Amely was an American rock band from Orlando, Florida, United States, formed in 2008. The band comprised four members; Petie Pizarro (Vocals/Guitar), Brandon Walden (Guitar), Patrick Ridgen (Bass) and Nate Parsell (Drums). The sound of the band was a mix of rock with power pop elements. Having been a band for a short period of time, Amely managed to be signed to an independent record label, for this genre of music, Fearless Records.

History

Amely did not start out as a fully formed band. It started in 2008 with a studio project for the singer and rhythm guitarist Petie Pizarro (24 years old), who was moving forward as a soloist after the breakup of his previous band. He began writing songs that he would afterwards choose from, for the recording of an EP. Later on, he dubbed "On My Own," at Vision Sound Studios Vision Sound Studios in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

with producer Daryl Phennager ( Red Jumpsuit Apparatus). Even though Pizarro played most of the instruments on the recording, including guitar, bass, piano and synths, he brought Nate Parsell in to record some complicated drum parts, since they had previously been together in a band. Upon the completion of this EP, in June 2008, Pizarro and Parsell realized they had something worth further exploring musically and agreed to form a band. Bassist, Patrick Ridgen, was soon found and lead guitarist, Brandon Walden, joined them a little later and so Amely was formed. Parsell started as a drummer in the basement of his old house in rural

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He studied

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

privately throughout his high school career, while also playing in

marching band A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...

, concert band, jazz ensemble,

pep band A pep band is an ensemble of instrumentalists who play at events, usually athletic, with the purpose of entertaining and creating enthusiasm in a crowd. Often members of a pep band are a subset of people from a larger ensemble such as a marchi ...

, and pit orchestra for four years, as well as a handful of fruitless "rock bands." He then studied in a

music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

and earned a degree in recording arts and

music business The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

from

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. The school moved to Florida in 1980 and began ...

. Some of his early influences were

John Bonham John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove ...

and Charlie Watts along with some more modern influences such as Dave Grohl,

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician who serves as the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has also performed as a frequent collaborator with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Tran ...

Carter Beauford Carter Anthony Beauford (born November 2, 1958) is an American drummer, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band. He is known for his ability to adapt to a variety of genres, and both his ambidextrous and his open-handed drumm ...

, and Zac Farro from Paramore.

Touring, unsigned

A blend of rock combined with a dose of

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and c ...

influences, Amely started making their mark on the music scene, despite only having been formed after Petie Pizarro's project/EP, for a year. Since playing their first show in March 2009, Amely had completed three national tours, opened for

All Time Low All Time Low is an American rock band from Towson, Maryland, formed in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band to ...

, played at the Unsilent Night Festival, with A Day to Remember, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and

Breathe Carolina Breathe Carolina are an American electronic music duo from Denver, Colorado, currently composed of David Schmitt and Tommy Cooperman. The band formed in 2007 and have released five albums, and nine EPs. Their latest studio album, '' Dead: The A ...

, and performed on the Kevin Says Stage at the Florida dates of

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running tourin ...

2009. The band had such a success, that they played in

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the Internationa ...

in the South Pacific, in front of 5000 people, for Blue Sky's 10 Year Bash. Regarding the geared used in their live shows, the drummer, Parsell, used a four-piece Tama Starclassic Birch kit: 10×12 rack, 16×16 floor, and 18×22 kick—one of the best-sounding kick drums out there, according to him. Also, he's been using

Zildjian :''Zildjian leads here. For people with the surname, see Zildjian (disambiguation)'' The Avedis Zildjian Company, simply known as Zildjian (), is a musical instrument manufacturer specializing in cymbals and other percussion instruments. Founded ...

cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

, a 24″ K Light ride, a 21″ Brilliant Sweet ride (as a left-side crash), a 20″ A Custom Projection crash, and 14″ A Custom Mastersound hats. In addition to their touring, the band reached nearly a million plays on their MySpace page and was named one of PureVolume's Top 20 Unsigned bands of 2009.

Recording

After touring, and their success, they caught a major recording label's eye. Although they had only been formed as a band for less than a year, in January 2010, Amely was signed by Fearless Records. After being signed, the band headed immediately into the studio with Zack Odem, Kenneth Mount (

Mayday Parade Mayday Parade is an American rock band from Tallahassee, Florida. Their debut EP '' Tales Told by Dead Friends'' was released in 2006, and sold over 50,000 copies without any label support. In July 2007, Mayday Parade released their debut album ...

