The Wrecks - Sonder (2022)

Beginning as the solo endeavour of vocalist and producer Nick Anderson, Los Angeles' The Wrecks have grown to become a tightknit four-piece that revels in catchy, boisterous, and clever alt-rock anthems. After first making their mark in 2016 with their acclaimed debut EP, the band have been going from strength to strength, and today, they've taken things to a whole new level with the release their groundbreaking sophomore album, 'Sonder'.

An album that capitalises on their distinctive, genre-bending sound, 'Sonder' is a record built from truly personal moments, detailing Nick's time processing his recent break up. He explained, “Making this album was a very difficult, sleepless journey that took a lot out of me, but each day and night throughout that process, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel,”.

He continued, “I wrote this album because I had to,” he declares. “I was slowly and poorly processing a breakup, and for a while there, the breakup was winning.” At some point, though, he says the tables turned and the breakup became everything he needed for the last two years to write music that he was proud of and was true to him as a writer and to the progress of the band.

The first song Nick started working on for 'Sonder' was the bold and emotional pop-punk title track, and while it initially began as a “club track,” he says he “decided to switch it up and make a pop-punk song instead”. He added, “There is usually one song per record where the lyrics are improvised and that was the case with ‘Sonder,’ I improvised the verses. I knew I wanted to name the song ‘Sonder’ before it even had a chorus. Knowing that is what motivated me to finish the song. I wanted to put it on the record so bad, for the namesake of it.

As for the making of the rest of the album Nick said it was a “lonely, emotional, angry, sleepy, and loud process. 5:00 AM would roll around and I’d be sitting in my studio next to my snoring puppy trying to perfect the same guitar take that I began attempting two hours before then,” he remembers. “But I knew I was onto something with this new music, and every fiber of my being wanted to see it through. I haven’t felt this excited or optimistic about releasing a body of work in my entire career.” While also benefiting from what he’s learned over the years regarding production, he says that Sonder feels a lot like a “return to the writing process” that he had when the band first started. There’s something for everyone on Sonder and I hope the right songs find the right people when it comes out.”

In true from, the album is a brilliant and wonderfully visceral release, offering distinctive witty, frantic genre-bending tracks like 'Don’t Be Scared', 'Unholy', and 'Ugly Side', but also their take on mesmerizing alt-rock love/loss ballads through 'Where Are You Now?', 'Dystopia', 'Unrequited' and 'Where Are You Now' featuring the talented girlhouse.