Pink, Rihanna, Lady GaGa, Pussycat Dolls, Coldplay. None of those names would be particularly surprising to find at the top of a music chart, but the one who comes right after them on the Canadian iTunes “Top Songs” might surprise a few. The name is Andrew F, the Calgarian whose debut album, Reckless Abandon, has recently blown up in a big way, leaving him rubbing elbows on the Canadian iTunes, eMusic and Billboard charts with the likes of M.I.A., Madonna and the Jonas Brothers. Not bad for a 17-year-old on an independent label he runs with his brother.

“One day, my parents called me up and were like, ‘Wow, you’re on iTunes,” Franks says of his sudden success. “I was just excited to be on iTunes. The

second day I looked and I was in the Top 20. I was shocked. I was very excited.”

While Andrew might have been shocked to see himself among some of the music industry’s biggest stars (his album and single each reached No. 4 on iTunes), the melodic pop-punk of Reckless Abandon has clearly caught on with Canadian listeners. Rather than rely on music industry money to promote his songs, though, Andrew has been doing things the old-fashioned way.

“I just need to thank my fans,” he says humbly. “I played at a lot of little shows and house parties, getting my name out there. I worked up a little fan base, and once they found out that I was recording my album, they just kind of followed.”

Obviously, “little” is an understatement. Word of mouth and fan loyalty has given Andrew the kind of chart position usually reserved for international celebrities. In an effort to capitalize on this success, Andrew has quickly assembled a band and will soon move onto much larger venues than the house parties he cut his teeth on.

“It’s going really good,” the singer and guitarist says of his new band. “We looked [for people] out of KLM [Rock School] because I wanted kids my age, and they’re all really talented guys. We interviewed a whole bunch of people and they were just the ones. We’ve been working on our live show and getting everything going. It’s all coming together really fast. We’ve even started writing some new tunes.”

Those new songs might take awhile to surface on a followup to Reckless Abandon, as Andrew is understandably busy with other things like honing his live show and outselling Metallica. While that last bit might be hard for some to wrap their heads around, Andrew hasn’t let success go to his. Despite the out-of-the-blue nature of his chart climb, Andrew isn’t afraid of a

similarly sudden disappearance, and his reasons have nothing to do with ego.

“It’s a pretty vicious industry, and I would hope that that would never happen, but I’ve got a pretty good fan base going on,” he says. “I have faith in the fans to keep me up there.”