It's a 90 degree day in downtown Chicago. Bradley Ard, Yumi Kazakawa, and Rufus Aaronson of the band The Experiment are sitting at an outdoor cafe celebrating the release of their debut single/EP, "Live Through This", over a large pizza, seemingly ignoring the oppressive Midwest humidity. We spoke with Bradley Ard about the sudden success of the band, as well as the GranTurismo Artist Collective, which has seemingly taken over the Chicago music scene.

"It's been really great. This band actually started as a side project for Yumi. She had some songs written that didn't quite fit what we were doing in Pressure Plate, so we all encouraged her to work on them and put together her own project. Who knew that this little side project would be the first to get something out, and to actually tour outside just local shows? It's fantastic. We're all extremely, extremely happy."

But what about their "other" band? "We're still part of that, too. But they had shows lined up, so we roped in Christina and Pete to fill in for us. And who knows, once we're done with this tour, maybe we can slide one of them over here to take over, maybe the line-ups will be how they are now, maybe we'll go back to how it was so they can concentrate on our studio (N0where Studios), who knows what will happen. That's the great thing about how we all work. There's some real flexibility between these bands, and a lot of cooperation.

"Having these bands work as a collective, rather than as separate bands, makes life so much easier. We work together when writing songs, we work together when planning tours and shows. If one of us gets sick, it's like a regular job, there's someone we can call to fill in. Well, not everyone has that luxury, we can't just have someone sing in Chris or Yumi's place, but all in all, it works.

"And in an instance like this, where one of the bands goes on tour, we have people who can take over so the other band can keep going. Pressure Plate is really in good hands with Pete and Christina, they're going to be fantastic there."

So what's the future hold? "Well, The Experiment's going to do this tour, which, I think, will go for a month. The last three shows are going to be in Chicago, at The Mid, and be GTAC shows, meaning everyone's going to be there, DJ Strike, all the guys from Pressure Plate, and maybe some special guests. We're going to be doing songs from both bands, and some new stuff that we've worked on as a unit. I think Tim's doing a DJ set each night, even. It's going to be one long, three-day party. I hope we all survive!"

---Harold Unger, Chicago Sun-Times