LimeWire Music Blog

The latest buzz band to emerge from the Boston-area scene, Passion Pit was born out of love. Literally. Michael Angelakos, mastermind of the group, created a Valentine’s Day mixtape of original music for his girlfriend. Naturally she loved it, additional copies were distributed, and one landed in the hands of a Frenchkiss Records staffer. The original mixtape, along with two bonus tracks, became their debut EP, Chunk of Change. Fans of MGMT, Girl Talk, and The Go! Team take note: Passion Pit will soon be added to your playlists. Here for your reading pleasure is an exclusive interview we recently landed with the quirky quintet:

Passion Pit…is there a story behind such a sexy name?

I just thought it was hilarious. I was in this American fashion class and for each specific era the teacher would hand out a list of slang terms. Passion Pit was code for drive-in movie theater where people would make out. But really what it meant had little to no impact on me. I just really loved the way it sounded and rolled off the tongue. And, you know, when I started the group it was far less serious than it is now. It sounded like a side-project name.

You’ve supported a list of great acts — Death Cab, Girl Talk, Sunset Rubdown — but who would be your dream band/artist to play with?

Well, we haven’t actually played with Sunset Rubdown yet. However, I can tell you right now that we are so unbelievably excited to share a bill with them. We love them. But as far as other bands go, there are way too many. I think we’re not just excited about opening for bands, but we’re drooling over the prospect of collaborating with other artists. That’s our real goal. Randy Newman!

The Boston area continues to push out great music year after year. Who are some of your current local favorites?

DJ Etan (Nate’s DJ moniker), Giantess, Bloody Bird, Benefit Friends, You Can Be a Wesley, Big Digits, Tiny Whales (RIP), Teletext. There are a bunch of great acts — it’s always fun to play with them.

It’s hard to believe that Newbury Comics is turning 30. Are you looking forward to playing their birthday extravaganza?

Absolutely! It’s such an honor. I’m not sure how exactly we’re going to fit our gear in there but, to my understanding, it’s certainly been done before. We couldn’t be happier. They’re great people and it’s a great store.

You guys are officially a “buzz band” now. How does that feel? Is it creepy?

It’s not so much creepy as it is kind of frightening. We really had and still have no intention of riding off the buzz as much as much as other bands have because we’re absolutely married to the idea of having a sustained career as band, as a group of people making music for people who really enjoy it and want to hear more, just like us. And I think most buzz bands are these flash-in-the-pan knock-offs and it scares me to think that we might be thrown into that category, which we undeniably will or maybe already have been, because bloggers can be relentless in their pursuit of “the new.” But we never really wanted to be a buzz band. We wanted to move slowly, work our way up calmly and quietly until we built a steady fan base through live shows and everything. Actually, we didn’t really care at all. We’ve barely played 20 shows and now there’s all this pressure coming from so many anonymous sources. But, really, in the end, it’s beautiful. It’s really wonderful that so many people are embracing the music and that it makes them as happy as it does for us to make it. The feedback has been totally positive – there’s not much more you can ask for. I think from now on it’s just going to be all about making really consistently good records and, well, the rest won’t really matter. At some point every band has to move on, far and away from that buzz. For now, we’re open to it, creepy as it may be.

Your new label, French Kiss, is also the home of Les Savy Fav. Their lead singer Tim Harrington seems totally bananas; have you met him?

I have not. Our paths just have not crossed yet. But I am so looking forward to it, as is the rest of the band. We’re actually excited to meet the rest of LSF, as we’ve really only gotten to know Syd. We’re really so new to the label that we’ve barely met any of the other artists. But Tim serves as a huge inspiration to us. He’s brilliant — live especially — but everyone knows that.

This Q&A will be published on the day your Chunk of Change EP comes out. In a few words, tell people why they’re going to love it.

I wrote this record to capture and convey that feeling where something feels TOO good. I like painfully beautiful, euphoric, blissful, sad, hopeful, and completely honest pop music. I just hope people feel the way I feel when I made this, which I have a hard time of describing. But, above all, this is a demo — a very lo-fi demo. It’s a very small taste of what is to come — hopefully a very satisfactory one.