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  Born in rural Illinois in the winter of ‘87 to parents Royce and Michelle, Wren was the middle child of three, his younger brother following three years behind. A precocious child, he was always striving for attention, able to engage in real conversation much earlier than his older sister. Once he could talk, there was no shutting him up; those early conversation skills developed into a keen understanding of the English language, a talent for stringing words together and a love for linguistics that would carry on into middle school foreign language classes, which always seemed to come easily to him. What didn’t come easily were his guitar lessons; he began taking lessons at 8 but lost interest when the lack of natural talent meant he had to work harder than the other kids. Luckily, the intoxicating dream of wanting to be a rock star and live in the city had him revisiting that old six string just three years later when he swapped it out for a Rickenbacker 330, finding his stride on the bass instead. After that, he was hardly seen without it, despite his commitment to the family farm, a small organic operation that switched to the mass production of corn when the ethanol industry came knocking. Wren competed in 4-H every year, often raising prize-winning livestock to be auctioned off in early August. He was a hard worker, troublesome and mischievous unless otherwise engaged, and he tends to be that way still. To keep him occupied, Royce enrolled him in summer camps at the Ballard Nature Center, which awakened a love for the environment beyond what life on the farm could offer. After he aged out of the camps, he began volunteering, eventually working as a Naturalist’s Assistant in his final years of high school, playing small shows in coffee shops with his band on the weekends to audiences of 20-30 people.

  College was a bit of a culture shock for him, though it’s not like he’d never been to Chicago before. He’d be the first to explain the difference between visiting and living somewhere, but the opportunities his new life in the city afforded him were not to be looked down upon. It seemed like there was always something to do, a band to check out or a language club meeting he could crash. Catering to his interests, he began to involve himself in more worldly affairs, taking advantage of semesters abroad. He was a world away from being the sheltered farm boy, a change his family observed and worried about constantly, though it would come as no surprise when, after graduation with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science, Wren would enlist in the Peace Corps, leaving soon after for a volunteer assignment in the coastal regions of the Philippines. He was there for a little over two years, deciding to move closer to the ocean upon his return to the States. With family in Portland and a good environmental policy program, the decision was easy: soon, he was enrolled in a Master’s program for Environmental Management. Answering an ad on a campus bulletin board, Wren has been playing bass and singing with a band whose moderately successful first album and small tours around the Pacific Northwest have earned them a spot in a house not unlike MTV's Real World, where the entire creative process behind their second album is being recorded and spliced with footage from their daily lives, pieced together by a production team into weekly segments for a YouTube show. He's gainfully employed with Earthcorps EDIT ME

  Typically, Wren is optimistic and straightforward, but his adventurous and worldly nature can come off a little reckless. He can be cocky rather than confident, though as an enigmatic frontman, he's usually got the charm to pull it off. Still, he has to have his hands busy or cater to his wanderlust, as he can be fairly restless otherwise, which can lead to self-destructive decisions.