Drew Wright

This article reads like a press release or a news article and is largely based on routine coverage or sensationalism. Please with properly sourced content to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, event notability guideline, or encyclopedic content policy. (March 2009)

Drew Edward Wright (born October 5, 1979) is a Canadian who is best known for being a top three finalist on the sixth season of Canadian Idol.

Early life[]

Even at a young age, Wright's interest in music was apparent. When he was five, he was sent home from school for singing "Under My Thumb" by The Rolling Stones. Later, he quickly picked up drumming when he was twelve and he was often sent home for singing or drumming in class.

He played in the band at Admiral Collingwood Public School and various sports such as hockey or wrestling, as well as taking tap dancing lessons for a year. When he was fifteen, he was taught a few chords on the guitar and took it up as his main instrument. Despite being left-handed, Wright plays right-handed.

After leaving school, Wright attended Collingwood Collegiate Institute and enrolled in the drama program. He would often bring his guitar to class and play for his peers. For his year-end monologue, he played a character who wanted to write music for a living.^[1]

Around this time, he played in a band called Clean Dirt, though they broke up shortly thereafter. He then formed a band called Malleus, who won the Rock 95 Loud and Local Contest in 2006.

After graduating high school, Wright earned a degree in music engineering and continued to play on the local scene.

Canadian Idol[]

Wright was pressured to try out for Canadian Idol by family and friends. As twenty-eight is the cut off age for auditioners, he decided to give it a shot (he was twenty-seven at the time of his audition) and made it to the Top 200.

The day of his final performance in Toronto Week, his grandmother died and he contemplated leaving, though decided, with his family's blessing, to stay in the competition. He wowed the judges with his acoustic performance of Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" and made it into the Top 24 (though at the time, it was still a Top 22).

After performing Queen's "Under Pressure", Neverending White Lights's "The Grace" and Hoobastank's "The Reason" (the latter which of two, he accompanied himself on guitar), Wright advanced into the Top 10 of Canadian Idol. Though he said the leaving of many of friends was sad, he was ecstatic to make the top ten and what was ahead for him.^[2]

Wright accompanied himself on drums during Top 10-week, playing David Bowie's "Five Years". The judges response to his performances were mostly lukewarm, though he managed to advance.

For Top 9-week, he sang Blind Melon's "No Rain" without accompanying himself on an instrument. The Idols were mentored by Gavin Rossdale for Top 8-week, when he again sang a Maroon 5 song (this time, "Sunday Morning"). Speaking of the experience, he called it "a great experience".^[3]

Wright accompanied himself on an electric guitar for Top 7-week, in which he sang Radiohead's 1992 hit, "Creep". The judges were largely happy with the performance, though judge Zack Werner noted that he could have "sang the lyrics a bit more angst-ridden."

The following week, Simple Plan mentored the Idols for Canadian Artists week, in which Wright chose Big Wreck's "That Song". With a mixed response from the judging panel, Wright found himself in the bottom three the next night with Earl Stevenson and Amberly Thiessen – the last competitor of the Top 10 to find himself in that position. Thiessen was eliminated.

The top five went to , which Wright said was "unreal" and mentioned how his worries seemed "extremely trivial with what these kids are going through".^[4]

For that week, the judges of the show chose the contestants songs to sing from The Beatles. Singing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Wright received praise from all four judges but found himself in the bottom two with Mookie Morris. Morris was then eliminated.

On August 22, Wright returned home to Collingwood for a welcome home party. He sang full-length versions of "That Song", "Creep" and "Under Pressure", as well as Tonic's "Open Up Your Eyes", Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" and U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name".

That week on the show, Anne Murray mentored and Wright sang her song "Hey Daddy" as well as John Mayer's "Gravity". Wright was safe as there was no bottom two announced.

For his final week on the show (where the theme was Bryan Adams songs), Wright sang his own arrangement of "Cuts Like a Knife" and "I'm Ready".^[5] The next night, Wright was eliminated despite universal praise from the judges (with judge Jake Gold proclaiming he had "finally discovered what kind of artist you are").

Wright said he was not surprised it was his name that was called, considering he had been in the Bottom 2 a couple of times and despite tremendous support from his hometown, Ontario does not vote like some other parts of the country do. He then later said he was happy to leave on a high note and had nothing but good words for the Top 2 finalists Mitch MacDonald and Theo Tams.^[6]

Post-Idol[]

Following the show, the top three were sent on a three-month, cross-Canada tour.^[7] During this time, Wright joined up with some friends and created a band. Their MySpace went up on November 3, 2008.

Career[]

Fall and Divide[]

Immediately following Canadian Idol, Wright pieced together a band under the name Fall and Divide, which "comes from the state the planet is in right now and also from the separation from the demographic of Canadian Idol."^[8]

After several line-up changes, the band released their debut album digitally through iTunes and Amazon MP3 on October 3, 2011. On March 26, 2013, Fall and Divide announced on their Facebook page that they had disbanded.

Discography[]

• In Time – released on April 20, 2007 (with Malleus)
• Fall and Divide – released on October 3, 2011 (digital) (with Fall and Divide)

References[]

External links[]

• Fall and Divide website
• Drew Wright on Myspace