Drew Wright

Even at a young age, Drew'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, Drew 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, Drew earned a degree in music engineering and continued to play on the local scene.

Drew 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), Drew 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]

Drew 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]

Drew 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 Drew chose Big Wreck's That Song. With a mixed response from the judging panel, Drew 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. Amberly was eliminated.

The top five went to Camp Oochigeas, which Drew 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, Drew received praise from all four judges but found himself in the bottom two with Mookie Morris. Morris was then eliminated.

On August 22, Drew 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 Drew sang her song Hey Daddy as well as John Mayer's Gravity. Drew was safe as there was no bottom two announced.

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

Drew said he was not surprised it was his name that was called, considering he'd 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]

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

• Fall and Divide website
• Drew Wright on Myspace