‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’ by John Koenig which defines made-up words for indescribable emotions classifies the neologism “sonder” as the “profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own.” The Wreck‘s vocalist and producer Nick Anderson landed on ‘Sonder’ as the title of their sophomore album – to be released on June 10, 2022 via Big Noise Music Group. The third single off the album, the pondering ‘Where Are You Now’ featuring girlhouse, is out now and Anderson says the song’s creation process “haunted [him] for almost two years.”
Though Anderson says he wrote the ‘Where Are You Now’ chorus only two weeks after their last album ‘Infinitely Ordinary’ came out in May 2020, the final pieces to the track – Billy Nally’s live drums and the feature from girlhouse – were only added this past March. “The drums made it come to life, and Lauren Luiz’s part glues the whole track together. I love her voice and music, and I’m so happy with how this feature turned out,” he exclaims.
The band’s most recent singles, the sparkling post-breakup anthem ‘Lone Survivor’ and liberating alt-rock track ‘I Love This Part,’ showcase that they’ve fully honed-in on and embraced their characteristic genre-bending alt-rock, as well as having evolved and matured their sounds for this triumphal venture of a second album. Anderson says that experimenting with minor keys and calculated lyrics “Opened up [their] writing process. I’d say our lyrics have always been honest and vulnerable, and not only was I able to depend on that narrative compass once again, but I found it taking me to a whole new place this time creatively.”
On ‘Sonder,’ there’s not only their distinctive witty, frantic genre-bending tracks (‘Sonder,‘ ‘Don’t Be Scared,’ ‘Unholy,’ ‘Ugly Side’), but also their take on mesmerizing alt-rock love/loss ballads (‘Where Are You Now?,’ ‘Dystopia,’ ‘Unrequited,’ ‘No Place I’d Rather Be,’ ‘Normal’). “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 the tables turned and the breakup became everything I’ve needed for the last two years to write music that I was proud of and was true to me as a writer and to the progress of our band.”
‘Sonder’ tracklist:
01. Sonder
02. I Love This Part
03. Where Are You Now (feat. girlhouse)
04. Don’t Be Scared
05. Unholy
06. Dystopia
07. Unrequited
08. No Place I’d Rather Be
09. Ugly Side
10. Normal
11. Lone Survivor