Once upon a time there were six girls all in love with the world. Musicians since birth and friends since shortly thereafter, they were inspired one late summer day to start a band unlike any other, a band that would be innovative, insightful, and true.

The girls, Molly (guitar, bass, glockenspiel, vocals), Andrea (keys, glockenspiel, vocals), Mansi (alto saxophone), Audrey (violin, vocals), VyVy (guitar, keys, glockenspiel, vocals), and Laura (percussion), composed their first song, “For Ludo with Love and Squalor” in the garage of their friend Ben, who would soon become the kindest, most patient, and most ridiculously talented sound producer a band could ever hope for. A tribute to fleeting summer love, the song was the first of many by the band that the girls decided to call The Pizookies, named after the irresistible, chocolatey dessert served at the popular restaurant BJs.

The band will have spent almost exactly one year together before five of its six members move all across the country to begin college, the prospect of which simultaneously rocks and sucks and which was the theme of another of their songs, “To Be Loved.” The past several months, then, have been wholeheartedly dedicated to songwriting, practicing, and performing. The Pizookies have performed for such events as their school’s Battle of the Bands and World Hunger Day concerts, Darfur benefit concerts, and the upcoming Invisible Issues Concert, which will raise money for Zambian AIDS orphans. All active members of their school’s World Awareness Committee, the six Pizookies often find themselves using music to help make a difference in people’s lives. In the winter they recorded “Ashley’s Lullaby,” a ballad for little Ashley Barth, a friend of theirs who is doing tremendously well in her battle against leukemia. They loaned the song to Global Grooves, their school’s compilation album that raised money for an important health project in the developing nation of India. Also for the same cause, they helped raise money in an auction by creating an auction package in which they promised to write, record, and perform a song all about and for the highest bidder. Though the track has yet to be released, it promises to be another fun, high-spirited number so characteristic of The Pizookies.

This August, The Pizookies will release their first album, hopefully along with a tour around northern California. Until then, they are busy writing, singing, recording, traveling, graduating, celebrating, laughing, crying, and living. They want you to know that they love you and that they wish you nothing but peace, love, and pizookies.