The band's three members—Braeden Lemasters, Cole Preston, and Dylan Minnette —first formed a musical group as children in a music program: GigMasterz in Keyboard Galleria Music Center, they were called "Join the Band". Over the course of the next decade, the three performed together using different band names, such as The Feaver and The Narwhals. The group changed their name one last time from The Narwhals to Wallows, as they wanted to go by a more professional name. They also played the 2011 Warped Tour. In April 2017, the band released their first single under the Wallows moniker, "Pleaser". The song would eventually reach number two on the Spotify Global Viral 50 chart and number one on the KROQ Locals Only playlist. In May 2017, Wallows released a second single, "Sun Tan", and began playing live shows in the Los Angeles area, selling out The Roxy and the Troubadour. Their third single, "Uncomfortable", was released in September 2017. In November 2017, their song, "Pulling Leaves Off Trees", was premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1radio show. That month, the band also announced their first headlining North American tour that would run from January to March 2018. The tour started in San Francisco on January 24. In February 2018, the band announced that they had signed to Atlantic Records and were planning to release their major label debut EP, Spring, in April 2018. They also released a new single, "Pictures of Girls", their first on Atlantic. The song was chosen as a "Critical Cut" by SiriusXMAlt Nation. Wallows ended their North American tour at South by Southwest in March 2018. Later in the month, they released a second track from Spring titled "These Days". The EP was released on April 6, 2018 by Atlantic Records and was produced by John Congleton. On February 1, 2019, Wallows released the single "Are You Bored Yet?" featuring Clairo. This song is a part of their debut album, Nothing Happens, released on March 22, 2019. A subsequent music video was also released on this day with a cameo of Noah Centineo and Kaitlyn Dever. Wallows embarked on another leg of their Nothing Happens Tour in February 2020, a continuation of their 2019 Nothing Happens Tour, for 15 additional stops. The band partnered with local, non-profit charities in each of the cities in this leg of the tour such as and the . Before each show, the band posted a list of donatable items for their attendees to bring on their social media accounts, and were able to garner a plethora of items to donate after each show. In an interview with 97X, a Tampa radio station, Minnette remarked that the nonprofit organization they partnered with in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, , shared that Wallows fans had brought an equivalent of five months worth of supplies to the band’s show.
