The Wrecks

Nick Anderson met Aaron Kelley on Facebook around 2010 when he was fourteen-years-old.[3] Remaining friends through 2014, Kelley introduced Anderson to recording industry executive Richard Reines, for whom Kelley had been interning at the time, and Anderson began writing and producing for the bands that Reines managed. In September 2014, Anderson and Kelley formed a pop-punk band, Coastbound, with three others.[4][5] Coastbound continued performing at local music festivals in California throughout 2015;[6][7] however, in September 2015, Aaron and Kelley announced their intentions to place the band on a hiatus to pursue a "new music endeavor with an indie rock project."[8] Sometime in October 2015, Anderson's new project released a song, "Get 'Em Ready," which features in Episode 5 of CBS's Limitless.[9][10][11]

In late 2015, Anderson and Kelley invited Billy Nally and Harrison Nussbaum to join their new project.[12][13][14][15] Nally then enlisted Nick Schmidt, the two having attended school together in New Jersey.[16] The five had already been acquainted, their prior musical projects being managed by Reines and Anderson having written for the others' past projects.[17] Additionally, Nally, Nussbaum, and Schmidt had performed in a band alongside musician Clay Borrell in the Official Stand Up Tour in mid-2015.[18][19] Disregarding the spontaneity of the project, the three New Jersey natives drove to California to record music with Anderson and Kelley at the latter's request. All of the band members were in their early twenties and a majority hail from the east coast. Anderson is native to Upstate New York;[20] Schmidt and Nally grew up by the Jersey Shore;[21] founding member Nussbaum is also native to New Jersey;[22] and Kelley is native to Wisconsin, having attended UW-Stout.[23][24] None of the band members are originally from California.[25]

The Wrecks had formally begun in Thousand Oaks, California,[26] in mid-November 2015.[27] Through a friend's housekeeping engagement, Anderson gained access to a professional home studio, albeit without the owner's permission, and the group self-recorded three tracks for an extended play in just three days, with roommate, sound engineer, and Coastbound collaborator Andrew D'Angelo serving as co-producer.[28] The band performed at a series of small venues before self-releasing their debut EP, We Are The Wrecks, to the internet in April 2016. That summer and fall, the Wrecks opened for Nothing But Thieves. On December 22, 2016, the line-up signed with Another Century Records. Soon after, their debut single "Favorite Liar" received significant airplay and charted in the top forty on alternative radio.[29][30] The single obtained five million Spotify streams within a year of its release;[31] as of December 2020, the track boasted over twenty-five million streams.

Harrison Nussbaum played guitar in the original line-up from late 2015 to late 2016[32] until leaving the band, briefly making the Wrecks a four-piece. He was subsequently replaced by Pittsburgh native Westen Weiss – who had also lived in Germany and China[33] – in early 2017.[34][35]

After their record deal with Another Century Records, the Wrecks attempted to professionally record their sophomore EP in Los Angeles;[36] however, discontent with its sound, the band abandoned the project to start from scratch. Having depleted their budget, they continued to fund their endeavors by participating in medical studies[37] and working minimum wage jobs.[38] The band temporarily moved into Anderson's grandmother's home in rural Wellsville, New York[39] and finished their next EP, Panic Vertigo, at the barn studio of friend Patrick Barry. Throughout the process, D'Angelo continued to serve as the band's sound engineer and co-producer.[40] The recording process took one and a half years,[41] and much of it took place over the summer of 2017 during All Time Low's "Last Young Renegade Tour, of which the Wrecks opened for. Panic Vertigo was released on February 16, 2018, and is considered to have been a late release. "Way With Words," a track from the album, was co-written by Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low.[42][43]

In mid-2018, the Wrecks made an appearance in Episode 6 of Hulu's series All Night performing their song "Favorite Liar."[44] During the fall of 2018, the Wrecks publicly endorsed Nerf,[45][46][47] even recording an original song using their products.[48]

On June 7, 2019, the Wrecks announced a new record deal with label Big Noise Music Group.[49] Weiss is depicted leaving midway through the announcement, implying his withdrawal from the band to pursue a career in producing,[50] once again making the Wrecks a four-piece ensemble. Weiss's departure was jokingly confirmed in August 2019 by a series of tweets from the band's Twitter account.[51][52] On June 10, 2019, the Wrecks announced a new single, "Freaking Out," gifting people who pre-ordered the song with an original hot sauce, Wrecktum Wrecker™.[53] In another announcement, the band marked the release of the single as the "beginning of a new era" for the Wrecks.[54] The single was released on June 21, 2019[55] and spent twenty-three weeks in SiriusXMU's "Alt 18" chart.[56] Shortly after, the Wrecks released singles "Out of Style" and "Fvck Somebody," which garnered further mainstream radio play.[57] In August 2019, Hoodie Allen's song "You Should Let Me Know" was released, with lyrics, production, and vocals contributed by Anderson,[58] and guitar supplied by Schmidt.[59][60]

The Wrecks' debut album, Infinitely Ordinary, was released on May 1, 2020.[61] Infinitely Ordinary took roughly two years of refining, and unlike their previous EPs, the album features an array of producers and collaborators,[62] including Daniel Chae of Run River North.[63] A track from the album, "We All Get Lonely" (featuring TOMI), appears on the NHL 21 soundtrack.[64][65]

On December 18, 2020, the Wrecks released their third EP, Static.[66] Originally planning to release a deluxe album, it was ultimately decided by the band to split the project into two extended plays, Static being the first of the two.[67][68] The band revealed on their Twitter account that the second EP will be released in 2021.[69] In 2021, the band announced their intent to release a plethora of new music throughout the year.[70]