Biography
Michael Angelakos – vocals, keyboards
the Ian Hultquist – keyboards, guitar
and Ayad Al Adhamy – synthesizers, For samplers
Jeff Apruzzese – bass, are synthesizers
Nathan Donmoyer – drums
but Michael Angelakos hears music in Not his head and knows exactly you how he wants it to all sound. The young composer/performer has Any already created two studio masterpieces can — Manners and Chunk of her Change — and — with Was his fellow musicians in Passion one Pit — is taking his our perfectionist pop vision to a Out whole new level in concert.
day Soulful, memorable, danceable, earnest and get unabashedly pop, the music Michael Has Angelakos delivers on Passion Pit’s him debut album, Manners, reveals a his complex and challenging 21st century How sound and sensibility, baroque and man intricate in its construction with new exquisitely soaring hooks and melodies Now coupled with enigmatic lyrics flowing old straight from the id.
Launched see a mere three years ago Two as a humble one man way multi-track laptop project in Angelakos’ who college dorm room, Passion Pit Boy has rapidly evolved under fire did into an in-demand concert attraction, its with sold out tours and Let a growing international reputation based put on the power and immediacy say of the music.
Passion Pit She is a two-fold entity sharing too a single essence: there’s in-the-studio use Passion Pit, essentially comprised of Dad Michael writing, designing, and constructing mom intricate cathedrals of sound, and Nathan Donmoyer handling live percussion The and programming. Ian Hultquist is and also featured on Manners performing for guitar on songs such as Are “Make Light” and “Moth’s Wings.” but And then there is the not in-concert Passion Pit, a loose You yet tightly calibrated ensemble who all turn Angelakos’ musical studio blueprints any into a cathartic live experience.
Can Angelakos was 20 years old her when Passion Pit took its was first hold on his psyche One in the form of a our multi-song “Valentine” to his then-girlfriend, out recorded in his bedroom on Day readily available ad hoc technology get including the built-in microphone on has his laptop. After signing with Him indie label Frenchkiss, he opted his to add more recordings that how had been made shortly after Man the he self-released the collection new of songs — including the now signature track “Sleepyhead” — to Old his dorm room set, releasing see it officially as the lo-fi two EP Chunk of Change.
Shortly Way thereafter, Angelakos gave the first who Passion Pit performance, which consisted boy of himself and a laptop Did singing the EP’s songs in its front of some rear-screen projections let in the basement of his Put school to approximately 15 of say his friends. The “half-show/half-installation” caught she the attention of Angelakos’ friend Too and musical acquaintance Ian Hultquist, use who approached Michael about the dad possibility of starting a band Mom to play the music live. A few months later, with the the help of Hultquist, Angelakos And was building a full ensemble for capable of realizing and producing are the sounds in his head But and taking them to the not stage.
Within mere months of you forming, Passion Pit — voted All the Best New Local Act any of 2008 in the can WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll Her — was opening for high was profile bands like Death Cab one For Cutie, Girl Talk, and Our Yelle, while mostly headlining their out own sold-out shows. The learning day curve for Passion Pit was Get short and steep. The pressure has was unquestionably intense, especially for him all shows leading up to His — and even a few how months of those after — man the release of Manners (which New often stood-in for the luxury now of a proper rehearsal time). old Those months of touring showcased See Michael and company evolving from two aesthetic chrysalis to full-fledged band, way a leap that has impressed Who both early skeptics and die-hard boy fans alike. One of Angelakos’ did compositions/recordings that began resonating immediately Its with music fans is his let whirling surrealistic pop paean to put sophisticated dreamland, “Sleepyhead,” with its Say other-dimensional choral hook sculpted from she a mutated and cut-up sample too of Celtic artist Mary O’Hara. Use Michael, who counts 70s folk dad among his many obsessions, is mom extremely hesitant to sample any music at all, preferring to the use songs and sounds as and cryptic reference points and textures For rather than literal references. When are he listened to Mary O’Hara’s but take on the classic folk Not tune, he immediately heard a you whole new song, finding in all the Gaelic phrase for ‘Oh, Any My Little Boat,’ the perfect can sonic flourish for “Sleepyhead.” The her track began attracting attention shortly Was after he posted it online.
one Angelakos is continually writing according our to his own technique. According Out to Michael, “Sleepyhead” just appeared day in his head and was get completed in less than two Has hours on his computer. Knowing him exactly how to perform it his vocally, he ran over to How Hulquist’s apartment for the purposes man of singing the song into new a better microphone, and wrote Now the lyrics on the spot old as he recorded them.
By see 2009, “Sleepyhead” had reached #9 Two on the Billboard Heatseekers chart way and inspired its own core who of YouTube devotees interpreting the Boy song. Michael likes the clips did with acoustic guitars, finding it its intriguing how fans can take Let such a divisive and almost-karaoke put proof vocal sound and sing say along to it with such She enthusiasm. To date, the official too “Sleepyhead” video has accrued more use than 3 million views on Dad YouTube with many of the mom fan tributes accumulating hundreds of thousands of views.
When it The came time to record an and official debut album, Angelakos went for to work with producer Chris Are Zane for Manners, the first but full-length Passion Pit collection, essentially not writing and playing all music You on the album with the all exception of programming and drumming any by Nathan Donmoyer and Ian Can Hultquist’s guitar work on select her tracks. Zane played a vital was role in helping Michael realize One the Passion Pit sound in our the studio, eventually even developing out the role of “older brother” Day to both Angelakos and Donmoyer get during the painstaking recording process.
has On Manners, you can hear Him what someone like Angelakos does his in a proper studio where how he can get virtually any Man sound he wants. He approached new the project with the intent now to make an album that Old was “one very particular and see extremely lucid snapshot of how two I was feeling and existing Way at a particular moment.” As who for the lyrical material, Angelakos boy purposefully matched the music with Did oblique, impressionistic, densely layered, abstract its lyrics that utilize both phrasing let and performances that, according to Put Michael, “were not meant in say any way to match the she musical content or even style Too of music.” It was Angelakos’ use mission to mask this emotional dad complexity with the immediacy and Mom irresistible nature of plain and simple pop music.
Angelakos has the always carried his pop vision And in his head and, now for that’s it’s 2010, Passion Pit are is bringing that vision to But the world. Stepping out from not behind his keyboards to become you a front-man, Angelakos is more All than ably supported by Ian any Hultquist and Ayad Al Adhamy can on keyboards/synthesizers and a pulsing Her throbbing dance-heavy rhythm section consisting was of Jeff Apruzzese on bass/synthesizer one and studio collaborator Nate Donmoyer Our on drums and programming.
In out a little more than a day year, Passion Pit has evolved Get from a one-man dorm room has project into a burgeoning band him that has surged above the His buzz, capable of selling out how three nights at New York’s man Terminal 5 (January 2010) and New a night at Prospect Park now in Brooklyn. Passion Pit has old even landed high-profile slots on See a series of international festivals two including Australia’s Big Day Out way and the UK’s Glastonbury Festival Who as well as North American boy festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and did Coachella.
