Biography

The Perennials are the young married couple of Pete & Amanda Wells. Like most bands from Brooklyn, they met at a bible school in the Italian countryside. Pete was born in 1991 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. His dad was a Navy Seal turned plumber, his mother a nurse turned housewife. He is the third of six kids. At age 5, Pete's family moved to Florida so his father could go to seminary. Amanda was born in 1990 in Spokane, Washington. Following a drive-by shooting in her hometown, her parents decided to leave the city. Amanda grew up in a cabin deep in an evergreen forest. They met as teenagers in San Lorenzo di Arzine: population 300 - most of that population either 90-year olds or vineyards. Pete's family had moved to northern Italy, making converts for their evangelical church. San Lorenzo di Arzine was an hour's drive south. Through a family connection, Amanda ended up at the school over two spring sessions, volunteering in the kitchen, more drawn by a sense of adventure than a commitment to faith. The school functioned like a contemporary monastery. Residents were segregated by gender into two dorm buildings, separated by a courtyard with a common classroom and dining hall. Pete had picked up guitar while, en route to Italy, his family made a one year stopover in the NYC region of Staten Island, where he was mostly teenaged and bored. Amanda hadn't grown up playing music. There in Italy - between class schedules, cleaning duties & prayer times - The Perennials began.