Big Wreck are a Canadian-American rock band formed by Ian Thornley and Brian Doherty in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1992.
[3] Henning and Doherty were previously part of the band Divine Right with lead singer Jim McDermott and drummer Dave Tuohy.
After a few years of gigging in the Boston area and Toronto, the band got signed to Atlantic Records and released their debut album In Loving Memory Of... in 1997.
In the US, their single "The Oaf (My Luck Is Wasted)" reached the top ten on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart in early 1998.
[5] The band found even bigger commercial success in Canada, scoring 4 top 40 hits on the Canadian Singles Chart.
Brian Doherty moved to Camlachie, a small community near Sarnia, Ontario, where he taught guitar and prepared students for University or Conservatory entrance requirements.
On February 5, 2012, Big Wreck performed at the Sound Academy in Toronto for Canada's Official Super Bowl XLVI party.
On June 25, 2013, the band released their first EP, Bag of Tricks, which was compiled of live recordings from the Albatross Tour and a cover of The Cars' "Good Times Roll."
On January 5, 2017, after the recording of Grace Street, but prior to its release, guitarist Paulo Neta departed from Big Wreck.
In 2018, Big Wreck embarked on a 35-date North American tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of In Loving Memory Of..., in which they performed every song from the album at each show.
In a promotional interview soon after, Ian Thornley revealed the titles of several other upcoming songs from the album, including "Follow Me," "Give Us a Smile," and "Found My Place.
This was due to Ian Thornley's belief in how music is consumed differently nowadays, and felt like fans would be able to take in the large amount of new material more easily by releasing a handful of songs at a time.
The band also released their Bag of Tricks EP on limited edition coloured vinyl for Record Store Day.
A second single "Fields" (featuring Daniel Greaves of The Watchmen, and Ian D'Sa of Billy Talent on backing vocals) was released on November 12, 2021.
The band released a cover of Sting's "Russians" to their Bandcamp website on March 4, 2022, in response to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.
[19] On June 1, 2022, the band announced the release 7.2 along with a campaign that allows people to pre-order the EP in several different formats, one of which featuring a bonus track.
On September 30, 2022, the fifth single "Fear & Cowardice" was released to radio with a music video featuring live footage from an exclusive show at The Horseshoe Tavern that took place on July 21, 2022, Ian Thornley's 50th birthday.
On October 4, 2023, the band officially announced their fourth studio EP, Pages, which consists of 6 out of 18 brand new songs that were recorded in two weeks.
Throughout 2024, Big Wreck performed many more shows to further promote the EP, including the single "Summerlong," which became the most successful single from the project and displayed, along with the rest of the EP, a deeper exploration of the band's new wave and progressive pop influences, featuring prominent synthesizers and gated drums.
The band also remastered and reissued the album on streaming services with previously unreleased bonus tracks, and on vinyl for the first time ever.