Calling Wendy

Biography

Formed in 2007, in Toronto, ON, Canada Calling Wendy has a rich history. Back in the early 2000’s, drummer Alison MacLean and bassist Chris Sytnyk met when they were playing in the Canadian alternative rock band MAdE. After releasing two albums for Universal Music, MAdE left the label in the midst of the merger with Polygram Records, leaving the remaining members to search for a new musical direction. With the drumming and touring taking up less of her time Alison began concentrating more on...

Formed in 2007, in Toronto, ON, Canada Calling Wendy has a rich history. Back in the early 2000’s, drummer Alison MacLean and bassist Chris Sytnyk met when they were playing in the Canadian alternative rock band MAdE. After releasing two albums for Universal Music, MAdE left the label in the midst of the merger with Polygram Records, leaving the remaining members to search for a new musical direction.

With the drumming and touring taking up less of her time Alison began concentrating more on songwriting. After submitting a demo version of her song Tennessee to the MIX 99.9 Standard Radio Songwriting Competition, Alison was surprised when she won the Regional competition and then the National competition. Next came her second place showing in the Unisong International Songwriting Contest in the AA category. This formula caused the driving members of Calling Wendy to search for a new voice to represent what was now a solid group of hit songs.

Recording began in late 2007 with singers Melanie Hilmi and Shannon Fayth trading off on lead vocals. The duo's vocals and harmonies captured what would become their signature sound. The result of these sessions would be the Broken Lullabies EP. Filling out the bands live sound was guitarist Curtis Faux. This incarnation of Calling Wendy would last until Shannon left for the US.

To keep the harmonies in tact, the band called on Marylynn Stella. This version of the band would carry on for about a year until Marylynn left for Nashville to work on her own band The Stellas. Shorty after Melanie would also leave to pursue a solo career leaving the band without a singer.

Auditions began in early 2009 with Meredith Shaw taking the lead. Although Meredith and Alison proved to be a good song writing team they never performed as a band. Calling Wendy took one last stab at it with the addition of Angela Saini on vocals and rhythm guitar.

Enter Chris Ioannou, 25 year-old singer and guitar player. Chris was originally hired to add lead guitar and some backup vocals to the then female-led project. After two years of steady commitment, Chris found himself fronting the show. The powerful vocals up front blended seamlessly into two or three part harmonies. Textured guitars and heartbeat rhythms added to the mix creating highly charged, catchy tunes. The new line up also forced a name change. In 2011 Calling Wendy was no more and Little Creatures was born.

Official Website - www.myspace.com/callingwendy
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