The Wrecks - INSIDE : OUTSIDE TOUR

The Wrecks are nothing if not resourceful.

The group’s very origin story is a testament to a rare level of D.I.Y. craftiness that has quietly cemented them as an independent phenomenon with an intensely faithful fan base, over a quarter-of-a-billion streams, and successive sold-out headline tours.

Rewinding back to the beginning, the Los Angeles-based band— Nick Anderson [vocals, guitar, keyboard, production], Nicholas “Schmizz” Schmidt [lead guitar], Aaron Kelley [bass], and William “Billy” Nally [drums]—actually recorded their first batch of tunes under clandestine cover in a “borrowed studio.”

Leaving a small town in New York, Nick had just moved to Los Angeles with a handful of songs. He wound up teaching them to his new bandmates and recording them in the evening at a professional studio in the backyard of a home where his friend was house-sitting.

Everything went according to plan until the last night…

“We worked from 5pm until 9am for three days,” he recalls. “On the final day, the girl called us and said, ‘You’ve got to get out of there. The owner is on the way’. We cleaned up, grabbed our gear, and left. As we were pulling out, this woman pulled into the driveway. However, we forgot to dump our work onto an external,” he laughs. “Our buddy snuck back in at 2am, stayed in the dark, and transferred the songs. When he got home, he threw his fist in the air with the external! That really started our process of learning how to be a band and producers.”

Within three months, they had a song on the radio and were out on a national tour. They’ve only continued to level up though since then. In essence, The Wrecks ignite an instant connection with their unique, infectious D.I.Y. approach to alternative pop rock. Their irresistible hooks and electrifying performances do more than captivate—they fully immerse fans, pulling them into every moment. The band still helm every facet of their vision, writing, producing, and cooking up a homegrown signature sound without comparison. As such, the quartet deliver an insanely immersive experience for their diehard audience at shows, within songs, and even on social media. Due to this response, they have moved tens of thousands of tickets and independently stacked up nearly 300 million total streams across songs like “Favorite Liar” (recorded during the aforementioned episode), “Fvck Somebody,” and “Freaking Out” as well as two full-length offerings Infinitely Ordinary [2020] and Sonder [2022]. Ones To Watch went as far as to proclaim, “The Wrecks should be your new favorite alternative rock band.” 

 Even as their profile has expanded, their philosophy hasn’t changed.

“The music always comes from an authentic place,” Nick notes. “I’m writing and producing the music, and we’re careful about everything from merchandise to social media. We aren’t looking over our fans’ heads. Instead, we’re looking in their eyes and really seeing them. We’re huddling up them with them in the crowd. We’re all in on it, and it’s special and fun because of that.”

The fun continues now. In 2024, the band signed with Lava/Republic Records, opening an exciting new chapter. They’ve kicked things off with the irresistibly catchy yet delightfully offbeat lead single, “Always, Every Time.” An anxious beat and buzzing beat set the track in motion as upbeat guitar and bright keys underline the chantable chorus, “Come on let’s get moving. If something is wrong, I know we’ll get through it, always every time,” topped off by an equally hummable solo.

“It’s about the first time I felt someone see me for all of my details,” the frontman reveals. “There are certain aspects other people might be turned off or annoyed by, but there’s a redundant promise in the song, ‘You can rant to me all night long and go on about crazy theories, but if you ever feel bad, I’ll hold your hand always every time’. It’s very supportive and beautiful. It spilled out of me because I had just met the person who was making me feel that way. Sometimes, you need to reiterate promises in your head in order to believe them.”

By the same token, once The Wrecks get in your head, they won’t leave—and you’ll love every second of it.

“This band is pretty much everything to me,” he leaves off. “It’s my first love and hobby. I’m so proud of it. It’s been the centerpiece of our whole adult lives at this point. I’m so excited to be more optimistic today than I’ve ever been about the band and the future. It feels like day one again, which is awesome. I can’t wait to share these songs with everyone.”

