Pyramid Culture is part of a new wave of concept bands in Toronto. The term 'œconcept band'? is quickly being equated with 'œjoke band'?, and while that's sometimes a fair comparison, Pyramid Culture are far from a joke. These four girls sing minimalist harmonies over catchy electro beats and their content is purely academic. You won't find any cop-out love songs here. Ryan McLaren sent some questions to the band, and they responded with a united voice.

How did you guys come together?

The magnetic force of pyramid power brought all four of us, incarnations of the great pyramid spirit, together onto a certain Toronto-based vessel. We were bonded by the triadic-power of our names and we knew, once and for all, that the pyramid had called us to start this mission.

What roles do you all play within the band? Kat (Collins, of Barcelona Pavilion and Republic of Safety fame) seems like the leader, but is that the reality? How do your songs come together?

Tallulah heads the cult of efficiency. Kat provides rhythmic understanding. Ignacia is the heart, the soul, the bosom. Catherine is the gladiator, ensuring 'œbeneviolence'?. Kat's previous experience in the music scene helped her find the right collaborators to start this project with, but within the group our work is 100% collaborative. We try to operate as the four points at the base of a pyramid - each has an important role to play in raising the whole. We are inspired to write about serious subjects like math and science, and within the band we encourage each other to be creative and to think outside the traditional boundaries of what a "band" can be about. We're very interested in scientific and medical discoveries, and in ecology. We read the BBC science news and choose the subjects that strike us as being most relevant to our mandate of trying to discuss these kinds of ideas in pop-song form. The heartbeats of our pyramidal overlords inspire us to create complex and mysterious beats.

Can you explain the concept of your band?

Initially, we wanted to stick with a strict pyramid-themed mandate. When we started the band, we were very interested in the Piri Reis map, found in 16th century Europe and showing the continent of Antarctica as it would look free of ice - a reality that hasn't been the case for much longer than 500 years. We began drawing parallels between this mystery and the origins of the pyramids. As we got more into sacred geometry and mathematics, we became interested in more scientific ideas as well. Our 'œconcept'? is to sing about the only subjects we find truly relevant '“ science, nature, ecology, and the fate of our world today.

There seems to be a rise in concept bands around Toronto recently. Dollarama, Garbage!Violence!Enthusiasm!, and The Blankket, for example. Care to comment on the concept of concept bands?

The concept bands that are currently on the rise often get discounted because they're not seen as "real musicians" or as being "serious" about their craft. Toronto is a very fertile place right now, creatively - and it's amazingly open to new ideas and concepts. We don't sing in perfect pitch, and we aren't trained singers, but we don't find that fact relevant to our artistic project. Art isn't the same as craft - it's not about being a trained musician or a trained scientist, it's about creating something real, and something you are serious about. There are only so many melodies. We incorporate ALL IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS! In the new year, Jennifer Lopez Knife will be releasing a compilation CD called Bad Bands Revolution that will include bands like Dollarama and Garbage!Violence!Enthusiasm!. This compilation will articulate further some of our ideas about how music and participation in a music scene can take many different forms, and how the validity of that participation doesn't come out of musical proficiency but the commitment and integrity of the project.

As a band without instruments, how do you engage your audience?

We're still working on a way to truly engage with our audience in the physical moment of performance, but in the meantime, we try to present them with compelling material and interesting and educational ideas. Audiences seem to identify with our lack of pretension. We don't want any mediation between us and other people. We resist instruments as artificial dividers. This allows the audience to really connect with what we are saying.

Are you working on an album?

We're working on a split 7" with Laura Barrett, a split 12" with 10,000 Watt Head and a split tape with Dollarama, after which we'll be releasing an EP of our own.

This is the part of the interview where you ask YOURSELF a question. Go ahead, ask anything (and answer it).

If Pyramid Culture the band was an actual PYRAMID CULTURE, which one would it be and why?

The lost pyramid culture of Antarctica - a continent so far removed from our understanding that we can't even begin to comprehend it, and yet - a culture that we suspect might have been as rich as any other we do have record of. The fact that any Antarctican culture is lost to us makes it a vessel for our imaginings. Like the continent of Mu or the lost city of Atlantis, the pyramid culture of Antarctica awakens in us the desire to believe that once upon a time, there existed a people who had truly gotten it right. They were civilized, peaceful, progressive, scientifically and artistically developed - all the things we wish our own world could become.