Amanda Wells

How do you write a bio and not have it sound like a badly written high school essay? Well, I guess if you are me, you can't really. So, here goes... I'm Amanda. I like art. In fact, I could probably be dramatic enough to say that I live art. And not just the visual aspect of art. When I say "art" I mean it as whole; in the sense that it is the act of creation driven by pure and raw inspiration, as well as the end result. To me it's pretty much like breathing. Since the day my parents brought...

How do you write a bio and not have it sound like a badly written high school essay? Well, I guess if you are me, you can't really. So, here goes... I'm Amanda. I like art. In fact, I could probably be dramatic enough to say that I live art. And not just the visual aspect of art. When I say "art" I mean it as whole; in the sense that it is the act of creation driven by pure and raw inspiration, as well as the end result. To me it's pretty much like breathing. Since the day my parents brought me home from the hospital into a trailer full of musicians, poets, and artists it's how I've learned, and have grown accustomed to living my life. Really, when I think about it, it's something I was either going to completely love or absolutely abhor. Luckily for me, it wasn't the latter. Being born in 1983 left me at too young of an age to fully experience the 80's in the way that it so highly fabled now. I got to experience it through my seven older half-brothers, my older half sister (who used me as her personal experimental hair-styling mannequin), my parents, and at any give time a handful of close family friends. Needless to say, I grew up during that awkward transitional century that followed songs written about masturbation and led me through Vanilla Ice and the X-Men. Mostly, what I remember from my childhood was paging through amazing fantasy illustrations in the Time Life’s Enchanted World book series, and being immersed in almost every genre of music by way of a number of great musicians who have either passed on, or whose time for music has passed them by. Although they had to count change for groceries from time to time, my parents were always supportive with most any hobby that my siblings and I took interest in, and they were especially so when it came to music. If we wanted to learn an instrument, my dad had it hanging on a wall or could randomly pull it from some dusty corner of a room. My first guitar was pulled from a dumpster while my dad was working. After some furniture polish and a mixed set of half used strings, he gave it to me. Being the only ten year old I knew to have my own guitar lead me to no complaints. Despite the collection of varied instruments and equipment, my father's knowledge of music consisted of a crude concept of the major scale only in C, and the fingering for basic G, C, and F chords. Regardless of this, and without any idea that there was so much more to learn, I listened intently and ingested anything he could teach me. It wasn't long until I had to move on to other sources in order to learn more. From that point on I learned what I could from whoever could teach, and what I couldn't be taught, I learned on my own. I spent my awkward preteen and teenage years exploring new musical styles and visual arts, while experiencing the child-like drama that spawned the first emotionally driven and inspiration artwork and music of what I hoped to become a career. Mostly, it just gave way to a lot of songs about adolescent heartbreak and depression, and an imaginary world inside of my head where faeries and fantastic beasts chose to reside. Oddly enough, it hasn't really changed, although it has been refined since then. During the few years of College I endured I worked myself a small niche in the Lancaster area as a young female singer/songwriter and developing fantasy fine artist. When my father passed away in August of 2004 I took a hiatus from school that has since become permanent. I fell out of the music scene and eventually focused my efforts on releasing a crudely self-produced CD that was officially completed a year following his death. Now, and since then, all of my time is devoted to finding a way to make the necessary balance between paying the bills and surviving, while relaxing long enough to be inspired by the world around me and the things that help me to create and share the music and art welled inside of me. Thankfully, my songwriting and artwork is much better than my ability to write a bio that doesn't bore the general public to death. So, you should probably just go check those out. -Amanda Wells