Biography
Hailing from Halifax and now residing in Vancouver, Bontempi plays arresting pop music full of sibling harmony, empty spaces and dark musings. The trio consists of former Plumtree members Carla and Lynette Gillis on guitar/vocals and drums respectively, along with Geoff Miller on bass and keyboards. Schooled from birth on their older sisters' classic rock records, Lynette and Carla Gillis came of age in the heyday of the Halifax Pop Explosion and were founding members of the high-energy pop band, Plumtree. During the band's seven-year stint, they won a YTV Achievement Award, recorded three full-length albums for Cinnamon Toast and Endearing, and toured with Thrush Hermit, the Weakerthans, the Salteens, and Julie Doiron. After Plumtree's demise in 2000, the Gillis sisters couldn't let the band bug die. So when Geoff rented a room in their apartment and mentioned he was a classically trained pianist, the formation of a new band proved irresistible. They borrowed the name Bontempi from a whiny keyboard and let the music take shape around words like "minimal," "experimental," and "spooky." Bontempi made its live debut at the 2001 Halifax Pop Explosion and spent the following summer in Halifax's famed Khyber building with producer Charles Austin, ex-Superfriendz. Between art and architecture school, career beginnings, and a gradual move to Vancouver in 2003, an eight-song recording, What Keeps Us Awake, was finally completed in 2004.
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