), and Mike Green ( Paramore,

) to record their debut EP ''Hello World'', which was released on May 25, 2010. The EP consisted of eight catchy tracks that introduced the band's melodic, pop rock-influenced sound. At this point, lead singer Pizzaro, compared their music to pop-rock bands such as

The All American Rejects The All-American Rejects is an American rock band from Stillwater, Oklahoma, formed in 1999.Jimmy Eat World and wanted his band to have mass appeal without any age range, gender, or mindset restrictions. "We want to be a mature pop/rock band with a sound that kids can get into, but adults will also enjoy," Pizarro notes. Apart from their EP, the first holiday-themed compilation album series created by Fearless Records called ''

'Tis the Season to Be Fearless ''Tis the Season to Be Fearless'' is the first holiday-themed compilation album series created by Fearless Records Fearless Records is an American independent record label that was founded in 1994. Fearless is based in Culver City, California ...

'' featuring eight Christmas-themed songs was released on November 22, 2010, including Amely's cover of the song "

It's Christmas Time Again "It's Christmas Time Again" is a Christmas song by the American vocal group Backstreet Boys. The song was written by Backstreet Boys members Nick Carter and Howie Dorough along with Mika Guillory and Morgan Taylor Reid in early October 2012. I ...

" originally by

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. The band has also covered the famous song "The Climb" by

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip ho ...

. The song was originally in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

of the

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

's movie Hannah Montana and the album was released by

Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from The Walt Disney Company's motion picture studios, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its ...

, but the purpose of the band recording it was to be in the Fearless Records compilation album '' Punk Goes Pop 3''. However, their cover was not on the album and, instead, one their original songs ("Come Back to Me") was included on the bonus CD of ''Punk Goes Pop 3''. Apart from recording, the band went on " Let's Be Animals Tour" with The Downtown Fiction, He Is We and

Cady Groves Cady Danyl Groves (July 30, 1989 – May 2, 2020) was an American pop and country singer from Emporia, Kansas. Some of her notable songs include "One in the Same", "This Little Girl", "Oh Darling", "Forget You", and "Love Actually". She releas ...

in spring 2011.

Break-up

On November 1, 2011 Amely announced via webchat that they would be breaking up. In addition, before the official break up, the band announced the release of another EP titled ''Raleigh Sessions'', which was self recorded, produced, and mixed. The entire process from start to finish was created by the band alone in Raleigh, North Carolina. The EP was released on November 21, 2011. However, it was released only in a digital form and can be found on iTunes and Spotify. Despite the sad news for the fans, Pizarro, Parsell and Ridgen also announced that they will be forming a new band called Sovereign Soldiers, and Walden would be moving forward as a solo artist. The band's announcement stated:

This decision did not come lightly and was the effect of a great number of things that seemed beyond our control. It has been a more than amazing journey with our best friends and this destination we've now reached is not an end, it is a new beginning. Although we have been extremely discouraged by the discourse that fell upon us, we have not let it knock us down and we hope that you can stay strong with all of us. Since the start of this year and even before that we have been writing for what we intended to be our first full-length album. As the chance to professionally produce our music appeared to grow further in distance we took it upon ourselves to record the songs that we had poured our hearts into. After combining the diverse and plenty skills of all 4 of us, these home recordings are all that's left of Amely. We believe this is some of our greatest work and we want to be able to share it with you. Though it may come as a parting gift, we hope this collection of songs finds you well. It may be the remains of Amely, but we hope it reminds you, this is not the end.

Band members

* Petie Pizarro - Lead Vocalist/

Rhythm Guitarist In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass gui ...

* Brandon Walden –

Lead Guitarist Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Patrick Ridgen - Bassist * Nate Parsell - Drummer * Jason Seife Guitarist

Discography

* ''The Raleigh Sessions'' (2011) * ''Live Under Lights'' (Live) EP (2011) * ''

'Tis The Season To Be Fearless ''Tis the Season to Be Fearless'' is the first holiday-themed compilation album series created by Fearless Records Fearless Records is an American independent record label that was founded in 1994. Fearless is based in Culver City, California ...

'' (2010) * ''Hello World'' (2010) * ''Amely'' EP (2009)

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Musical groups established in 2008 Musical groups disestablished in 2011 Musical groups from Orlando, Florida Rock music groups from Florida Fearless Records artists American punk rock groups