PYYRAMIDS will release their debut EP ‘Human Beings’ on 17th September 2012, through Paracadute Records.
PYYRAMIDS is a new collaboration between OK Go’s Tim Nordwind and ex-He Say She Say singer Drea Smith. For both players it’s a step into the unknown, a reinvention of the genres we’d associate with them. It finds them living in the dark and atmospheric cavern between leaving a club late at night and walking into the comfort of your home.
Connected by a mutual friend in Chicago two years ago, the pair struck up an email correspondence that soon transformed into a small torrent of music. Finding common ground and bonding over dark British pop from the early ‘80’s including The Smiths and Joy Division, to stranger more contemporary artists like Micachu and the Shapes, Norwind and Smith soon found they were natural collaborators.
For Norwind, OK Go’s resident bearded bass player, PYYRAMIDS expansive textures find him far from the bright indie pop and all-inclusive videos that have made OK Go one of the most recognisable – not to mention most watched – acts of the digital age. For Smith, formerly the saucy half of the electro-pop duo He Say She Say - and a stint singing with Lupe Fiasco – it brings her song writing into a place of bold new maturity, sacrificing the force of her singular presence. For both, it’s an unlikely partnership entirely befitting of the new age.
An inveterate home recorder with piles of songs, beats, and sketches leftover from OK Go writing work, his People project, and a fairly unceasing productivity, Norwind first passed along instrumentals that Smith layered vocals over in GarageBand. Only meeting for the first time months later, the cyber-collaboration transformed when Smith visited Norwind in Los Angeles, where they polished off a half-dozen tracks working face-to-face. Following the success of the tracks they’d finished Smith relocated to LA to fully focus on PYYRAMIDS.
‘Human Beings’ displays Norwind’s production versatility with tracks like ‘That Ain’t Right’ and ‘Don’t Go’ leaning towards the upbeat electronic pop we became familiar with following the release of Little Dragon’s ‘Ritual Union’. The title track has more of an industrial feel to it with a rigid electronic drums cutting through reverb-heavy guitar and ‘Animal’ offers something altogether more different, the vibe is a lot less electronic and the instrumentation gives a clear nod to early punk roots. Although the style of the tracks varies, they are all glued together by Smith’s dynamic vocals, which map back to the buried valley of the dance-rock hook.
The EP comes with a remix of ‘Human Beings’ by Norwind’s OK Go band mate Dan Konopka who goes by the moniker DMK.
Human Being Tracklisting:
1. That Ain’t Right
2. Don’t Go
3. Perfect Picture
4. Human Beings
5. Animal
6. Human Beings (DMK Remix)
Twitter - @PYYRAMIDS
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