Awsten Knight – Waterparks ‘Very Ready! For The Property Australian Tour’

Posted on April 17, 2023 by heathermcnab

It has been quite a number of years since we’ve seen Waterparks on Australian shores (the last trip was for Good Things Festival + sideshows in 2018), which means we’re definitely well overdue to see the energetic trio performing for us all once again. Great news just announced – they’re heading back for a proper headline tour and playing bigger venues than ever before!

Last week when I got the chance to chat with frontman Awsten Knight about the band’s latest release, Intellectual Property, we also got talking about their upcoming tour plans for October and standout memories of their previous shows here.

As we began our chat, we started off talking about the previous two times the band had toured Down Under, which lead to Awsten sharing a story about how they had to stop the show last time due to how hot it was here!

“I remember it regardless because we love Australia so much, but the last headline shows we did were in tiny little rooms, but I remember them so well because we have never had to cut a show short except for one in Australia because it was so hot that Otto started passing out. So he came back and we played a couple more songs — It was relatively deep into the set, I’m gonna say maybe like 50%, so he’s back and we’re playing — so far so good, and then Geoff needs to go out for a minute, and we have maybe like 7 songs left to play, it was a long set, and I never black out but even I was like ‘woah holy shit.’ but I knew we couldn’t end like that so I let the crowd decide between ‘Stupid for You’ or ‘No Worries'”

Photo Gallery by Bree Vane.

The headline show was at The Factory Floor in Sydney and IYKYK how hot it can get there. His response then lead me to ask the question…

How does it feel to be coming back again and headlining a tour in venues that are almost three times the size of the ones you previously performed in, and to notice such a major growth in your popularity in that time?

“It feels very cool, I mean I like that trajectory. It’s also really cool because obviously with everything in 2020 and 2021, it was very uncertain and hard to grow in that time because the way that we always did was through physical interaction, like we would go and meet up with everybody outside of shows and stuff, or we’d be flyering and demoing and passing stuff out earlier on, so not being able to do that stuff made growth less.. certain, and here’s the thing, I don’t want to jinx it — maybe nobody will go to these shows, Buuut –” at which point Awsten then knocks on a wooden table, like the old wives tale suggests, for good luck, and I join in, knocking on the wooden table in front of me as well, “It’s currently a very cool prospect.”

As our chat continues, we head into talking about their newest album, Intellectual Property, and the decision to release ‘Self Sabotage‘ as a single, three different times as opposed to any of their other tracks.

“Personally, I think it should have had six, because it’s double the amount that it currently has. Even when creating the Good Charlotte version, I thought maybe I could sing this a bit different now, so I’d recut those vocals, and I have different melody ideas, so let’s put in some more guitars right here. I think if I was supposed to recreate or add more to our songs once a week, I could easily do that.”

“One thing I’ve noticed is that… I’m not going to give any spoilers but I’ve been adding some additional production to some songs we’re doing on this next tour and I’m like man, I could easily do this with all of them, add new parts and layers and stuff. By the time we get to Australia, I will have done it to all the songs.”

So with absolutely no shortage of music to be released, or creative ideas floating around, I had to find out what the theme of this record was all about. I have always noticed a trend in their albums in this sense, I felt that Double Dare was always about being so in love, Entertainment was a lot about heartbreak, and Fandom was self-explanatory. So when I had asked about the theme behind this release, it was completely unexpected to find out how wildly different my interpretation had been as Awsten told me what the context was really about.

“I think the best way to describe it on the romantic front is.. the album has a lot context, or lyrical context-wise to do with overcoming religious traumas and religious upbringing and things like that but it is packaged really well in like what can be put in a love story category because ‘Funeral Grey’ is like the meeting point, ‘Brainwashed’ is like the honeymoon phase, and that’s when it starts getting rocky with things like ‘Two Best Friends’, ‘Self Sabotage’ and then by the time you get to closer that’s when its kind of the breaking down point, but it’s all within the context of that… lens of religious guilt theme.”

As Awsten and I finished up our chat, I said how excited I was to see these new songs live, to which he immediately got this excited energy, a spark in his eye and said,

“Oh me too! We haven’t played them anywhere yet! I’m very ready.”

So it appears not only are all the fans ready to see the energy and beautiful visuals that Waterparks bring on tour with them, but so are they, and you’ll be able to experience it in October.

Interview by Heather McNab @heathermcnab

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