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Pagoda is: Michael Pitt (guitar/vocals), Luca Amendolara (bass) and Ryan Donowho (drums).

In Pagoda's five short years of existence, they have been featured in Spin as one of the hottest underground acts to watch, signed a contract with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth's label Ecstatic Peace, landed their music on a soundtrack to Gus Van Sant's art house hit "Last Days" and built an already rabid fan base worldwide. With so many accomplishments in such little time, it is clear that Pagoda is destined for success.

Pagoda founders Michael Pitt and Ryan Donowho met at a mutual friend's house one day in 2001. Knowing that Mike was a musician, Ryan asked him to play one of his original songs. He did, and soon Ryan began playing drums on it, and a visible musical chemistry was apparent from the start. Though showing signs of promise, Mike had never taken guitar lessons in his life. "I just figured it out myself," he said. "I didn't know how to read music or anything. I didn't know an A from a B, I just played." One of the first songs he wrote was "Death to Birth" which has since become Pagoda's most recognized song. Ryan on the other hand was a semi-well known bucket drummer on the streets of New York who attracted the attention of a casting agent looking for a fresh new face to model Levi 501's in an ad campaign.

From 2001 to mid 2004, the band brought in several friends to fill in on bass during live shows. Among them was Christian Zucconi, front man for the band Aloke. During Zucconi's history with the band, he filmed a music video for "The Happy Song," a melodic and sarcastic song that would see the light of day further down the road.

Audiences got their first taste of Mike's musical ability on the soundtrack to Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Dreamers," in which Mike also played the lead role of Matthew. Mike collaborated with the Twins of Evil on the Jimi Hendrix classic "Hey Joe" and Bertolucci also shot a video for it which is available on the DVD release of the film. The following year, Pagoda contributed their song "Muskrat" to the soundtrack for "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things", Asia Argento's adaptation of JT LeRoy's confessional novel. Mike also had a role in the film playing "Buddy", an absent minded but good natured southerner. Soon the band began playing shows on a regular basis, a gig at The Sidewalk Caf in New York City being their first. The set was so exciting and full of energy and potential that it prompted Spin magazine to include Pagoda on a list of Underground New York bands to watch.

While in Portland researching a role for Gus Van Sant's film "Last Days", Mike ran into Jamie Kallend in the park strumming his guitar. He asked to play, and Kallend was so impressed with Mike that he invited him to an open mic night that his band Kallisti was playing. Being mutually impressed with their talents, Kallend being the bass player for Kallisti at the time, a friendship was quickly formed. After the show, Mike offered to mix some of Kallisti's songs back in the hotel he was staying at and completed them before the next morning. As fate would have it, the two ran into each other again when Mike was back in town visiting Gus. A few weeks later, Kallend was offered the job of bassist for Pagoda and accepted.

Meanwhile, the band posted a want ad online, in search of a cello player to contribute his or her talents on their demo and upcoming album. Their best offer came from Indigo Ruth Davis, a teenaged cellist from Vermont who was attending a Waldorf school that focused on students' artistic pursuits. In the studio, the first track Indigo was given to play on was "Sadartha." He aced it on his first try and was quickly added to the band's line-up.

Now having a full band, Pagoda was ready to record their demo. It contained five songs which included "Death to Birth" and "Sadartha" along with "Fetus", "I Do" and an experimental spoken word track titled "Song 1." It was recorded at Excello Recording Studio in Williamsburg Brooklyn and was given away at shows for free by Mike's agent. Those who attended Pagoda's earlier shows noticed a severe improvement in melody, song writing and vocal performance, each track better crafted and more focused than previous material. Gus Van Sant also noticed the improvement and featured two songs from the demo on the soundtrack for his film "Last Days."

"Last Days" was inspired by the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. In the film, Mike plays the leading role of "Blake", an introspective artist who is battling a drug addiction and the pressures of fame. In one particular scene, Blake retreats from the party his friends are throwing in his living room and plays a solo acoustic version of "Death to Birth." While this is one of the most powerful scenes in the film, Mike was apprehensive about contributing his own material. "I'm a musician and I didn't want it to just seem like I was doing it for personal gain," he says. "I think we shot the scene about seven times and every time I made up a song on the spot. The last time he asked me to play that song." Mike also contributed the song "That Day" to the film, on which he played every instrument using a loop machine. The video for "The Happy Song" was also featured on the DVD release.

While in Milan, the band recorded their debut album "House of Worship" with co-producer Luca Amendolara. Among the new tracks is "Never Was" and "Gulp!", said to be some of the band's best material so far.

In the months following the wrap up of the album, Jamie and Indigo left the band and Luca has since stepped in on bass. In January of 2006, the threesome launched a tour in support of "House of Worship" which will be released by Ecstatic Peace in June 2006.