Francesco Sondelli

Francesco Sondelli
Born	(1973-12-08) 8 December 1973 Naples, Italy
Occupations	Musician singer composer
Website	francescosondelli.com

Francesco Sondelli (born 8 December 1973) is an Italian rock musician. He is the founder, guitarist, and vocalist for the alternative rock band The Petalstones. The band includes Malin Åkerman, a Swedish–Canadian model and singer, on lead vocals, Mario Pagliarulo on bass, and Roberto Zincone on drums.

He is the founder and chief designer of the music instrument company F-Pedals. Additionally, he founded the international music cultural project RocKramer, a world-tour lecture and concert show with recording producer and engineer Eddie Kramer. In 2013, Sondelli composed and directed the official anthem for SSC Napoli, an Italian football club based in Naples.

Biography

Sondelli was born in Naples, Italy. He is a self-taught musician. In 1997, Sondelli started his first band, Chao-Shi, in Naples with bassist Mario Pagliarulo, who later became the bassist of Serj Tankian's touring band, the Flying Cunts of Chaos, drummer Roberto Zincone, and guitarist Elio De Stefanis. The band earned a listing in the Enciclopedia del Poprock Napoletano and won the MTV Axe for Music Awards in 1998. Sondelli and his bandmates, Pagliarulo and Zincone, moved to Los Angeles in 2001 and renamed the band Ozono. In 2003, Sondelli invited Malin Åkerman to become the co-lead singer of the band after they worked together on some new songs. With the addition of a new member, the band changed its name to The Petalstones. The band released its debut album, "Stung", in August 2005. The band was dismissed in 2007. Sondelli started his solo music career and released his first solo CD, "Disordinary", in 2007.

Sondelli was the music composer for the song Déjame Ser in Puerto Rican artist Ednita Nazario's album "Soy", which was ranked No. 1 on the US Billboard Top Latin Albums, Latin Pop Albums, and Puerto Rico Top Albums, and was nominated for Latin Pop Album of the Year in 2010.

In 2013, Sondelli was appointed by Aurelio De Laurentiis as the composer and music director of the official anthem of SSC Napoli. He used the chorus of the Neapolitan song 'O surdato 'nnammurato and added new arrangements to make the new anthem.

Projects and contributions

Project ReEvolution

In summer 2009, Sondelli started Project ReEvolution with Maurizio Capone. The project started with the collaborative composition of the song Project ReEvolution by Sondelli and Capone. The two artists finally came together in July 2009 to record the final version of the song in Naples.

F-Pedals

In 2011, Sondelli teamed up with engineer Eddie Kramer, who became an F-Pedals partner, and in 2012, Sondelli founded F-Pedals, a company that manufactures guitar pedals. After then, he developed the first two models of The Legend Series, the Eddie Kramer signature Edstortion and Phazevibe, which were introduced to the market in 2013. In 2016, the line of pedals expanded with the new series named Pulse of Rebellion, which includes RobotHolic, DarkLight, EchoBandit Gold, EchoBandit Silver, Yurei, Lorion, and Matterix.

RocKramer

In March 2013, Sondelli founded the project RocKramer, a worldwide tour featuring lectures and story telling. The first event was held on 27 March 2013 in Teatro Trianon in Naples, Italy. The event was hosted by Sondelli and featured the bands Capone Bungt Bangt, Osanna, James Senese, Antonio Onorato, Daniele Sepe, Gianni Guarracino, Brunella Selo, Radikal Kitsch, Moby Dick, Hendrix Boulevard, Francesco Forni, and Sud Express.