Wensday

Biography

A sultry and sweet chanteuse one minute, a bold and edgy rocker the next, singer/songwriter WENSDAY brings a magical multiple personality to her explosive debut album whose title forges an exciting new musical hybrid: TORCH ROCK™.

Her diverse musical backgrounds as a jazz and rock singer, combined with her blues and classical training make WENSDAY simply way too cool to peg. Multiple hit songwriter and legendary guitarist DICK WAGNER (Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Kiss, Aerosmith, AirSupply) produced TORCH ROCK™ and wrote or co-wrote all 13 tracks of the TORCH ROCK™ album. He assembled a brilliant group of musicians, including Fred Mandel (Elton John, Queen, Alice Cooper), Bobby Flores (Grammy winning arranger and Country Instrumentalist of the Year), Nils Lofgren (Bruce Springsteen), to record Wensday's musical debut.

WENSDAY'S powerful take on "Only Women Bleed" draws fresh and renewed attention to its enduring theme of empowering women to overcome the cycle of domestic abuse.

Wensday's diverse musical backgrounds as a blues, jazz and rock singer, combined with the colorful influences of her classical training, combine to make her a remarkable, promising new force in pop music.

Since studying theatre at Oxford and graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from NYU, she's complemented her sophisticated jazz gigs with work as a body piercer in renowned tattoo parlors in Miami and Atlanta with multiple roles as teacher, director, vocal coach, playwright and Director of All Children's Theater in her hometown of Providence, Rhode Island.

So on one hand, Wensday is truly the girl next door. But as we listen to the explosive mix of power rock ballads and up-tempo songs on Torch Rock, it's clear that, as rock legend Alice Cooper observes, she's also "the OTHER girl next door."

"After a long time trying to figure out what style I do best, I truly get to do it all on Torch Rock," says Wensday. "I think the album conveys that I'm a singer, first and foremost.... Connecting emotionally with people is the most important thing to me."

Wensday had her coming out party during the 2006 holiday season at Christmas Pudding, the annual event Alice Cooper puts on for Solid Rock Foundation, the organization he started to benefit local youths. Sharing a bill with Don Felder, Stephen Stills and pop metal band Tesla, Wensday moved the crowd with her searing rendition of "Only Women Bleed," the classic ballad Cooper wrote with longtime collaborator and legendary guitarist Dick Wagner.

A huge fan of Wensday's from the moment he first heard her sing, Wagner produced, wrote, co-wrote and played guitar on all 13 tracks of Torch Rock.

"Wensday has a voice that bridges the world of rock/blues with jazz and country. Wensday embodies a new genre of music that combines the new with the old, in which romance and hard edge combine to create a fresh and passionate new music that I call, 'Torch Rock.' This is a voice that can rock your world and then soothe your wounds right after."

Speaking about her powerful creative chemistry with Wagner, Wensday says, "It's an honor to work with Dick, who is a legendary writer and musician, but I think of myself as something of an old soul, so it's a good match. Most of the songs are about love, relationships and female empowerment, all issues that are meaningful to me.

Wensday gravitated early to the "torchy" part of Torch Rock, developing an intense love of jazz, particularly the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, from her parents' extensive record collection and her first voice teacher at age 13.

One day, after having put singing on hold for a time to focus on her other creative endeavors,, she happened into a vintage store in Massachusetts, saw a gorgeous 1940s cocktail dress, thought about Billie Holiday and knew she had to get back to singing. "I played with many different jazz ensembles all over New England," she says, "and also fronted my own band Miss Wensday and the Medicinals. Oh, and of course, I bought the dress!"

When music industry veterans Suzy Michelson and Alex Cyrell, --two of the principals, of Wensday's label Desert Dreams--came to Providence, RI, they heard Wensday sing and offered her the chance to come to Phoenix to record a demo with their friend and colleague, Dick Wagner. The one song demo grew into a production and management agreement with Desert Dreams; the label is launching Wensday as its flagship artist.

"I was very happy with my life in Providence," she says. "I loved the balance of working with children during the day and singing in nightclubs at night. I was about to cut a jazz album when everything happened with Suzy and Alex. The rest is in the process of making history. It's never been about fame and money for me because those only follow when you do what you love. I just want people to like it and to understand where I am coming from. That's what this great journey is all about."

2007 Curly Grrlz "Hip Clipz" Artist Search Contest produced by Award Winning D.J. Lizz Randolph of Demo-Ology.com