Wavves, 'Afraid of Heights': Jenny Lewis' Weed and Cookies Adds New Dynamic to Sound

California pop-punk duo Wavves has done some serious growing up in recent years, both in life and musically.

Ditching the lo-fi "chillwave" label, the band has since created a new sound for themselves, one that embraces cleaner and bigger pop sounds rather than reverb-heavy jams. And even though they still harbor a "we don't give a fuck" attitude, their upcoming album Afraid of Heights shows us a different side of Nathan Williams and Stephen Pope; one that shows vulnerability and, frankly, quite a lot of paranoia.

"I'd like to think that most people our age are extremely depressed and really anxious about everything," Williams half-jokingly tells Spinner. "I feel, as I've gotten older, things get harder and things are scarier.

"Like, I wasn't scared of anything when I was a kid, I was an unstoppable badass."

Although Afraid of Heights -- aptly titled as Pope is actually afraid of heights -- addresses the topics of depression and anxiety, Williams believes that the bigger theme throughout the album is its lack of direction.

"I think that the general feel of the record is all over the place," Williams explains. "The narration of it is almost manic schizophrenic, I'll contradict myself throughout the same song three or four times -- I think everybody contradicts themselves all the time."

Many of the tracks on the album feature revisited demos from three or four years ago, something that Williams admittedly enjoyed doing.

"It's good because you have a totally different view on them now," he says. "You have a different perspective when you haven't heard it in a long time. I always like sitting on songs for a long time before doing anything with them."

Something else new the band employed was a female vocalist on the title track. After writing the song, knowing that they needed a female voice to add to the mix, Williams took a look at his contact list and picked the first one he saw.

"I opened my phone and Jenny Lewis' name was the first one so I contacted her and she literally came in two days later," Williams says. "We met her a few years ago on tour in Europe and we got along, hung out and then we played a show with her when she was in Jenny & Johnny and she brought us weed, which was very nice.

"When we called her up to the studio, she brought us cookies -- sea salt and chocolate chip cookies."

So, essentially a musical friendship formed by weed and baked goods?

"Yep, exactly."