I don't expect myself (or many people that create similarly) to actually pull off more than half of what they imagine, but that at least leaves you with a lot of leg-room. The point is that the process is pretty much entirely in my head, I have sounds and visuals and can feel and hear how they are all supposed to work with each other. It's like blurting things out, or lying half-conscious describing your dreams. They were very manic, hyper, and energetic (as I was at the time of their creation), but that is what I guess yields lyrics that are pretty honest and sincere. But songs like "Sleepyhead" and "Better Things" were even moreso written on the spot, or as I went along the recording process. The Chunk of Change EP was very sporadic, very quickly thrown together, and that was the idea-it was never meant to be anything but that, really. But then I'll sit down and it will miraculously come together really quickly. Parts of songs become mantras, loops, bits and ideas that are scattered in my brain. How do you write and record the song then? We just like stressing ourselves out on stage and playing as many of the parts as we can. It's certainly been an experience and it's way more engaging and exciting than laptop pop right now-not that we don't like laptop pop. Things worked, things didn't work, and, essentially, we're still learning. Ian and our drummer at the time approached me after the first show (which I performed solo with a laptop) and said, "If you'd like, we should flesh it out sometime." I took them up on it, though it took awhile to arrange the music from being these square-ish, quantized, mechanical pieces of pop to songs for a five person, all-by-feel band. How did Ian, Thom and Ayad come onboard for the live shows? I suppose that's as much a curse as it is a blessing. Even more recently I tried to convince myself that music was the last thing I should do, and that I'd be better off pursuing other endeavors, but I've never really felt quite as comfortable or confident in myself as I have when writing music. I come from a musical family, so I grew up listening to good music, personally drew many ideas from the Beach Boys and the Beatles. I was about 5-years-old when I recorded that tape used at the beginning of "Better Things." I had tons of fake bands throughout elementary school and what not as I was really the only person who learned how to play anything beyond saxophone or trumpet. I used to sing "This Old Man" at the top of my lungs on these carpeted, boxy constructs at this shoe store in central New Jersey. Was making music something you always saw yourself doing? The ink hasn't even dried so to speak so, you know, we're all still really excited. I really have nothing but good things to say about everyone I've been working with. We met up soon after but I was pretty much certain that they were who I wanted to work with, judging from their approach within the industry, their roster, and just their personalities in general. I believe it had something to do with a show we played with Girl Talk, someone having kind words to say, and then the guys at FKR liking the mp3s. To be completely honest, I'm not exactly sure of how they heard of us. How did you team up with Frenchkiss Records? But, to sum it up, Passion Pit was never meant to be anything but just that… a little present. They liked it and I soon realized she liked it, so I just continued to base the entire project off of how much of my nonsense she has to put up with. I was just making little beats with pretty, simple melodies that would make my roommates dance. I had been playing around with writing music again as I hadn't written anything in awhile. My girlfriend and I have kind of marked Valentine's Day as our anniversary, but last year I, in character, did not have anything to give. I'm so bad about being timely with anything, including presents and such. Did Passion Pit begin as a passion project? I’ve heard stories about a Valentine's Day EP for your girlfriend. Passion Pit's Chunk of Change EP is out on Frenchkiss Records on September 16th. Coincidentally, our friend Michaella Solar-March, from Australian radio station FBi 94.5, recently interviewed Michael Angelakos from the band, so grab the song, then read what he had to say about love, life and french kisses. And, as a lesson to all crusty label heads out there, they've put the mp3 up on their own site for download. One of our favorite music blogs, Good Weather for Airstrikes, gave up the grind of talking about music for the grind of putting it out on their new label Neon Gold Records, and "Sleepyhead" is their first 7-inch release. We've been cranking Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead" for a good long minute, but it wasn't until last week that we had good reason to put it up for download.
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