Pyramido from Malmö/Gothenburg is a sludgecore-band (of sorts). Since we recently released a split-7″ with them, I thought I might ask them what’s going on in this brilliant band. Guitarist Dan Hedlund seems to be much faster with the keyboard than with the guitar as he answered my questions really quick. Some of the questions (clearly marked) are answered by vocalist Ronnie while the second guitarist Wendel only managed to show up for the last question. Right, let’s see what these guys have to say.
Ok, you play slow music. Is that fun? Ever have the urge to play a bit faster? Perhaps you have faster projects on the side? I know that Dan H have this Haunted Trails-project going but what about the rest of you?More fun, I dunno, but at least you don’t get a cramp from playing a riff. No seriously, we really like fast music as well, but Pyramido don’t play fast music, we play slow (but fun) music.
(Ronnie) I have played in fast bands before, like Man In Shackles (http://www.myspace.com/themaninshackles). It was time to play slow.
You’re very into split-releases, so far you have done splits with Suma, Gun Club, Usurpress and I know that there are a split-LP and a split-EP in the works, don’t remember the bands, though, why is the idea of splits so tempting to you? Some of the bands you have split with sounds nothing like Pyramido, is there a thought behind that or do you just happen to like these bands?
After this we’re done with splits for a while! I guess it was not a concious decision, “hey let’s make a whole bunch of split-albums!”, people asked, we like the music these bands make and we agreed. But somewhere we don’t wanna end up as the
Agathocles of sludge, so yeah, now we concentrate on the next full-length.
You’re also a hard working live band, how many European tours have you made so far? Which foreign town/venue have you played most times? How do you find time to tour so often, don’t you have jobs…?
I think we’ve done six trips down south so far so we’ve definitly have been keeping busy. One of our favourite places to play is Mainz in Germany, we played there several times. Have some good friends there and the Wagenplatz where the punks live is just a really nice place to hang out at. And yeah,
Pyramido is funded on Colombian drug money. Won’t ever have to work another day in our lives. Time is all we got.
(Ronnie) How we find the time to tour? Well as our bass player says that playing in band is 5% rock and 95% logistics.
Pyramido live in Berlin on one of their many tours.
On your 2:nd album, Salt, there is a song (“Saltstoder”) which is written and performed by Jon Eriksson aka Pavement Saw, isn’t it kinda weird to include a song by another band on a Pyramido-record? Can other bands buy space on your next LP? Do you charge per song or per minute?
It would be wierd if we claimed it was a
Pyramido-song, or if the majority of the songs was done by other people. It’s just nice to add people to the family. Or friend Klarinetten is doing a track on the next album actually.
Jon has also played keyboards on at least one of your tours, will you work more closely with him in the future? Perhaps evening joining the band? Or was it just a one-off session thing?
He will play with us on the Heavy Days in Doom Town-festival in Copenhagen as well. And hopefully many more times in the future. But as for now, Pyramido is the five of us.
In another interview, you said that you hate your first demo and that it sounded exactly like bands/music you despise. How did you go about changing your music into something you don’t despise? What are your influences in Pyramido?
I like it, I actually think it sounds kinda avantgarde, haha. Our influences is the ton of music we listen to I guess. The stuff I write for Pyramido will be more melancholic in the coming songs I think, sadder, boohoo. Either that or riffs with a more hardcore edge to them. That’s the direction I wanna take it at least.
Bunch of Saltstoder.
When can we expect a follow up to Salt? Will the title be another four letter word beginning with SA (like your albums “Salt” and “Sand”) or have you dropped that?
(Ronnie) The next album will be named Saga. Probably with all Swedish lyrics also… But everything can change…
Speaking of names, you sometimes use weird stage names, what’s the point of that? Is it to cover up the fact that most of the members are called Dan?
Duh, the coolness of it… And well, the name Tjodalv was already taken, so I had to go with Falken.
I guess that’s it! Or is it?
Yes that´s it. Or is it…
(Ronnie) Of course it is. The fat lady has sung!
(Wendel) Fucking Awesome!
Thanks guys! Hope we can do a gig together sometime. I somehow forgot some questions that I really wanted answers too, like why do they have two facebook-pages and how come
Dan B (bass) never reviewed
In Permanent Twilight for
Critical Mass like he promised. Oh well, maybe next time. Contact this great band here:
http://www.pyramido.org/
