It’s Not Too Early for Waterparks’ Upcoming Intellectual Property

Written by Natalie Melendez, Photography by Jawn Rocha

Waterparks has never been the type to stay still. The Houston-based triad—singer/guitarist Awsten Knight, guitarist Geoff Wigington, and drummer Otto Wood—has been repeating the album release and tour cycle every couple of years since their 2016 debut, Double Dare. Each run around the circle has seen the band grow both creatively and numerically, each time performing to audiences larger than the cycle before. Now, Waterparks is readying themselves for the April 14th release of their fifth full-length album, Intellectual Property, and its accompanying US summer tour. 

The formal album release date announcement may be recent, but Waterparks has been teasing a new album cycle since last year. In January 2022, the band posted the word “Alright” against a red background to their socials. A few months later, Knight—known for dying his hair to match the color scheme of their current or future releases—dyed his hair red. Shortly after, the single “Funeral Gray” was released, signaling the start of the band’s then-still-unannounced new album cycle. 

“Funeral Gray,” along with follow-ups  “Self-Sabotage,” “Fuck About It,” and the most recent “Real Super Dark,” speak to Waterparks’ impressively diverse sound. The new tracks off Intellectual Property are a dynamic medley of alternative rock, pop punk, and indie pop influences—just to name a few—that elevate Knight’s striking lyricism. “I’m Miss Congeniality, everybody’s proud of me/ But when they try and tell me, volume’s muted like they’re sound asleep,” he sings in “Real Super Dark”—a head-banging track about the pressures surrounding Knight’s artistic craft and his struggles with mental health. 

The band’s past releases have shown a similar breadth of sound, with 2021’s Greatest Hits being their most experimental, most electro pop album to date. According to Knight, the upcoming Intellectual Property is “an outdoor daytime album,” undoubtedly pointing to another release full of genre-blending bliss.

Waterparks’ wide net is perhaps the reason why they’ve rapidly grown in popularity over the last several years. In 2019, the track “I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore” off the band’s third album, Fandom, went viral on TikTok due to its unapologetically honest titular lyric and catchy pop melody. Moments like this, along with Waterparks’ undying dedication to their work, have taken them from playing small sets at Warped Tour to opening for pop-punk legends My Chemical Romance to selling out over 10 dates of their upcoming Property Tour. The summer tour, with Waterparks’ largest headlining North American lineup yet, is set to kick off early May at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California with support from indie-pop band HUNNY. 

Given Waterparks’ track record of surprise releases and announcements, it’s hard to know what the band has in store for the time period leading up to album five. But one thing is certain: Intellectual Property is bound to bring Waterparks their biggest and most successful album cycle yet.