Artist Bio: Passion Pit

The electronic band Passion Pit hails from Boston, Massachusetts and was formed in 2007 after its lead singer Michael Angelakos had an interesting February 14^th gift for his beloved girlfriend. Passion Pit initially began as Michael Angelakos personal project which resulted in the production of an EP aptly titled “Chunk of Change”. A number of acquaintances and close friends soon got hold of the EP and expressed their enthrallment with the quality of the EP. This led to the formation of Passion Pit as a fully fledged band composed of Angelakos as the lead vocals singer and keyboard artist, Huktquist on the keyboard and guitar, Thom Plass on bass guitar Adam Lavinsky on drums and finally, Ayad Al Adhamy on the synthesizer and samples.

Michael Angelakos began writing songs at the tender age of 5 and grew up relating well with spare and spooky folk tunes as well as pit-stirring ska punk. As his creative exploits expanded, he began experimenting with the endless possibilities of using computer programs to get the desired musical effects. He also experimented widely with plug ins such that by the time he produced the EP “Chunk of Change”, he had a total of six tracks. The EP featured productions which can be referred to as being explosive, sporadic and brief which in essence reflect how Michael Angelakos was able to develop and nurture his signature blissfully melancholic and euphoric sound.

Passion Pit thus evolved from being a one man show into a band that enabled Angelakos to spew out sweet romantic expressions which were consistently performed at live gigs. The band opened up for the band Death Cab for Cutie which eventually led to Passion Pit signing a recording contract with the music label Frenchkiss in 2008. Frenchkiss opted to release the EP “Chunk of Change” after the band incorporated two more bonus tracks. One of the tracks in the EP titled “Sleepyhead” generated a great amount of attention from electric indie pop fans as well as a host of bloggers. “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things” were the two new bonus tracks which spread like a wildfire on the internet propelling the band into the lime light.

Columbia Records was greatly impressed by Passion Pit’s debut EP and collaborated with Frenchkiss which saw the production and subsequent release of the band’s first full album titled “Manners” in 2009. This album was essentially produced by incorporating three keyboards. This was a well thought out effort highlighting Mical Angelakos creative input. The main outcome was the production of an album that avoided using the same recording techniques employed in the band’s debut album. As such, “Manners” exhibits the application of more organic modes of music recording. The composer Nico Muhly was incorporated to the production of the band’s second album and his influence is quite sublime especially in the track titled “Love is Greed.” As such, the track titled “The Reeling” became the band’s second album’s lead single. A number of tracks from the “Manners” album were incorporated into commercial advertisements and a number of TV series. “Manners” was released in 2010 as a deluxe edition and a few additional tracks.

The band continued on a busy schedule performing numerous shows all over North America in 2010 with the year’s highlight being opening for the band, Muse. The same year, the band began working on their second album titled “Glossamer” released in 2012. “Glossamer” featured the lead single “Take a Walk” which made it to the US top 20 Billboard sons. In its first week the album had managed to sell over 30,000 copies.