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 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. He studied percussion privately throughout his high school career, while also playing in marching band, concert band, jazz ensemble, pep band, and pit orchestra for four years, as well as a handful of fruitless "rock bands." He then studied in a music conservatory and earned a degree in recording arts and music business from Full Sail University. Some of his early influences were John Bonham and Charlie Watts along with some more modern influences such as Dave Grohl, Travis Barker, Carter Beauford, and Zac Farro from Paramore.
Touring, unsigned
A blend of rock combined with a dose of power pop 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, played at the Unsilent Night Festival, with A Day to Remember, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Breathe Carolina, and performed on the Kevin Says Stage at the Florida dates of Vans Warped Tour 2009. The band had such a success, that they played in American Samoa 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 cymbals, 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.