Anchored by a mutual predisposition for unpredictability, Quarters of Change fuse together a signature hybrid of nineties-style alternative hooks, crunchy space rock soundscapes, and strutting seventies grooves. After piling up millions of streams, selling out shows, and inciting critical applause, the New York City quartet—Ben Acker [guitar, bass, synths], Attila Anrather [drums], Jasper Harris [guitars, bass, synths], and Ben Roter [vocals, guitar]—craft a rich exhibition of emotion on their aptly titled 2023 second full-length offering, Portraits [300 Entertainment]. “The album is made up of individualized fragments that provide different perspectives and create their own little vignettes,” says Roter. “I think of each fragment as a portrait, reflecting a separate emotion or moment. Overall, it explores themes of addiction, isolation, and exploration. At the time, I was definitely writing about the present. By discussing what was happening in our lives, we’re giving you honest everyday circumstances to latch onto.” The group have always bottled the urgency of life-in-motion by writing and recording in a room together face-to-face. They quietly broke through with a series of independent EPs and the fan favorite “Kiwi,” which cracked 10 million-plus streams and counting. In 2022, the guys picked up the pace on their full-length debut, Into The Rift, boasting “T Love,” “Jaded,” and “Dead.” They hit the road with Bad Suns and impressively sold out their first-ever US headline tour. Earning tastemaker praise, The Aquarian hailed them as “reviving alt rock,” and Sheesh professed, “Quarters of Change has mastered the New York rock resurgence in a way that is resonating with even the best of the best.” Not to mention, they enamored notable fans such as Joe Jonas, Lewis Capaldi, Chad Smith, and Fred Durst, to name a few. Nevertheless, the musicians opted to shake up the creative process. Decamping to a house in Woodstock, NY for two weeks during early 2023, they collectively established the foundation for what would become the LP. “We took a van and brought our equipment there,” recalls Acker. “When you’re in Woodstock, you immediately think of Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. We were trying to capture the same spirit as best as we could, because we have a lot of respect for it.” “Up until now, we’d written and recorded everything in New York City,” notes Roter. “We decided to get out of the hustle and bustle of the fucking concrete jungle though. Whether it was Queen or Bon Iver, so many of our favorite bands would isolate themselves and see what came out. It was impactful for the four of us to try that.” Returning to the Big Apple proper, Quarters Of Change self-produced this body of work joined by a handful of collaborators, including GRAMMY® Award winning producers Mikey Freedom Hart [Jon Batiste, Taylor Swift, Bleachers, Lana Del Rey, Dev Hynes] and Dave Tozer [John Legend, JAY-Z] in addition to fellow artist Charlie Berg and producer Brandon Shoop. Simultaneously, they channeled inspirations as diverse as Failure, Deftones, The 1975, and Prince. “We got out of our comfort zone and pushed ourselves,” Acker elaborates. “We ultimately learned so much in those sessions. We have four ranges of influences going on all of the time. Ben is pulling on bands like Failure, Jasper is pulling on Red Hot Chili Peppers, Attila is pulling on Tool, and I’m pulling on The Police.” Quarters Of Change introduced this season with “What I Wanted.” It teeters on an axis of guitar tension and vocal release, building towards a disarmingly catchy hook buoyed by waves of distortion. “We definitely brought some grunge to it, but also tapped into the swag of the seventies,” Roter goes on. “It’s inspired by a relationship to a degree. You think you know what you want, but you get it and you don’t want it anymore. Finally, you realize you didn’t know what you wanted in the first place. I feel like everyone has felt the same at one time or another.” On the other end of the spectrum, “Do Or Die” careens on glassy funkified guitar towards a hypnotic hook punctuated by flashes of falsetto. Co-written with Berg, it saunters right to the center of the dancefloor. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously,” Jasper observes. “It was written pretty fast, and it has an experimental and fun vibe.” Then, there’s “Heaven.” The upbeat energy of a slick riff and buoyant percussion belie a deeper emotionality as Roter laments, “I kind of think that it’s over now.” “It was the last song we wrote near the end of driving each other insane upstate,” he remembers. “It talks about my love of isolation and moves into a nihilistic chorus, ‘We are born to die.’ To us, it’s a classic Quarters Of Change song that makes you move.” “Musically, it was a moment of magic,” says Jasper. “We’re city kids, and we were at this crib in the woods, writing, eating, watching horror movies, having fucked up dreams, waking up, and doing it all over again.” “Hollywood Baby” would mark the first time the whole band contributed lyrics, giving it another dimension altogether. “It’s another one about having a good time,” Acker continues. “Attila was speaking to us at the beginning, and we put our heads together on the second verse.” In the end, Quarters Of Change have painted a vision that’s uncompromisingly their own with Portraits. “On the album, we’re saying, ‘This is us. This is our music’,” Acker leaves off. “In a way, it’s our statement piece. It’s who we are.” “Once again, we tried to preserve the beauty of what a performance by a band should be,” Roter concludes. “When you hear it, I hope you can tell we’re real humans playing instruments, and it’s honest.”

Caribbean-American singer-songwriter Benjamin Carter, raised between the Cayman Islands and Washington, D.C., delivers music that strips away emotional walls with raw storytelling and heartfelt vulnerability. Known for standout tracks like “Fragile, “Cosmic” and “m.m.s.l.g.g.g.h” his collaborations with Tim Atlas and Jesse Barrera have garnered critical acclaim, landing on Spotify’s New Music Friday and NPR Radio.  With a growing global fanbase, Benjamin’s latest project, BBOTR Part 2,  showcases his mission to uplift authentic voices in music. Whether in the studio or on stage, his passion for connecting deeply with audiences remains unwavering.