Bio
Before moving to Boulder, Colorado when she was five, Wendy Woo was born on January 26th in Manhattan, New York. After hearing about Naropa University, Wendy’s parents moved the family to Colorado and founded the degree program for traditional Eastern arts. The program included studies in tai chi, yoga, meditation, ikebana or Japanese flower arrangement and aikido, which is a martial art like judo. Wendy’s parents have been a huge support system in her musical career with her mother Jane providing the artwork for the covers of Angels in the Crowd, Wide Awake and Dreaming and Ecolalia. She also attended every single one of Wendy’s shows up until her death from breast cancer in 2001. Wendy’s father Bataan provided poetry and voice on Ecolalia and he frequents many of her shows.
Growing up, Wendy, her parents and her sister Tambi, would sing around the house and Wendy would participate in musicals. When Wendy was five she was in the play “The King and I” as the Siamese twin. In school, Wendy played piano, cello and sang in her high school choir. A family friend gave Wendy her now infamous acoustic guitar when she was ten, but she didn’t take it out of its case until she was 18. It wasn’t until Wendy finished high school that she figured learning guitar would give her the chance to keep singing. To start learning guitar, Wendy repeatedly listened to songs until she had perfected the guitar and vocal parts. The folk-rock music of Suzanne Vega and Paul Simon influenced Wendy to stick with the acoustic guitar, rather than switching primarily to electric, and to take from her roots in Boulder and add her own style to it.
Wendy attended college, going to the University of New Mexico for a year and the University of Colorado for nearly two, where she studied classical guitar and music theory. In 1993 at the age of 21, Wendy started bartending at the new Fox Theatre in Boulder. At first Wendy decided to keep her musical talent a secret, not wanting to seem pretentious around other musicians. It wasn’t until a year later, during a talent show, that Wendy’s talent was briefly showcased when she jumped onstage, picked up a guitar and sang the song “Scat Cat.” In December of 2005 Wendy was given her own night at the Fox, where she played “Down and Dirty” and “Gravity.” From then on, Wendy would occasionally put a band together and play her own nights of music.
While working at the Fox, Wendy added many accolades to her resume. When Sheryl Crow came to town, her opening act dropped out and Wendy took their place. She met Ambrosia Healey, the daughter of the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer Dan Healey, and Sally Taylor, daughter of Carly Simon and James Taylor, both at the Fox. Ambrosia taught Wendy how to do her own press and Wendy produced a CD for Sally Taylor. In 1999, Wendy won a battle of the bands competition which allowed her to play in the Lilith Fair at Fiddler’s Green, with such acts as the Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan. Wendy won awards for Best Local Artist (Colorado Daily) and Independent Artist of the Year (Hapi Skratch Entertainment) among others. Her songs were used commercially as well, in the Food Network’s “FoodNation with Bobby Flay” and in the 1999 Discovery Channel documentary “Mountain of Dreams.” Also during this time, Wendy produced Angels in the Crowd (1997) and put out another album Wide Awake and Dreaming (1999). In 2000 Wendy left the Fox, after nearly seven years, to pursue music full-time.
Since her time at the Fox, Wendy has produced three more of her own recordings: Ecolalia (2001), Gonna Wear Red (2002) and Angels Laughing (2005). Prior to her recording of Walking the Skyline (2004), Wendy sought out a band that would help her write and develop songs. With the release of Luxury (2007), Wendy had formed a trio with Chris Maestas on drums and Mitch DeZwarte on bass, both of whom wrote songs on the album.
Prior to adding Mitch DeZwarte to the band in 2005, Wendy met Chris Maestas at Rupp’s Drums in 2002, where he was working. She and Chris have since gone on to get married and have a little drummer boy of their own, Little Chris.
Chris Maestas was born May 20th in Espanola, New Mexico. Chris’ father sold records, instruments and electronics in a shop that he owned and his mother owned a flower shop. Early on, with his mother singing and playing the piano, and his father’s record shop, Chris was exposed to music.
