The quartet members met in the early '90s when they were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Eventually, the four spent more time jamming together than attending class, and they soon decided to leave school to form Big Wreck. The group became a fixture around Boston and Cambridge, regularly playing local stages. After spending several years rehearsing and playing concerts, Big Wreck landed a contract with Atlantic Records in 1997. Their debut album, In Loving Memory Of..., was released in the fall of that year. Their sophomore effort, The Pleasure & the Greed, arrived in 2001, but after its poor commercial showing, the band broke up. Thornley formed a new band, simply called Thornley, but after reconnecting with Big Wreck guitarist Doherty some ten years later, he took his band, along with Doherty, into the studio and recorded Albatross, which appeared in 2012 under the Big Wreck name, following it in 2014 with the slightly more prog rock-sounding Ghosts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine