| Faangs | |
| Birth Name: | Melissa Faith Storwick |
| Birth Date: | November 13, 1998 |
| Origin: | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Instrument: | Vocals, piano |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Years Active: | 2011–present |
Melissa Faith Storwick (born November 13, 1998), known professionally as Faangs (formerly Charlie), is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She was the winner of The Next Star season 4, and starred as Piper Gray in YTV's Some Assembly Required.
Storwick now records music under the name Faangs and has written songs for Ashnikko and Rico Nasty.
Storwick stated in an interview for The Next Star that she is inspired by all types of music. Growing up in Calgary, Storwick was obsessed with watching performers on TV, always ready to entertain strangers on trips to the grocery store with her mom.[1] She was encouraged to take up hobbies to keep her mind active outside of school and was put into lessons to learn the trumpet and violin, eventually focussing on the piano above all, dropping the tuition and teaching herself by ear.[1] She started to sing as she was playing, mum and dad constantly reaffirming her practice as leisure time. Eventually she was allowed to take up musical theatre in school, the challenge of combining singing, acting and dancing speaking to her burgeoning desire to entertain.[1] Her musical heroes were Whitney Houston, The Beatles, Billie Joe Armstrong,[2] Christina Aguilera and Freddie Mercury. Storwick grew up in Calgary, Alberta with her family.[1] She has two sisters, Annie and Amanda Storwick and one brother, Jack Storwick. Charlie used to attend the Calgary Waldorf School.[3] She now lives in Los Angeles, California as FAANGS.[1]
In May 2011, after hearing about the auditions from her classmates,[4] she chose to audition for The Next Star because she wanted to "take it to the next level", which scared her parents. Out of thousands of young hopefuls,[5] Storwick made it to the Top 16.[4] She later made it to the Top 6, along with contestants Parker Schmidt, Milly Benzu, Shania Fillmore, April Llave, and JD Meeboer.[6]
Throughout the season, Storwick performed a total of 12 songs. (One being her audition, and two being music videos) The first song she performed was "Stuttering" by Fefe Dobson. After meeting her music producer, Zubin Thakkar, they both created her song titled "Good as Gone". Along with the rest of the top six, she performed a preview of her song. She later performed a battle song with contestant Parker; herself with "Sweet Escape" and Parker with "Grenade". Then for the group battle, she performed "Whip My Hair"; with April and Parker v.s. "I Love Rock and Roll" performed by Shania, JD and, Milly. Further on in the series, she performed "My Guy" for the Motown segment of the season.[7] Storwick also performed a Motown song with contestants Shania and April titled "Baby Love". At the finale after she won, she performed Jessie J's "Price Tag".
Towards the end of the season, Storwick also created a music video for "Good As Gone",[8] and created a group music video, "Turn It Up Up Up" with her and the other top 6 members. The video for "Good as Gone" ranked at number 21 on the MuchMusic #Trending rates of 2011 countdown.[9] At the finale, it was announced that she won season 4 of The Next Star.[10]
In 2012, Storwick signed with Warner Music Canada and released the single "Glitter in the Sky".[3] The music video made its first appearance on Monday, July 16 on YTV at 10:30 AST. Her other song titled "Paper Heart" was also released on July 16.[11]
Storwick is also the first ever contestant on The Next Star to get one million views on YouTube.[3]
Right after she finished The Next Star, she wanted to expand her career into acting.[4] It was announced in 2013 that Storwick would be playing the role of Piper Gray in the YTV show, Some Assembly Required.[12] The show premiered January 6, 2014,[4] and ended on June 6, 2016.
