Inner Wave’s fifth full-length represents a massive leap for the California indie-rock outfit, honing their winning melodic instincts that have already wowed listeners and live audiences to zero in on the sharpest and richest version of their sound yet. At once broadly appealing and inarguably personal, See You When I Get Back recalls the lush psych-pop of Tame Impala, the Sea and Cake’s cool-handed post-rock, and the glowing synth fantasias of Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo. But for anyone who’s followed them thus far, these 12 tracks are unmistakably Inner Wave, all the while kicking the door open when it comes to new sonic possibilities for the group.

See You When I Get Back is Inner Wave’s Nettwerk debut and proper follow-up to 2021’s dreamy Apoptosis, a record that provided a wealth of new opportunities for the group after years of honing their sound in their hometown of Gardena. “We grew up playing house shows there and even shot our first music video there,” lead vocalist Pablo Sotelo explains. “Most of our childhood was spent skating around Gardena in between practices. It’s a town that’s been good to us.” 

Following Apoptosis, Inner Wave underwent an onslaught of touring that spanned three entire years. “When we made that record, we didn’t know if we were ever going to tour again—so we took every opportunity we could,” Sotelo explains—and such a busy schedule meant a protracted creative process for their next record, as a brief demoing session in 2022 was eventually abandoned. “We didn’t have the opportunity to sit down somewhere comfortably and write much,” guitarist Elijah Trujillo admits.

As life on the road began to slow, Inner Wave eventually decamped to their rehearsal space (lovingly dubbed “The Swamp”), where See You When I Get Back began to come together over the past year. “We got very detail-oriented with the sonics of the album and started recording in many different ways we hadn’t tried before,” Sotelo explains. That try-anything-once approach was certainly encouraged by him and keyboardist/engineer Jose Cruz—the latter of whom joined Inner Wave circa Apoptosis—co-producing the record. 

“He has a lot of technical knowledge and a sharp ear for things,” he says about Cruz’s hand in the record’s sound. “We wanted to leave no stone unturned when it came to experimenting—putting a ridiculous amount of mics around the drums, using headphones as mics. Any idea that seemed quirky and fun, we were like, “Yeah, let’s try it.” 

“Pablo’s always had a great ear—he’s a natural talent in that way,” Cruz adds on the duo’s behind-the-boards rapport. “We learned a lot making Apoptosis together, and in general, we cover each other’s weaknesses and strengthen our strengths. Almost every decision leading into making this record was keeping an ear toward what could make it better than the last one. So many new techniques and ideas came to the forefront.”

Along with experimentation, the creative process of See You When I Get Back found Inner Wave navigating great personal change.  “There’s been so many changes—such extreme highs and lows—in the last five years for us,” Sotelo reflects. “These are big life things that you just can’t ignore. There’s no way around it.” Several people in the band’s orbit—including their first manager as well as close friend and songwriter Bram Inscore, the latter of whom contributed to the album—sadly passed, and Sotelo and bassist Jean Pierre Narvaez made the decision to quit drinking following the wind-down of their hectic tour schedule. 

“I don’t think I would’ve been able to make this record with the guys if I hadn’t made that decision,” Sotelo says. “It allowed me to re-evaluate who I was, and who I thought I was—in the context of the band, as an individual, and as an artist.” “We all partied very very hard while touring,” Narvaez adds, before pointing out the happenstance that the band, in his words, “gave up the partying to make a party-rocking album.”

Indeed, a sense of verve and energy courses through See You When I Get Back—partly owed to its origins as a collaborative affair, with guests including former drummer Luis Portillo, new sticksman recruit Felix Holton (Benee), and prolific drummer Eddie Burns (Clairo, Frank Ocean, Dominic Fike). “We’ve been friends with him for a long time, and he was very gracious to come in and take the music to another level,” he explains about Burns’ contributions.

The sound captured across this album was also heavily influenced by the band’s own observations made during their extensive tour schedule. “We started to notice that the most energy we’d get from the audience was from upbeat songs,” Trujillo points out. “We were really trying to capture that with this album, so we ended up going back to our roots—stuff we grew up on, like garage rock—while still adding our own flavor.”

That flavor is fully felt on the tastebuds in the form of “Far Away”’s sugary, Strokes-y rush and the sauntering fuzz-bombs that erupt across “If You Like”—as well as the gliding, gorgeous opening track and first single “Madre.” “That song is almost the flagship for what we wrote for this album, which is all about strong melodies and rhythms,” Narvaez explains. “We allowed for all these other melodies to kind of come up from under the vocal melody as well, which was what I was really into while writing the bass line for that one. It also speaks to our West Coast hip-hop background—it has a bounce that I don’t really hear other bands doing.”

The song also emphasizes Inner Wave’s sense of transition and maturation that they underwent across the recording process. “There’s a lot of letting go of things and embracing the uncomfortable—the unknown,” Sotelo explains while describing See You When I Get Back as a “breakup record”—both with other people, and with past versions of yourself. “We’ve all become more self-aware and mindful of others, and that led us to make this record.” “We’ve been going through a transformation in all aspects of life,” Trujillo adds, while gesturing towards the fact that everyone in Inner Wave also turned 30 during the making of See You When I Get Back. “We’ve been discovering ourselves and figuring out who we really are, as well as what we have to do to get this band to where we want it.” 

Part of that self-discovery process is the accompanying visual materials for See You When I Get Back: An accompanying film as well as a lyric book that features photos documenting the band’s incredible rise, as well as behind-the-scenes shots of the film. “We thought it would be a great way for people to connect with the songs via the lyrics first,” Sotelo explains while discussing the visual accompaniments. “Part of figuring out who I am is realizing that any labels do not hold us down—we can do whatever we want.” 

The resulting film arose from a script penned by Sotelo; after the band enlisted several friends of the band, the end result is a visual document that directly draws from Inner Wave’s own experiences in ways both poignant and satirical. “We take our music seriously, but this movie showcases our sense of humor,” he explains. “There’s a lot of things that are just so inherently funny about being in a band, you know?” 

Indeed—but, to get serious again for a moment, the leveling-up that See You When I Get Back is no laughing matter, the product of Inner Wave expanding their own horizons while strengthening their inner selves. “There’s an easy way to go about doing something, and then there’s a cool way,” Sotelo says of the recording process that birthed this latest gem from the band. “It might take a little longer, but it’s always worth trying.”  “We could’ve made a really neat and clean record, but instead we tried to make something that’s very human and emotive—very much like us,” Cruz adds, before offering a twist on Sotelo’s words that sums up this record’s winning appeal: “There’s an easy way, and then there’s the Inner Wave way.”