The Wrecks Interview: Misheard Lyrics, a Crowd Surfing Conveyor Belt and Ten Years of Favorite Liar

Latenours: Welcome to Toronto. It's your fourth show in a row. How's the day going?

Aaron: Today was amazing for me. I woke up and went thrifting. There are like six thrift shops right by the venue. There's one called Ron's Closet that doesn't post its hours, so you're like, is this a real store or just a guy named Ron and his closet? I still don't know. I might have been in Ron's Closet today and not known.

Nick: My day didn't look like that. We crossed the border at seven or eight in the morning and I couldn't get back to sleep. Got here, drank two coffees, forgot to eat, passed out on the green room couch and woke up nauseous. I'm still kind of nauseous.

Zende: All I've been doing is eating. I got my pancakes, then I had another breakfast after that. And then cheese and bread, which was technically my third breakfast.

Latenours: Have you tried anything Canadian yet?

Zende: I had a breakfast sandwich with some kind of chicken sausage patty. I've never had anything that looked or tasted like it, so I'm going to say it's very Canadian.

Nick: I'm from the Buffalo-ish area, so I know about Timmy's. Swap the bagel for a pretzel bun. That's what you've got to do.

Latenours: What's going through your head while you perform? Do you black out, think about the music, watch the crowd?

Nick: Last night I could not stop looking at the crowd, because one person was dressed up as the Lorax. The whole room was dark, and her outfit was neon under a black light, so she was just glowing three rows in, right in front of me, the whole show. I kept making eye contact with her. We eventually had to bring her up on stage so I'd stop looking at her.

Zende: Right now I'm mostly trying to remember all the parts. Otherwise I'm thinking about cheese.

Nick: I'm thinking about the song we're playing, how people react to each section, and the next two or three songs. I'm constantly surveying the audience. If people are having fun, or I lock eyes with someone singing along, that gives me so much energy. I'm looking for connection and feedback. That's how you find bits, or spot someone doing something funny you have to point out. I'm almost never in my head. I'm out there.

Latenours: Do you notice a difference between crowds in different cities? Any favourites so far?

Nick: Minneapolis was insane. They crowd surfed from the second we walked on until we left, even through the slow songs. An hour and 25 minutes of nonstop crowd surfing. People were getting kicked in the head and getting tired, so we built a conveyor belt out of strong, tall guys to carry everyone over. They worked the whole show, so they all got shirts.

Zende: Minneapolis for me too, because the girl who tagged me in the post saying these guys were looking for a drummer was at the show. One comment, and now I'm in the band. Shout out Riley. She came up on stage. It was a really cool full circle moment, maybe the top show so far.

Latenours: Is there a song that completely changed for you once you started playing it live?

Nick: Three of the new ones, Speed, Always Every Time and Split Lip, have taken on a life of their own. But definitely Milwaukee's Best. That song barely made the INSIDE EP, and we weren't sure we even wanted it in the set. Since the first night we played it, everyone goes nuts and jumps through every chorus. Something about the tempo and the groove. So now it's a staple, and I didn't even know if it would ever come out.

Zende: My favourites are the ones where the crowd is completely off their feet the whole song. Feels So Nice is up there.

Nick: I love Feels So Nice because it's easy to sing. So much of our set is basically impossible to sing, and I'm up there going, please hit these notes, even kind of. On that one I just get to have fun.

The Wrecks: Out of Style too. You don't have to think much to play it, so you're just jumping up and down the whole time.

Latenours: Has a fan ever heard a song in a way that changed how you see it?

Nick: The chorus of Out of Style. For some reason everyone mishears it, and what they hear is better than what I wrote. The real lyric is "I'm in California, cope with rum and cola," like coping with alcohol. But everyone sings "coke with rum and cola," which is a way more creative play on words. When the song came out, I went to correct it once, then realized, oh no, theirs is better. So now we all sing coke.

Latenours: Was there ever a moment you realized, damn, I'm an adult now?

Nick: We're never growing up. Have fun forever. I've been sore a couple of times this tour, if that counts.

The Wrecks: I feel very adult whenever I use the cash back on my credit card. Best feeling.

Latenours: Nick, you spend a lot of time working on songs by yourself. When he finally sends something over, do you give honest feedback?

Aaron: I do, but it's the best day when I wake up to a new song from him. I'll usually listen to it a hundred times in a row. I love it almost every time. Not every time, and I let him know.

Nick: Aaron is the gauge. If it's a great song, he FaceTimes me immediately, like, bro, what the hell. If it's a good song, he's listened two or three times and texts, this is sick. If it sucks, I get "Excited to hear what you do with it," which is brutal. Neutral is devastating.

Latenours: Has he ever been wrong?

Nick: There's a song called Unrequited that ended up on our album Sonder. I sent it to Aaron and he didn't respond. Then he said he'd listened to a bit and would come back to it, and never did. It got buried in the demos folder and I was so disappointed. I'd decided everything about that song sucked. Then one night I'm in the back of the van and I hear him in the front playing it for one of our crew, going, this one's sick. I thought you hated it. I thought you hated me.

Aaron: I was probably just busy and forgot you'd sent it.

Latenours: And if the reaction is neutral, do you throw the song away?

Nick: If I'm really sure about it, I go, you'll see, you'll all see. And then that one usually never gets finished.

Latenours: Favorite Liar is ten years old. If the version of you who recorded that first EP could see The Wrecks now, what would surprise him most?

Nick: That my knees are so bad.

The Wrecks: Honestly, I don't think I'd be that surprised, because I'm really happy with where everything went. The size of the venues, the kind of fans we have. I'm proud of all of it. I was going to say I'd be surprised by how much fun we still have, but that's always been the core of it. We're in it for the love of the game. We've dogpiled two or three times this tour, which only happens when a show feels electric. We did that ten years ago and we do it now. It's not just a paycheck, or about selling the most tickets or merch. We just want to go out and have fun forever.

Latenours: Outside of the music, what's everyone's role in the band? Who plans everything?

Aaron: I'm Nick's assistant. I make sure we hit deadlines on merch, rehearsals and everything we need for tour.

Nick: For six or seven years I'd burn myself out trying to do all of it. We'd miss deadlines and the merch would be half-done. During COVID I was drowning in it, and Aaron stepped up in a really important way. In some bands, if nobody steps in, resentment builds, burnout happens and the band falls apart. Aaron saw a need and filled it. Our merch crushes now, and he gets all the credit for that. Band dad. Band grandpa, actually, with those knees.

Latenours: Anything you want to say before we wrap?

Nick: I love Toronto, I love Canada, I love Canadians. Most of my best friends are Canadian. At some point I realized all the artists I work with are Canadian, and so many of my favourite comedians and creators, like Nathan Fielder and Matt Johnson. I was born an hour and a half south of the border, and I think my soul is Canadian. People in Canada ride for Canada in a really pure, cool way. I love it.

Nick: And if you know a killer pancake spot in any of the cities on this tour, Ottawa especially, comment it. Zende would really, really love that.