The Wonder Years

With their rousing mix of pop punk, emo, and earnest alt-rock the Wonder Years clawed their way onto the mainstream charts in the early 2010s with albums like Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing and The Greatest Generation. Hailing from the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale, the band continued to evolve their sound, folding in elements of indie, post-hardcore, and straight-ahead melodic rock on later releases like 2015′s No Closer to Heaven and 2018′s Sister Cities. After a four-year break, the Wonder Years returned in 2022 with their seventh LP, The Hum Goes on Forever.
Taking their name from the late-’80s TV show, the Wonder Years were formed by guitarists Matt Brasch and Casey Cavaliere, vocalist Dan "Soupy" Campbell, bassist Josh Martin, drummer Mike Kennedy, and keyboardist Mikey Kelly. The sextet got its start in 2005 when previous combo the Premier split up. Regrouping under the new name, the band began playing shows and released two split singles that year (with Bangarang! and Emergency and I). In late 2007, the Wonder Years self-released their emphatically titled debut album, Get Stoked on It!, and quickly caught the eye of California label No Sleep. Their first record for the label was the EP Won't Be Pathetic Forever, which came out in June of 2008. Following a split single with All or Nothing, Kelly left the band. After a year spent recording their follow-up album, the Wonder Years released The Upsides in January 2010. The record made a dent in the lower regions of Billboard’s indie chart and gained the Wonder Years a deal with larger indie Hopeless, which reissued the album in September with four bonus tracks.
In the time between releases, drummer Kennedy quit the band and was replaced by Nick Steinborn. After Kennedy returned to the fold, Steinborn bounced over to play keys and guitar. With the lineup solidified, the Wonder Years got to work in the studio with producer Steve Evetts. The resulting album, 2011′s Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing, was the group’s first to make the Billboard 200 at number 73. A 2013 rarities compilation, Sleeping on Trash, collated the band’s first five years and was followed a few months later by their fourth full-length, The Greatest Generation. A creative and commercial breakthrough, it vaulted the Wonder Years into the Top 20 and outsold all of their previous albums. Campbell capitalized on the band’s success with his first release by his solo project Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties.
After Campbell returned from a tour with the Roaring Twenties, he began working on songs for the next Wonder Years project, but suffered a powerful case of writer’s block that triggered a severe bout with depression. Campbell eventually channeled the emotions stirred up by his struggles into the group’s fifth studio album, 2015′s No Closer to Heaven, a concept piece about coming to terms with the death of a loved one. The Wonder Years’ next release, 2017′s Burst & Decay EP, offered acoustic versions of songs from their three previous LPs. The group re-entered the studio later that year with producers Joe Chiccarelli and Carlos de la Garza to record their sixth LP. The resulting Sister Cities was released in 2018 and saw them shifting their sound away from their pop-punk roots. A live EP captured at England’s Maida Vale Studios appeared in April 2019. The Wonder Years remained quiet over the next few years, eventually breaking their silence in early 2022 with the rousing “Oldest Daughter.” The song anchored the band’s seventh studio album, The Hum Goes on Forever, which arrived that September. ~ Tim Sendra