C&S: Okay. I dig it. Cool, thank you guys so much- anything else to say? Anything else the internet should know?   AK: Get enough sleep. Stay off the internet. It's good for you.

Thanks Awsten, Otto, and Geoff! Waterparks recently announced a headlining tour for this fall; they’ll be joined by As It Is, Chapel, and Sleep On It. See a full list of shows and keep up with the band on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.