Chris has three older brothers and a younger sister. Chris’ brothers had Beatles records, which Chris remembers wanting to listen to while he was still in diapers. Chris would play along to songs with his plastic “The Monkees” guitar. At the age of six Chris started to play the drums because his brother Thom had a drum set. Chris is a self-taught musician because the drums felt familiar to him. He would watch other drummers, emulate them and read drum magazines. Chris credits the Beatles for changing the way he listened to music, but no single band is his favorite. Chris listens to all genres of music and is interested in examining songs for their influence over the charts and the public. Chris isn’t necessarily as interested in the physicality of a song as he is a song’s ability to socially and psychologically affect a person.
Chris started to put a band together in 5th grade, but it wasn’t until he reached high school that he succeeded. One of the bands he put together was called Strutter. After he graduated from high school, Chris moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he continued to play music and work at a Mexican restaurant as a sous-chef.
Chris’ cousin, who was redeveloping the Lodo section of Denver, Colorado with the Larimer Group, asked Chris to move to Denver to start a career as a chef. Disheartened with music, due to the death of the lead singer of his band in Santa Fe, Chris took a hiatus from music and moved there. Chris worked as a chef for five years at the Mexicali restaurant and the Champion Brewing Company. He was also promoted to a manager at these restaurants. Chicken piccata is Chris’ favorite dish to make.
Wanting to transition back into music, Chris was going to start teaching drums after he quit his job as a chef, but instead, he started a business. A friend, who had a career in web page design, started a website for Chris so he could sell his restored drum sets. The site was called Vintage Drum Underground. This progressed into a custom drum business because for years Chris would take his favorite parts of drum sets and build his kit piece by piece. People became interested, and Chris would build custom sets for those who asked for them. Daren Hahn of the Eels and Ani DiFranco, Brian Nevin of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, the Fray and Jane’s Addiction are some of Chris’ customers. In 1997, Chris was recruited by the owner of Rupp’s drums in Denver to continue selling drums from there.
While at Rupp’s, Chris played in two bands, 2 am and Mean Old Man. Chris recorded with both bands and made a CD with 2 am called Neverland. In 2002, Chris met Wendy Woo while working at Rupp’s and auditioned for her band. Chris has recorded drums on Wendy’s album Walking the Skyline and, after Mitch DeZwarte was added on bass, on the trio’s album Luxury in 2007. Chris wrote the music for the song “Crisis” and with Wendy he co wrote most of the other songs and music on Luxury. In fact, Chris produced the album, which was a first for him.
In 2007, after ten years at Rupp’s, Chris left to be in Wendy’s band full-time. It was also then that Chris switched from drums to bass because after years of playing drums his left hand would seize up during songs. It has been a smooth transition since Chris wrote the music for Luxury on bass and the switch has provided relief for his hands. Chris will occasionally play drums on a few songs, but he doesn’t mind the break from playing drums full time because he has the chance to do something new and different.
To accompany Chris’ transition to bass, Mitch DeZwarte played guitar and keyboards for a couple of years before amicably leaving the band in the spring of 2009. With Wendy’s band, Mitch wrote the song “Gone” and recorded bass on Luxury as well as played many shows with them over the years.
Looking to add another element, Robin Hoch joined the band in August of 2008. A year prior, Wendy met Robin at a mutual friend’s birthday party and they immediately hit it off.
Robin Hoch was born September 11th in Denver, Colorado. Everyone in her family loves to sing, so from early on Robin has been singing and letting her voice mature. In fact, Robin would sing every song from the musical “Annie.” Other favorites include “Maneater” by Hall and Oats and “I Love You More Today than Yesterday” by Spiral Staircase. Robin has always enjoyed listening to the music of Motown. As a child, R&B and Funk were her favorite genres of music. Robin recalls listening to Michael Jackson’s BAD album and then going to school and telling her classmates he was her brother. As she looks back on it now, it seems more like he was her musical soul mate. Also, Robin looks up to Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan because they are strong talents with long successful careers, both of whom can play instruments.
