Vanessa Peters
Encyclopedia
Vanessa Peters is an unsigned Texas
-based singer/songwriter who often performs accompanied by the Italian instrumental
trio known as Ice Cream on Mondays.
, and started playing music professionally in 2003. She studied English and Creative Writing at Texas A&M University and her original intent was to obtain an MFA in Creative Writing and pursue a career as a novelist. Upon graduation, she moved to Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy for a year. There she learned to play guitar and began writing songs. Her songs have a short-story quality about them and her lyrical abilities are often praised among reviewers. The music blog Heartache with Hardwork states, "It's one mark of a great song that it can work on a number of different levels. And almost every song here does that. They work as allegory, as symbols for some of the grand concepts: love, fear, loss, friendship, fear. They work as literal short stories."
In 2002, Peters began playing at open mics and local coffee shops in Houston. By 2003, she had released her first album, Sparkler, and in 2004 did a cross-country solo tour. The same year, she also recorded her first album with Ice Cream on Mondays and they released the album, Thin Thread, in January 2005. The collaboration with Ice Cream on Mondays has produced three albums and numerous tours across Europe and America in which Peters is usually accompanied by the band's lead guitarist, Manuel Schicchi.
Peters has also produced solo records over the years, most notably the acoustic EP "Blackout." One of the tracks, "Afford to Pretend," was featured on NPR's All Songs Considered Open Mic in 2006. Peters has also had the song "Love Story" featured on MTV's The Real World: New Orleans and the song "The Next Big Bang" featured on "Keeping up with the Kardashians."
The band's newest album, "Sweetheart, Keep Your Chin Up," has been well-received by critics on both sides of the Atlantic and debuted at #12 on The Euro Americana Chart. Peters and the band played 100+ dates in 2009 in support of the new album, including shows at prestigious venues such as McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston, The Green Note in London and Folk Club in Torino, Italy.
2010 will see the band taking time off to work on new material for their next studio album.
Additional members of the touring formation:
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-based singer/songwriter who often performs accompanied by the Italian instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
trio known as Ice Cream on Mondays.
Biography
Peters grew up in Dallas, TexasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, and started playing music professionally in 2003. She studied English and Creative Writing at Texas A&M University and her original intent was to obtain an MFA in Creative Writing and pursue a career as a novelist. Upon graduation, she moved to Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy for a year. There she learned to play guitar and began writing songs. Her songs have a short-story quality about them and her lyrical abilities are often praised among reviewers. The music blog Heartache with Hardwork states, "It's one mark of a great song that it can work on a number of different levels. And almost every song here does that. They work as allegory, as symbols for some of the grand concepts: love, fear, loss, friendship, fear. They work as literal short stories."
In 2002, Peters began playing at open mics and local coffee shops in Houston. By 2003, she had released her first album, Sparkler, and in 2004 did a cross-country solo tour. The same year, she also recorded her first album with Ice Cream on Mondays and they released the album, Thin Thread, in January 2005. The collaboration with Ice Cream on Mondays has produced three albums and numerous tours across Europe and America in which Peters is usually accompanied by the band's lead guitarist, Manuel Schicchi.
Peters has also produced solo records over the years, most notably the acoustic EP "Blackout." One of the tracks, "Afford to Pretend," was featured on NPR's All Songs Considered Open Mic in 2006. Peters has also had the song "Love Story" featured on MTV's The Real World: New Orleans and the song "The Next Big Bang" featured on "Keeping up with the Kardashians."
The band's newest album, "Sweetheart, Keep Your Chin Up," has been well-received by critics on both sides of the Atlantic and debuted at #12 on The Euro Americana Chart. Peters and the band played 100+ dates in 2009 in support of the new album, including shows at prestigious venues such as McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston, The Green Note in London and Folk Club in Torino, Italy.
2010 will see the band taking time off to work on new material for their next studio album.
Band Members and Instrumentation
- Vanessa Peters: guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Manuel Schicchi: lead guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, harmony vocals, banjo, harmonica - Juri Deluca: bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Alberto "Gumo" Serafini: drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
Additional members of the touring formation:
- Gabriele Galimberti: bass guitar
- Alex Akela: violin, mandolin, and bass guitar
Discography with Ice Cream on Mondays
- Thin Thread (2005)
- Little Films (2006)
- Sweetheart, Keep Your Chin Up (2009)