PIRAMID SCHEME is a psych-garage-rock and dark power-pop band in Washington DC. In its second incarnation that began in late 2018, the band is led by Lisa Said, with members Richard Benjumea (DeSanguashington), Abner Jara (Bleeder), and Sarah Brooke Purgal (Laveaux).
Dan Locke: What is your upbringing?
Lisa Said: I was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. My parents immigrated there from Cairo, Egypt in the early ’70s. They were quick to assimilate into American culture— hence why they named me “Lisa”.
Growing up in an Egyptian family in Tennessee around was a trip. I heard crazy things from both sides. People were always like “Where are you from? Are you black? Mexican? … Indian?” and “Your dad’s accent is funny?” with a Southern drawl.
Even though my parents still live in my hometown, I haven’t lived there since I was 18. It is a beautiful and scenic city; I just don’t relate to that life or the people.
How did you discover music?
Growing up, I discovered music mostly through a combination of radio — ’80s pop & ’60s oldies, my parent’s LPs, my older siblings’ tapes and CD’s, and MTV in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I’m old enough to have lived through a few different listening formats, including 8-track in cars, making mixes to tape, etc.
Although I was obsessed with music since I was young, but I didn’t really find people that cared as much about music as me outside of my siblings until I went to college. I realized I had a knack for remembering melodies and lyrics, though I didn’t learn how to play an instrument until much later. I hung out with musicians just to get the exposure to people who cared about music. I traded music with them or other avid collectors. I found my tribe, and then there was the post-college diaspora when I moved to NYC, so I had to find my tribe all over again. And then again when I moved to Asheville, NC. And then once more when I moved to DC. Finding my tribe eventually got easier with every move.
What was the first instrument that you started to play?
My first instrument is electric bass — I started really late, like age 26 or something like that. I always wanted to play in the band on the one condition that I played an instrument. It didn’t interest me to just sing songs without playing something. And bass seemed like the easiest for a newbie like me to learn. So, I got help learning from the community of friends in Asheville, NC who knew how to play. And at that point in my life, I had lots of time and not a lot of money, so it was a good time to learn an instrument and get some angst out to song. Especially since GW Bush was in office and “the war on terror” was starting overseas.
How did you get your first guitar? And do you still have it?
My first guitar was a plastic Dukes of Hazard guitar I received for Christmas when I was 5. I never learned how to play it. I have no idea where it ended up.
The first one I learned to play on was a classical nylon-stringed one that my friend and roommate had and let me borrow to play after I started learning bass. I used it to learn how to play chords and to write songs for my first band—The Telepromptors.
What is your favorite current guitar (year, make and model) and does it have a name?
I try not to pick favorites, but I really love my Fender Jazz Bass Made In Japan 1991 Olympic white bass. It took me awhile to find a bass that gave a good thump and was not too heavy. If I call it anything, it’s White Chocolate.
As far as guitar, I’ve had my Waterloo WL-14 longer than any other since 2017. It’s black and if I thought about it, I’d call it Black Satin.
Overall, I’m not very sentimental about my guitars. I’ll trade out one guitar I don’t play as much to make room for the other that fits my current musical landscape better.
How did you get your band together?
Well, let’s see — the first lineup of Piramid Scheme ran from 2017 to mid-2018. I was already playing music with a drummer Andrew Toy, and then I met Darrien Day, the lead guitar player, and they both supported me with my solo, more country, songs. I wanted to play more rock stuff under a different name so we wrote the first EP, recorded, and added Howard Rabach as our bassist. We had a good run but some members needed to move on to different projects or priorities which I could understand. But it was a bit heartbreaking, and I thought I’d just return to playing solo again. But my heart was still in playing with a band.
