| The manners of PASSION PIT's Ayad Al Adhamy. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | |||||||
| Wednesday, 31 March 2010 09:56 | |||||||
 PASSION PIT come from a land where "they have vending machine Best Buys at the airport". Handily located "right where the gate is to the flight to New Zealand", one can simply swipe their card, in exchange for a purchase with an already charged battery. Synth/samples player AYAD AL ADHAMY is stoked with his new buy - a Flip MinoHD video camera - which he's already putting to good use, filming a documentary "on New Zealand and Australia, from Passion Pit's view". It's the band's first time on New Zealand soil, flown in by the Big Day Out powers that be, for a whirlwind jaunt of Summery fun. Apparently, you can fall in love at first sight, as Adhamy is easily sold for life, by mere grass and water. "There's no reason why we shouldn't come to this part of the world every January and February, for the rest of our lives. It's like - oh let's just skip the rest of the world... It's amazing! You come in and it's beautiful... you land and it's all like... the sea is right there! And then it's green and nice and it's hilly. It's just a beautiful place. You can walk around..." But we've heard this all before, Sir. Bands love us... and then they leave us... never to return again. I explain to Ayad my day's dilemma; while they're walking on-stage this afternoon, I'll be stuck finishing up an interview - and even if I rollerbladed from the Big Day Out backstage area to the Green Stage - I'm most-likely to miss at least half of their forty-five minute set. Ayad sympathises, before I can even begin to put on a sad face. "Oh no, that's terrible! Of course we'll come back. It beats New York, so much. Oh, extremely! Are you kidding me? This place is amazing. I have old friends here too, so it was really nice seeing them. I used to live in the Middle East, so I made lots of friends around the world there." ...and with that, we exchange a super sacred pinky-promise... and a few giggles, over the wonderfulness that means that a twenty-four-year old is getting paid to travel to New Zealand and play to an adoring audience.  COUP DE MAIN: I heard that poor Jeff (Apruzzese - bass), is feeling sickly, with a 104 degree fever? AYAD AL ADHAMY: Yeah, he is. He's actually not doing too well right now, but I think he'll be well enough to do the set at the very least. That [ set ] should be really good. He's out recovering right now. Not like a recovering alcoholic... [ Ayad adds to his 'Guide To...' ] Oohhh alcohol, that's a good one. Whiskey bottles. CDM: It's nice that your frontman Michael, likes to make it clear that Passion Pit is "a band with a lead songwriter, not just Michael Angelakos..." AYAD: AND SOME DUDES! CDM: Is that an accurate reflection of the band's inner workings? AYAD: Yeah, that's true, for the most part. He writes all the tracks in the studio - I was actually graduating college during the recording process anyway - but, he writes all the songs. But when it comes to the live material, it's just such a different world, that we have to go out and re-think how to do this record. 'Cuz it's such a big pop record; that to change it up live, is like a really big thing and part of it. CDM: Now, please be patient with a non-American, and explain to me the slang-phrase that your band-name is derived from... AYAD: So back in the day, there's drive-in movie theatres right? That look like this... I'm going to draw a drive-in movie theatre... that's a big screen... and here are people acting... and then, there's like a million cars. I don't know why I'm drawing this, but it's kinda fun.  AYAD: It is! CDM: And so, you're in a band called Passion Pit... AYAD: *laughs* Everyone sits out. Hangs out. And then they make out. And the making-out process - like kissing - is in the back-seat of the cars. So they go to the drive-in theatre, to go make out in their passion pit. So then they just watch movies - this is a movie - this is the drive-in... drive-in! Only two dollars back in the day, in 1950. So that's the passion pit. Some people think that it's a porno movie in the 70's starring John Holmes - who is the actor whose life is portrayed in 'Boogie Nights' - and Traci Lords, who is the most famous underage porn star of all time. She did like 300 movies before she was eighteen and a millionaire.  