Sustained

Sustained started after an impromptu jam between Renata and Robert. It was the first time the siblings played together in 25 years.

In the mid-’90s, they were in a rock band called Itanna with another sister and two other brothers: Rossella, Matt, and Mark. This band lasted for a few years and had some releases. 

Rossella, Renata and Matt, all songwriters, eventually formed the band China Doll, performing extensively and releasing the CD China Doll Welcome to Loveland on Spotify. 

Their music and story was the inspiration for the new musical Unraveling: A New Rock Musical written by Roxy Grant. 

Rossella Annati Lamendola passed away in August 2023 and Renata became despondent. On Thanksgiving Day 2024 Robert invited her over to jam and she had just written the instrumental piece Not The End. That was the starting point for their collaboration, which she named Sustained to honor all the years of pursuing Music and the perseverance that it requires.

Sustained performed at an open mic, and Renata saw Steve Carsello and asked him to give the music a listen. Steve had previously subbed as the drummer for some China Doll performances. Steve loved the music and they scheduled a jam for the next month. At that first jam with all three members, it was clear that Sustained would be a trio and Steve joined Renata and Robert. They quickly added more songs to their roster and started performing and eventually recorded material in October 2025.

Renata Annati

Renata Annati is a pianist, songwriter and composer. Her first instrument was the acoustic guitar but she had difficulty playing the bar chords. She switched to piano and felt at home. She played classical music for a few years. Renata was very inspired by her older sister Rossella and her incredible songwriting, playing and vocal capabilities. They eventually teamed up and started writing collaboratively and also separately. They recorded many songs over the years before the forming of Itanna.
While Renata was a songwriter for Itanna and China Doll, she was also separately writing piano instrumentals. After Rossella’s passing, she wanted to pursue playing the piano instrumentals and would perform them by herself, but felt dissatisfied playing alone and missed the collaboration of a group project. She is truly grateful to be writing and performing with Sustained and has taken some of Rossella’s songs to arrange them for the instrumental trio to honor her sister.

Robert Annati

As a “Can Do & Out of the Box” type of guy, Rob got pulled into the Sustained project on an emotional Thanksgiving Day. Classically trained on piano, self taught on Bass. Coming from a musical driven family, playing anything half-ass was not an option. 

Rob is a sit in and go musician totally capable of sounding like he has been with any group for an extended time.

Sustained has given Rob a new creative drive to explore and express. 

Steve Carsello

Steve inherited the wish to be a drummer from his oldest brother Rich, learning on his Gretsch kit in 1981, shortly after John Lennon was killed, playing along to early Beatles songs.

The first band he performed in was called Drastic Measures and their first gig was for the 50^th anniversary of Stratford’s Bar in Hollywood, FL.

He went on to perform in the band Modo, comprised of all electrical engineers who worked at Motorola.  They played mostly covers of college radio bands and 80/90s alternative.

He eventually formed the alternative rock power trio Rise, with Jack Curran and Dane Blackburn, who wrote and performed together from 1994 to 2014. He has also recorded and performed, as drummer, with Shaved Hamster from 2010 to 2025.

Steve is an ever-evolving song-writer and recording enthusiast, having written, arranged, recorded, and mixed over a hundred original songs. His influences include R.E.M., Rush, U2, Radiohead, Big Star, The Replacements, Wilco, The Beatles, Aimee Mann, Joe Jackson, Matthew Sweet, and Steely Dan.