So, this current lineup of Piramid Scheme came together unexpectedly yet harmoniously— Abner Jara, our drummer, was introduced to me from Andrew Toy from the first line-up. And I had seen Richard Benjumea play a few times with another band, really liked his playing, and asked him if he wanted to play with me and Abner and see how it worked out. Well, our first practice, we discovered how well we all connected musically. In addition, Abner had recently moved from Chile and was still getting used to communicating about music in English. And Richard is a bilingual Spanish and English, so he helped bridge the communication gaps between Abner and me since I didn’t know Spanish. Then after a few practices, after wracking my brain about a possible bass player, I asked Sarah Brooke Purgal who I knew from a local guitar shop if she played bass. And lo and behold, she did and was interested in joining us. Well, we all came together easily and it felt like family…chosen family. Admittedly, the three of them sometimes worked on a certain musical wavelength that I was trying to catch up to — sometimes I was tuning into the same channel with them, sometimes I just stood back and bore witness.
On you Facebook page you say that your music is a combination of psych, garage and dark power pop. How did you get that mix?
Ah, it’s random. Genres are hard to pin point with all the combinations and things. I played around with different descriptions, but this one seemed to capture our range the best.
What is dark power pop?
Dark describes the moodiness of the music and our ambiguously ethnic backgrounds. Not to be too witchy, but sometimes making music is like the dark arts — channeling into something you didn’t know was there. So naturally, “dark power pop”.
What was your first show like?
Our first gig as the new line up was a lot of fun. It was at Dew Drop Inn in DC, and it was a very well attended evening put together by local label This Could Go Boom! Lots of people were dancing to the music, and there were great vibes. I was still learning new lyrics to brand new songs, and Sarah had just joined playing with us a month before, so it was nice to just get our energy out and play.
How was it to record your first recording session?
Our first recording session went smoothly — it was the four of us at Inner Ear Studio with Don Zientara sound engineering. We recorded 6 songs in one day. I had recorded several times with Don before, so I could anticipate how long many songs we could cover in a day. The plan was to capture drums and then overdub the rest of it later, but we did end up using a lot of the guitar tracks from that session.
Tell me about your latest release?
The latest release is an EP with six songs with five originals and one cover “Modern World” by the Modern Lovers. We recorded all the core tracks with Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studio in Arlington, VA. And then we recorded all the overdubs at Lazy Animal Studio in Falls Church, VA with Pat Hester and Sarah Brooke Purgal producing the vocal tracks.
The songs came together quite organically from writing and practicing them together over about 4 months, and they range in mood and tone, that I relate to colors. “Beg or Borrow” was the first was kind of a song I wrote as a solo artist but the band brought it to life. It’s more blue or indigo. Then we came up with “Seen This Before” which I would classify as more classic red. The band gave it a great dynamic and I love how it turned out, like a ‘60s spy movie. “Darklights” was a song I wrote in 2014 that I thought was too sad to play live, but the band really elevated it from being extra dark to being more complex, from being grey to being a deep purple. “Funtime Friend” came together very easily, we started it as a band, with a riff and some lyrics I brought to practice. It happened to be the first practice Sarah joined us so that is a fun time marker. Lastly, “Mean Streak” was an older song I wrote in an angry space but never recorded before, more of a Ramones or Cars song, so like red with blue racing stripes.
What is the biggest conspiracy theory facing this nation today?
That’s a hard one. I think it’s more about the systems at play. Overall, I’d say the biggest conspiracy is that unbridled capitalism is healthy for a nation, for its people. Because it’s not, and we are seeing the effects of that now.
Lies and fake news are running amuck. AI systems are getting better and in the wrong hands. Capitalism enables corporate social media to continue without enough regulations. It’s letting outside parties reach and influence “vulnerable” people— my euphemism for those lacking logical intellect. We have all this behavioral influence from places like Russia or brands trying to gather more information for their AI data sets. It’s fucking scary how easily people are influenced or how willing they are to hand over their personal data.
I’m watching this go down currently with all these illogical conspiracy theories happening in this COVID-19 pandemic. It’s so disheartening. First Brexit, then 2016 elections, now this on a global level. I blame Zuckerberg not figuring out a way to sink his whole ship to save some modicum of democracy. But maybe this is just the natural evolution of things before we all hit rock bottom, together.