In fifth grade, Robin began to learn the viola as part of her school district’s instrumental music program. Because the violin was her first choice, it was by chance that Robin started playing the viola because there were no violins left. A few years later, in high school, Robin began playing guitar because a boy she had a crush on played. Having saved up three hundred dollars, Robin had enough to purchase an Alvarez acoustic guitar when she was a sophomore. After graduating high school, Robin enrolled at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. It wasn’t until Robin took a beginning guitar class that she learned how to play the guitar. She hasn’t stopped playing since. Robin graduated with a degree in music.
In 2002, Robin joined her first band, Jelly Roll. It was during her time with Jelly Roll that she learned everything she would need to know to play music professionally. Some of this includes learning about gear, sound and the lingo of the trade. After three years, in September of 2005, Robin went on to play in a jazz trio by the name of the Mighty Fines and also a group called the Lovely and Talented, both of which she played with for nearly three years. Robin primarily sang in these bands, prior to joining Lovely and Talented Robin sang back-up vocals on the band’s debut album, and in 2007 Robin began to incorporate her skill on viola into the sound of the band. Robin has been writing songs for a few years, but it wasn’t until Robin joined the Wendy Woo band in August of 2008 that she wrote an entire song, “Saving Grace.” Along with playing the viola and guitar, Robin also sings in the Wendy Woo band.
In addition to performing in Wendy’s band, Robin teaches music to children. She has been with her current school for the past five years. Also, on May 26th, 2007 Robin married her husband Tom.
In 2009, drummer Daren Hahn was added to the band. He is no stranger to Wendy or the rest of the band. Around 2003, Chris met Daren at Rupp’s Drums. A couple of years later Daren met Robin through other musicians that lived in their neighborhood and through the years Daren has shared the stage with Wendy while playing with various bands.
Daren Hahn was born March 16th and grew up in Evergreen, Colorado. One day, at the age of fourteen, Daren came across his dad’s drum set while rummaging through the attic. He started playing the drums then. His father was excited to see that his son was now taking up something he had once enjoyed.
Through out this primary education, Daren taught himself the drums and it wasn’t until college that he took some music classes. In middle school, Daren joined his first band, he’s not even sure they had a name, and played his first gig in the guitarist’s living room for his family.
In 1990, Daren started playing with the band the Psychodelic Zombiez and recorded on their album An Evening at the Zoo. In 1994, Daren joined Geggy Tah, a then formed rock/jazz trio, and played with them until 1997. He played on their album Sacred Cow. A year later, after being set up with an audition through his friends in the band The Barenaked Ladies, Daren became Ani DiFranco’s drummer. He recorded on five of her albums including To the Teeth and Evolve. Next, in 2003, Daren joined the Eels and played on their album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Daren had been childhood friends with the band’s bass player. A year later Daren was playing with Matt Nathanson and then with Melissa Ferrick from 2005 to 2008. With Ferrick, Daren recorded on her album In the Eyes of Strangers.
Daren has also toured with all of these mentioned bands, receiving stamps on his passport from countries in Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Daren loves to travel and he hopes to one day visit these countries again. Daren has also made some late night television appearances: Letterman, The Tonight Show, Craig Kilborne and Jimmy Kimmel.
Daren’s resume doesn’t stop there. He has played with Action Figure Party, Ben Taylor, The Break Mechanics, Hate Fuck Trio, The Reals and Weapon of Choice. With the Break Mechanics Daren recorded on their self-titled album, on the Reals’ Majestic and Illoominutty with Weapon of Choice. Daren is influenced by all styles of music; from the hip hop of the Wu-Tang Clan to the country music of Willie Nelson. This variety can be referenced in the bands that Daren has played for with Ani DiFranco, Melissa Ferrick and Matt Nathanson on the folk-rock spectrum to a more rock sound with the Eels and Geggy Tah. Weapon of Choice’s genre is referred to as Nutmeg, which is a mixture of many different styles of music ranging from rock, funk, hip hop and jazz to reggae.
Currently, Daren is working on projects around town in addition to being in Wendy Woo’s band. He is happy to be making a living doing what he loves and wants to continue making music and meeting new people.
Written by Linzy Novotny
