Passion Pit

Originating as a solo endeavor in Boston, Massachusetts, Passion Pit took shape when Michael Angelakos assembled the EP Chunk of Change as a Valentine's Day present for his girlfriend. Circulation among friends and contacts quickly generated enthusiasm for the material, prompting Angelakos to expand the project into a live ensemble that soon supported acts such as Death Cab for Cutie. That exposure attracted label attention, leading Frenchkiss to reissue Chunk of Change in 2008 with two additional tracks. The release, highlighted by the song “Sleepyhead,” drew widespread notice among bloggers and listeners drawn to buoyant electronic indie pop. Columbia Records then partnered with Frenchkiss to issue the group’s debut full-length Manners in spring 2009, featuring Angelakos alongside Nathan Donmoyer, Ian Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, and Jeff Apruzzese. The album reached number 51 on the U.S. Billboard 200 while also appearing on charts in Australia and several Western European countries. Gossamer, the long-delayed follow-up that arrived in 2012, was introduced through the singles “Take a Walk,” “I’ll Be Alright,” and “Constant Conversation,” and introduced Xander Singh in place of Adhamy. It advanced to number four in the United States and entered the Top 20 in Australia and Canada. Shortly after its release, Angelakos withdrew from remaining tour dates to receive treatment for bipolar disorder at a residential facility. The band resurfaced months later with an October 2012 performance on Saturday Night Live, then headlined Florida’s Coastline Festival and issued the Constant Conversations EP the following year. Late 2014 brought the departures of both Singh and Hultquist. Early 2015 brought the announcement of a new album together with the February single “Lifted Up (1985).” Crediting only Angelakos in its liner notes, the resulting Kindred appeared that April and placed inside the Top 30 in the United States, Australia, and Ireland. Summer touring was briefly halted by a reported bout of pneumonia, after which Angelakos’s divorce and public statement that he is gay were reported in music media later that year. The band maintained an active schedule through 2016, appearing at the Philippines’ GoodVybes Festival in February and at multiple festivals across the United States and Canada during the summer and fall. In early 2017 Angelakos premiered several new Passion Pit tracks through the YouTube channel of the Wishart Group, an organization he founded to assist musicians facing mental-health challenges. The songs were removed within weeks yet resurfaced in July as the ten-track streaming album Tremendous Sea of Love. Accompanying tweets and a press statement indicated that Angelakos planned to continue creating music while stepping back from promotional and touring demands. The break proved brief; by early 2019 he had returned to the road to mark the tenth anniversary of Manners, and May of that year saw the collaborative single “I Found U” with Sweden’s Galantis.