In 2015, she released her formal debut single "Ghosts".[13] The song debuted and peaked at number 87 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song also hit the Top 30 on the Top 40 radio, Hot AC and AC radio charts. "Ghosts" was released through Vancouver's Westsonic Music, and amassed over 1.2 million streams on Spotify.[14] The song was inspired by a real life experience. She stated, "I was playing my keyboard and then I heard a loud noise. I got a little startled, and I was thinking what happens after that and then I let my imagination run wild."[15] She released her second single titled, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" under the label in September 2016.[16] In 2016, she was named as one of the 25 acts on Macy's iHeartRadio Rising Star contest.[17] On October 10, 2017, she released her debut album, Bazaar.[18]
She was invited to a writing workshop organised by Canadian collection society SOCAN, and it was there that she met British producer BHAV who invited her back to the UK for further sessions after her 18th birthday.[1] Storwick travelled to Berlin for writing sessions with German quartet Hitimpulse, living in their studio for four months, working on songs. Storwick then ended up signing with Sony in Germany under the supervision of the European president Daniel Lieberberg.[1]
Storwick moved to Los Angeles and began writing songs for other artists and on her new persona Faangs, a name inspired by the vicious city she now called home.[1] She released her debut single under the name Faangs titled "Huh" on October 23, 2020, which was followed up by four more singles until the release of her debut album Teeth Out on November 12, 2021.[1] She co-wrote the song, "Barbie Dreams, for the 2023 film, Barbie.[19]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | The Next Star | Herself | Top 6; winner | |
| 2011 | MuchMusic | Herself | Interview | |
| 2012 | YTV | Herself | Interview; The Zone | |
| 2014–2016 | Some Assembly Required | Piper Gray | Lead Role |
| Details | ||
| Bazaar |
| |
|---|---|---|
| Teeth Out |
|
| Details | ||
| I Died in LA |
|
|---|
| Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [23] | CAN AC [24] | CAN CHR [25] | CAN HAC [26] | ||||||||
| "Good as Gone"[27] | 2011 | — | — | — | — | The Next Star: Season 4 | |||||
| "Turn It Up Up"[28] | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Glitter in the Sky"[29] | 2012 | — | — | — | — | rowspan="2" | |||||
| "Paper Heart" | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "Ghosts"[30] | 2015 | 87 | 28 | 24 | 30 | Bazaar | |||||
| "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" | 2016 | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||||||
| Year | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Ceiling" | 2018 | rowspan="2" | ||
| "Love Fast Die Young" | ||||
| "Huh"[31] | 2020 | Teeth Out | ||
| "Rich Kid$"[32] | 2021 | |||
| "Relapse"[33] | ||||
| "I Don't Care"[34] | ||||
| "I'm a Little"[35] | 2021 | |||
| "I'd Hate Me Too"[36] | 2022 | |||
| "Voicemail"[37] | I Died in LA | |||
| "Kate Moss"[38] | ||||
| "Beep | Beep!"[39] | 2023 |
| Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER [40] | |||||||||||
| "That's You"[41] (Brandon Taylor featuring Faangs) | 2019 | — | Bankview | ||||||||
| "Shy"[42] (Karate Kactus featuring Faangs) | — | rowspan="4" | |||||||||
| "Don't Talk to Me"[43] (N.F.I. featuring Faangs and Riton) | 2020 | — | |||||||||
| "Sicko"[44] (Felix Jaehn featuring Gashi and Faangs) | 42 |
| |||||||||
| "Disconnected"[47] (Politik featuring Faangs) | 2023 | — | |||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||||||
| Year | Title | Artist | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "Good as Gone" | Charlie |
| |
| 2011 | "Turn It Up Up Up" | The Next Star top 6 | Aired on CMT as #69 in top 100 | |
| 2012 | "Glitter in the Sky" | Charlie | ||
| 2015 | "Ghosts" | Charlie | ||
| 2016 | "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" | Charlie | ||
| 2018 | "Ceiling" | Faangs | ||
| 2019 | "Shy" | Karate Kactus featuring Faangs | ||
| 2020 | "Sicko" | Felix Jaehn featuring Gashi and Faangs | ||
| 2020 | "Huh" | Faangs | ||
| 2021 | "Rich Kid$" | Faangs | ||
| 2021 | "Relapse" | Faangs | ||
| 2021 | "I Don't Care" | Faangs | ||
| 2021 | "Don't Blame Me" | Faangs | ||
| 2021 | "Diamond Bitch" | Faangs | ||
| 2022 | "I'm a Little" | Faangs |