“Hey, can you guys shut up?!”
Passion Pit bassist Jeff Appruzzese is crammed in a van with his band mates and four others. They’re en route to Manchester, TN, for their gig at sweat-mud-and-PCP-soaked Bonnaroo – just one stop on the whirlwind ride that Passion Pit’s been on since their rock-solid debut album, Manners
That is if – judged by the ruckus and ribbing going on in the background – they can get down in one piece. “Hold on, I’m going to step out of the van for the moment,” Jeff says, laughing. “Everyone in this band is being totally obnoxious!”
He says it in a way you’d refer to a sibling, which apparently they practically are. “We’re totally like brothers,” he says. “We can fight all day but at the end of the day when you play a show, everything comes together and we all love each other.”
It’s been about two years since Passion Pit formed and subsequently blew the blogosphere away with their EP, ‘Chunk of Change
for his girlfriend. The songs would become the ‘Chunk of Change
“Ian approached Mike and was like, ‘hey man, it’s really cool, would you ever want to start a band?” Jeff recalls. “And Mike was like, ‘hell no! It’s just a solo endeavor.’ But it eventually led to him coming back to Ian and wanting to try it.”
Mike, Ian and Ayad began fine-tuning the songs and adding new ones, including their breakthrough single, ‘Sleepyhead.’ At the time, Jeff and Nate were playing in another Boston band, The Peasantry. But by last May, they were making up of the rhythm section of Passion Pit. And by September, the five of them were ready to debut the proper version of ‘Chunk of Change
The EP took off, fueled by the success of ‘Sleepyhead,’ (download the Streetlab remix for free HERE) a maddening track driven by a sped-up sample of an old Gaelic tune by Irish harpist Mary O’Hara. ‘Sleepyhead’ and its accompanying video instantly garnered attention, with everyone from MTV to Pitchfork to the BBC spotlighting the band. When they played New York’s 2008 CMJ Marathon, the fervor was palpable. “That’s when we started to feel the buzz was building,” says Jeff.
Some groups might have faltered under the anticipation placed on a mere EP. But Passion Pit went into the studio and delivered ‘Manners,’ an album that’s sure to find a spot on all the ‘Best of ’09’ lists when they inevitably pop up this December.
Each of the eleven tracks on ‘Manners’ – whether it’s the energetic ‘The Reeling’ (watch the music video HERE) or the softer, more cerebral ‘Moth’s Wings’ – are nuanced, hook-laden and incredibly catchy; songs that you can’t get out of your head all day after hearing them. One of Jeff’s favorite’s, ‘Little Secrets,’ (download the Caroe PM remix for free HERE) is probably the best on the album. It’s four minutes of bright melodies and sheer happiness – complete with vocals by a children’s chorus, the famed PS 22 choir from Long Island.
No word yet on whether the PS 22 kids will show up for a cameo this weekend in New York, where the band’s playing two Bowery Ballroom shows. Both are sold out. In Jeff’s own words, Passion Pit’s ‘gone from zero to 100’ in very little time.
“Last year, I was finishing school and bumming around Boston, not really doing anything,” he says. “Now we’re on an 8-month long tour. Yesterday we were doing a Sirius radio show and we got there an hour early and they were like, ‘oh you guys can hang out. There’s an artist recording now.’ And it was Andrew Byrd. We watched him through the glass.”
The band has now found themselves in the reverse role, having esteemed musical colleagues watching their act. “When we played in Paris in January – it was a sold-out show,” he says. “We were putting together our guest list. And they were like, ‘oh, the guys from Phoenix want to come.”‘