Pete Filippelli

Pete Filippelli is the band's percussionist, and we're not talking just tambourine and bongos.  He's got the whole set-up and knows how to fill out our sound.      

A Brooklyn, NY native, he started playing at the age of 10 in a parade & drum corps. By the time he was in High School, Pete was jamming with local musicians, playing mostly drum set. He started getting interested in percussion when he heard of an artist named Airto from Brazil and eventually meeting Brazilian percussionists from San Paulo while learning the art of Brazilian rhythms. Growing up in a Hispanic neighborhood, he would hear the street musicians play congas,clave, cowbell, bongos and timbales.  Pete soon learned all of the Afro-Cuban rhythms and the art of this style of music

He moved to Maine in '84 and eventually played drums with a jazz rock band called Free Enterprise, later to be called Intrasition. He also played percussion (congas,timbales,bongos & percussives) with a reggae/ska band called Active Culture to sold out clubs throughout southern Maine.

Pete took a break for awhile, got married and started a family.  After a hiatus of several years, he sat in with the Sofa Kings in the spring of '94 playing percussion (congas,timbales,bongos).  The audience immediately loved it and he's been with the Kings ever since.