CDM: Thanks for sharing... I feel enlightened. As you may already be, what with graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music last year, and all! AYAD: I did! I got a degree!! It was good, it was a good school. I've had good moments. Like with all colleges, I feel that they teach you the idea of how to absorb stuff. Even if the stuff you are learning is kinda pointless, it's more that you're learning something, and how to figure it out. So, I learnt a lot there. One of my degrees was music synthesis, and that's, how I play synthesizers. But it's funny things like - I failed keyboard class twice - and I'm a keyboard player. CDM: And Passion Pit is the first band you've played keys in, right? AYAD: It is! CDM: Has it been an interesting learning curve for you? AYAD: Oh definitely! Keys - it's a different world - like, I don't play piano. I can't sit there and go do-ooh-do-wah-do. But with synthesizers, it's all about; oh those are buttons and there's knobs and things. So I can do that and twist things, and play, and it's a different type of dexterity than playing a piano. That's what I figure, anyway. CDM: For the technically ignorant, explain the difference between a keyboard and a synthesizer? AYAD: A keyboard is a set of keys - black and white keys - that's just a keyboard. So that can encompass everything. But a synthesizer, is a type of keyboard. A synthesizer per say, is the way a sound is created. So it's created using electronics rather than a piano, which is a mallet striking strings; or an electric piano which is a mallet striking a piece of metal, which is what the Wurlitzers and Fender Rhodes' sound like. So synthesizers, are made from electronic circuitry and oscillators which vibrate and creates frequencies, and then you just manipulate them to create your sound. You're like sculpting something. Like, you know when you hear white noise? Eeurrcchhhhh! We start with that sometimes and then sculpt away all the sounds to create like an oohhh-ahhh-woooo sound. So, it's kind of like art in its own way I guess. *laughs*  CDM: Do you think it's harder to write a timeless, catchy pop song? Or is it more difficult to compose an intricate, technical piece of instrumentation? AYAD: Timeless catchy pop song! The whole of my college, all I did was write technical pieces of music like - oh look! This is perfectly correct in the Bacharach style. Oh look at my orchestral thing - and blah bla bla. But writing something catchy and pop, you just gotta know. That's why the songwriting degree at Berklee is something I would never do. You can't teach someone songwriting, they just have to get it after a while, you know. CDM: True or false? Apparently, you have a burning love for Miley Cyrus' 'Party In The U.S.A.'? AYAD: Oh my god! Hell yeah! That's SO true. To the point where - since I'm an Arab - I want to create a version called 'Party In The U.A.E.'. CDM: Do it do it do it! AYAD: It's like - *sings* "I put my hands up! And the mosque is going off..." - I dunno. It could be funny.
CDM: Being an Arab, did that affect you at all living in America post-9/11? AYAD: I've only lived in America for five years. I grew up in Birmingham, England. Living there; actually no. It was not a problem at all. I've never had any problem coming back and forth, despite my Arab name. I just go - I'm a musician - and they do it fine. If you're not sketchy and you're not... CDM: If you don't have scary tattoos, or piercings... if you don't have a Lamassu on your arm... that's not scary, at all. AYAD: *laughs* It's very Arab though. But I don't think Arab terrorists have tattoos, it's against their religion.
CDM You recently remixed a song for Tegan & Sara! AYAD: We just get offered remixes by various artists. Either the label thinks that it would be a good idea to get us to remix their artist, or the band themselves like the idea. With Tegan & Sara, we just got an offer from their management. We said yes, we did the remix, and they loved it. It's actually one of the first times an artist has got back in touch with us, to be like - we love what you did! It's a good one. Remixing is a really fun way to collaborate with artists that you would not very usually get to do it [with].  CDM: Has there been any action on the next Passion Pit album yet? AYAD: No, no new album yet! Nothing like that. When you're on tour for such a long amount of time, it's almost impossible to focus on other records. You're just like - oh I gotta tour and do crazy stuff like that. So, we're just living it out until we've had enough time doing this stuff.
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