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 (2014–2016).
Storwick now records music under the name Faangs and has written songs for several artists, like Ashnikko, Fifty Fifty and Rico Nasty.
Early life 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. 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. 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. Her musical heroes were Whitney Houston, The Beatles, Billie Joe Armstrong, Christina Aguilera and Freddie Mercury. Storwick grew up in Calgary, Alberta with her family. She has two sisters, Annie and Amanda Storwick and one brother, Jack Storwick. Charlie used to attend the Calgary Waldorf School. She now lives in Los Angeles, California as FAANGS.
Career 2011: The Next Star In May 2011, after hearing about the auditions from her classmates, 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, Storwick made it to the Top 16. She later made it to the Top 6, along with contestants Parker Schmidt, Milly Benzu, Shania Fillmore, April Llave, and JD Meeboer.
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. 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", 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. At the finale, it was announced that she won season 4 of The Next Star.
In 2012, Storwick signed with Warner Music Canada and released the single "Glitter in the Sky". 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.
Storwick is also the first ever contestant on The Next Star to get one million views on YouTube.
2014–2017: Some Assembly Required and Bazaar Right after she finished The Next Star, she wanted to expand her career into acting. It was announced in 2013 that Storwick would be playing the role of Piper Gray in the YTV show, Some Assembly Required. The show premiered January 6, 2014, and ended on June 6, 2016.
In 2015, she released her formal debut single "Ghosts". 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. 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." She released her second single titled, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" under the label in September 2016. In 2016, she was named as one of the 25 acts on Macy's iHeartRadio Rising Star contest. On October 10, 2017, she released her debut album, Bazaar.
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. 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.
2018–present: Faangs 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. 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. She co-wrote the song, "Barbie Dreams, for the 2023 film, Barbie.
Filmography 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
Discography
Albums + List of albums with selected details Title Details Bazaar Released: October 10, 2017 Label: Westsonic Music Inc. Formats: Digital download Teeth Out Released: November 12, 2021 Label: Columbia Local Formats: Digital download
Extended plays + List of EPs with selected details Title Details I Died in LA Released: September 9, 2022 Label: Teeth Out Formats: Digital download
Singles
As Charlie + List of singles as Charlie, with selected chart positions Title Year Peak chart positions Album CAN CANAC CANCHR CANHAC "Good as Gone" 2011 — — — — The Next Star: Season 4 "Turn It Up Up" — — — — "Glitter in the Sky" 2012 — — — — rowspan="2" "Paper Heart" — — — — "Ghosts" 2015 87 28 24 30 Bazaar "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" 2016 — — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart.
As Faangs As lead artist + List of singles as Faangs, showing year released and album name Title Year Album "Ceiling" 2018 rowspan="2" "Love Fast Die Young" "Huh" 2020 Teeth Out "Rich Kid$" 2021 "Relapse" "I Don't Care" "I'm a Little" 2021 "I'd Hate Me Too" 2022 "Voicemail" I Died in LA "Kate Moss" "Beep! Beep!" 2023
As featured artist + List of singles as featured artist, with selected chart positions, certifications, showing year released and album name Title YearPeak chart positions Certifications Album NOR GER "That's You"(Brandon Taylor featuring Faangs) 2019— — Bankview "Shy"(Karate Kactus featuring Faangs)— — rowspan="5" "Don't Talk to Me"(N.F.I. featuring Faangs and Riton) 2020— — "Sicko"(Felix Jaehn featuring Gashi and Faangs)—42 BVMI: Gold IFPI Austria: Gold "Disconnected"(Politik featuring Faangs) 2023— — "Heartbreak Melody"(Alan Walker featuring Faangs) 202594 — "—" denotes releases that did not chart.
Songwriting credits Title Year Artist(s) Album Written with "It's Alright" 2018 Mother Mother Dance and Cry Ryan Guldemond "Sick Thoughts" 2019 Lewis Blissett James "Yami" Bell, Finn Keane, Lewis Blissett "We Got This" Delhi 2 Dublin We Got This Gavin Brown, Kevin Maher, Sanjay Seran, Tariq Hussain, Tarun Nayar "Halloweenie II: Pumpkin Spice" Ashnikko Ashton Casey, Oscar Scheller "Say It Ain't So" 2020 Bishara & Leia James "Yami" Bell, Timothy Caifeldt, Samuel Kvist, Markus Sepehrmanesh "Tragic" The Him Steven Berghuijs, Jeroen Kerstens, Jonas Kalisch, Jeremy Chacon, Henrik Meinke, Alexsej Vlasenko, Amanda Cygnaeus "Cry" Ashnikko Demidevil Ashton Casey, Ebenezer Fabiyi, Claire Boucher "Own It" Rico Nasty Nightmare Vacation Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly, Vincent van den Ende, Camden Bench, Amit Nagra "Outta My Control"2022 Koda Kumi Heart Bhavik Pattani "Pregame" Niki DeMar Nicola DeMartino, Robert Grimaldi, Trevor Muzzy "Lights Out" 2023 Bludnymph Henry Walter, Kya Hansen "Barbie Dreams"Fifty FiftyBarbie the AlbumJames Harris, Janet Jackson, JBach, Kaliya Ashley Ross, Marc Sibley, Mike Caren, Nathan Cunningham, Nicholaus Joseph Williams, Randall Hammers, Terry Lewis, Tramaine Winfrey“Squeak” 2026Bludnymph Faangs, Kya Hansen, Henry Russell Walter“Sonder”Le Sserafim Pureflow Pt. 1Anthony Watts, B. Lewis, Faangs, Jeon Ji-eun, Huh Yunjin, Youra (Full8loom), Score (13), Megatone (13), J14 (Full8loom), Kim Soo-ji, Jin-li (Full8loom)
Music videos Year Title Artist Notes 2011 "Good as Gone" Charlie #21 on MuchMusic Countdown 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 2025 "Heartbreak Melody" Alan Walker featuring Faangs
References
External links The Next Star on YTV.com