Though my biggest fear after this pandemic is in our rear-view mirror that we, as a nation, don’t learn the lesson from the tragedy. Thereby, letting the same things happen again, and again. I don’t know if it’s a conspiracy theory, I just believe that unbridled capitalism and greed has created a cultural petri dish to let conspiracy theories have their own pandemic, during and after this COVID-19 one.
Have you been to area 51?
No, not yet. I have been to Marfa over 20 years ago and heard about the Marfa Lights phenomenon. I don’t know if they have any relation.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Definitely vinyl as a purist. However, as a realist who moves around a lot, digital is my current reality.
How do you feel about the pop music of today?
There is some genius in the pile of hot trash. I don’t listen to much pop music today though. I don’t like overly repetitive music, so most of it just turns me off. I tend to find my comfort zone in older music, but every now and then, I get awestruck by some gems from the new music pile.
How do you feel that the Coronavirus is going to affect the music world?
It’s going to be a big change, at least for the next year, that’s all I can predict. And that the effects are already traumatic for many artists and businesses— big or small.
It must be depressing for extroverted musicians, those who love to perform, those who love to go out. I am not one of them. I love to create and to experience music on an intimate level. So, some of the livestream shows are interesting, you can really hear the songwriting. As a curious person, I find seeing the inside of artists living spaces just as interesting or maybe more than the music.
As for the lesser known artists, hopefully it will give them a chance to break through because their creativity and mastery might develop an audience they didn’t have before. Who knows? I hope it balances that really talented unknown people get some time in the spotlight a bit more…. a hopeful projection from someone who was not a fan of the status quo before Coronavirus. Overall, I’m rooting for authenticity and mastery over marketing and mediocrity.
Are you going to start doing live YouTube concerts like many other artists are doing now?
Nah, probably not. I’ll put videos up, eventually, but I don’t crave to perform live for people… not yet, at least. Too busy watching the wheels go round and round.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? And what is the meaning that song mean to you?
Mr. Tambourine Man.
The Byrd’s version was very altered state-inducing for me when I was a kid— I’d here it on the radio all the time because I listened to a lot of 60’s radio and that era music. And at that time, music was the only place I could escape to. I loved that song so much and revisited it about 9 years ago when I heard a live version from the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute album played by Roger McGuinn… that feeling came back. Something about the 12-string guitars and some lyrics I never noticed before.
After hearing that live version, I had started to learn the song on guitar based on the full-lyrics Dylan version, which I never paid attention to much before that although I am a big Dylan fan. Dylan’s lyrics that weren’t in the Byrd’s version give me goosebumps, especially these days: “Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand…I have no one to meet, and the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming”
As a kid, perhaps I could only like the Byrd’s version. As an adult, I can appreciate both… the Byrd’s one still feels mildly psychedelic, innocently nostalgic, while Dylan’s original one feels literary and epic. That song in either form is so perfect to listen to now in this pandemic quarantine headspace, it really grounds me as well as gives me a place to escape.
Tell me about any current solo projects?
Before Piramid Scheme, I was playing solo for a few years, but it was mostly sad songs. In the last 3 years since, I wasn’t in the mood to play my solo, sadder songs. Now I’m going back to woodshed some songs that I left behind, it seems like the right time this year. I want to take my time and do a 2.0 version of my solo work, so it might take a while to emerge out of the cocoon with these new songs.
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
Ah, the next five years… “five years, that’s all we got”. In the next five years, I’m getting better at guitar, feeling more comfortable playing solo. Booking Piramid Scheme gigs in 2021 hopefully.
Also, I hope to be playing more bass and finishing some soul and hip-hop type songs I’ve been writing. They live only on VoiceMemos right now as hooks.
And I want to help other musicians with their projects. Like a beat’s producer friend Hillprop97 asked me to play bass on his song, and it was really nice to get back to playing soul and funky things again. He will hopefully release that soon.
My ultimate aspiration is to put together a rock opera that I’ve been dreaming about writing in the next 5 years. It’s about being an artist in the modern age.
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Thank you for this opportunity to share. Writing about myself gives me anxiety, but it’s also comforting to be shaken out of the painful and myopic current circumstance with writing about music. I’m really grateful to answer these questions for UnRated. Thank you for having me to the party.
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