In March 2018, an LA-based band opened up for Dreamers and New Politics at the "Lost In Translation" tour at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, Arizona. With hard-hitting indie rock songs and a stage presence that screamed veteran rock stars, The Wrecks made fans of every last person in attendance. They then made their way onto Arizona emo band The Maine’s "Fry Your Brain with The Maine" tour which ended just last week on May 3rd in Flagstaff, AZ (it also happened to be drummer Billy Nally’s 21st birthday). The Green Room, a small punk-rock venue, was filled to capacity.
After taking on Phoenix and Flag, it was time for the band to make Tempe their playground.
They started the morning of May 4th with an intimate three-song set at the Graduate Hotel in Tempe as part of Alt-AZ’s grad sessions. Between acoustic sets of “James Dean," “Way With Words," and “Favorite Liar” from their newest EP "Panic Vertigo" singer Nick Anderson gave select fans a personal insight to how the band came to be.
The self-produced twenty-somethings originally funded the band by participating in medical studies for trial medications until they hit their first big and partially illegal break. When a friend was house-sitting for a rich guy who was off to China, the band found themselves with access to a fully-fledged recording studio, but only at night. As it turns out, the man’s cat had diabetes (something Nick had actually test drugs for) so every day his ex-wife would stop by the house to give the cat it’s shot. From 9:00 p.m. until 5 in the morning, the band went on recording their first EP "We Are The Wrecks" and eventually had to recover the files from his computer covert-op style to complete the finished product. The album produced the band’s first radio hit “Favorite Liar” which helped launch their career.
With the EP until their belts, The Wrecks signed with a record label and got a little money to work on EP number two "Panic Vertigo" in LA but eventually even that went to waste when, post-production, the band felt unsatisfied with their completed project. Instead of continuing with the release of something they weren’t proud of and having blown their entire budget, they got creative for the second round of odd album ethics.
Here’s the trick to taking over your grandma’s house and having your band play there constantly: send her to Florida. Basically, this band has been grown on being in places they’re not supposed to be.
Pitching the re-recording of the album to the label was...well, interesting. But eventually, the band got the go-ahead to take their talents to a barn 45 minutes away from Nick’s grandma’s house in New York. After a few months, the 5-song EP was ready to be released to the world. And it’s a damn good EP.
Luckily for the band, their success couldn’t be contained in the 100-person session in a hotel conference room. Later that night, The Wrecks performed to a sold-out show in front of 1500 people at Tempe Marketplace’s District stage. Embellishing their set from The Fry Your Brain with the Maine tour with rarely performed songs like the unreleased “Life” and a live debut of “Revolution," it was the biggest headlining show the band has ever done.
Although they’re relatively new to the scene and the band has only released 8 songs thus far, every voice in the crowd was singing the words back to the band.
As long as these five kids from California continue to break into eccentric places to self-produce music, they’re definitely going to figure it out.
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