| Make light! PASSION PIT are just as excited as you and me, about our upcoming Powerstation date... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Tuesday, 08 June 2010 01:09 |
 PASSION PIT's JEFF APRUZZESE laughs down a crackly phone-line at me all the way from New Jersey. I've just told him that his band have sold out the original venue for their upcoming New Zealand show... and I don't think he believes me. I allow him a moment to mentally check that today is not the first of April, before explaining that Passion Pit tickets are crazy in demand down under. "That's pretty exciting! It [ seems ] so sudden, when I'm home to unwind. I'm really, really excited. The crowds in New Zealand are amazing! We're all so excited to come back to New Zealand and Australia to play. It's where we've had some of our best shows that we've played, and the weather is beautiful, and the scenery is great. There's just good vibes all round." When Passion Pit made their first outing locally - courtesy of the Big Day Out - I made Apruzzese's band-mate (synth/samples player) Ayad Al Adhamy, swear upon a pinky-promise pact that the band would return to play their very own show. It's not often, if ever, that a musician actually keeps their promises to me. I tell Jeff that he now owes Ayad a high-five, on behalf of myself. He digresses to clarify my story, explaining that he "was probably passed out somewhere" during my interview with Ayad. "I had a really bad fever when we were there, I had a 104 fever when we were playing." I make appropriate worried noises. He laughs and reassures me - "I made it through it - that's all that counts right?" - I suppose so... Vitamins, I say. Make sure you take plenty of vitamins before visiting, this time round... "I think that's what I need to do! I keep saying that I'm going to take better care of myself while I'm on tour and have a healthy work-out regiment, and start taking vitamins... I usually lose track of that and lose sight of it, about the third or fourth day." It's easy to see how and why Apruzzese's five plus a day falls so easily by the wayside, when Passion Pit's touring schedule screams of sold-out music festivals in Australia and the UK, as well as an upcoming September/October American jaunt with Muse. What was originally born as frontman Michael Angelakos' one-man multi-track laptop project - or in more rose-tinted phrasing: a multi-song Valentine to his then-girlfriend - has morphed into a magical five-piece powerhouse, of synthesising wizardry. Apruzzese tells me that prior to Passion Pit, all members of the band were friends already in various ways or another. "We were all actually friends through different outlets, because one way or another, we all played in different bands with each other. I played in bands with friends of Ian and Mike's. And Nate and I have played in a band together. And a whole group of us, were all friends. And then Ian saw Mike play in his first solo show. We've all kinda come together in a collective group." ...and now, Team Passion Pit stands strong as a testament to the power of friendship. "I think we've all grown. It's a weird kind of bond that it makes. As much as we were friends before... you are kind of entangled in this little bubble of a world when you're on tour with the same 4-5 people. You're spending that much time [together]... We were really lucky! We [had] never spent this much time together, and it could have went horribly wrong. There's tons of bands that experience going on the road - and [they] can't stand each other and wind up replacing members, if not breaking up completely." Apruzzese continues: "I mean, we still fight a lot. But it's brotherly love! I think it's like any relationship. If there aren't disagreements and there aren't arguments, it's not completely healthy, because there always needs to be... there's always some kind of conflict. But in the end, we all sleep easy and we're all friends. We even hang out when we're off tour, which is weird."  COUP DE MAIN: Is it really important to Passion Pit not to use backing tracks in your live show? PASSION PIT - JEFF APRUZZESE: When we started, that was the mission statement. Like our official mission statement was that we were not going to use backing tracks! We were going to be an electronic band that were not using anything at all. So much the fact, that the original versions of when we used to play 'Sleepyhead', all the different samples were on a sample-pad and they would be played by the drummer. But you realise that it's more trouble than it's worth. We were getting so aggravated with ourselves, that we've started integrating backing tracks into the show. But we are still very on the side that we don't rely on them, so to speak. They're there to add texture, and to make everything crisp, and put the icing on the cake in a way. If something happened to take them away, we could still play the show. It's just they add the finishing touches, or the finishing element on top, to make everything beautiful and sparkly. CDM: Were you prepared for life on the road at all, especially so immediately after graduating from College? JEFF: Not at all, no! None of us had toured before. Being in this band, none of us really knew what it entailed, or kind of the expectations. Having second-hand [information] - a handful of friends of ours had toured - but I think it's real-life experiences, nothing [else] can prepare you for it, besides being out there. On paper, it sounds great: 'Oh! You get to travel to all these places, and you get to play shows every night, and I can go out and party and meet new people.' But it's so tiring - and so taxing on your body - that you really need to be careful that you're not going out every night 'cuz it takes a lot out of you, and you can't really afford to, or nor do we ever want to botch a show because we were out late the night before.There's a lot of preparation that's necessary. But I love it! I wouldn't trade it for anything. CDM: Do you still wake up every morning and think: 'Wow! This is my life!!'? JEFF: I don't think I'll ever really get used to it. I don't ever [even] want to get rid of that feeling, because I do have that, like every day. When I wake up and I walk into the venue, it's like - How many tickets did we sell? Oh we sold this place out? - like wow! It's still overwhelming to me. Going on tour and then coming home, is such an emotional roller-coaster in a way. When you're out on tour you're a completely different person. You're entertaining thousands of people every night, and then you come home and your life is like completely normal again, which is awesome. I love that. I love that we take on different roles in a way, while we're out [touring]. It's very weird to get used to, because your life is never normal when you're in this touring cycle. You're never in one place for long enough, and you're always out late and never know where anything is, and there's always this kinda constant discomfort. It's great. I still to this day cannot believe it... and I never really thought that this would be happening. I just graduated college and all of a sudden we were on tour - so definitely [wow]. CDM: Has the Internet made the traditional model of paying 'dues' via relentless dirty touring, out-dated at all? JEFF: Yes and no. I think it's a lot easier to get your name out there now. But I still think you have to pay your dues. It's not like we overnight just showed up at a venue and there was like 3000 people there to see us. We've been on tour spreading the word of our band, so to speak. I think it would have definitely taken a lot longer and been a lot harder, if it weren't for the Internet. Touring in general - I can't imagine touring in the 60's and 70's - when there's no cellphones, there's no Internet, how do people hear about bands? It was all just about touring. We've definitely been very lucky in the quick rise and expanse that we've had, and the reception, and how our music's going over. But I think that with how quickly things have risen, we've paid our dues in other ways. Just in terms of the travelling and the things that happen to us while we're on tour. I think that's where our karma kinda evens out. We've had so many tours where equipment blows up, where our transportation engines have blown up. All our equipment's gotten lost before and we've had to replace everything in two days. Going out of the country and not have your clothes showing up for a week and a half... amongst other things. CDM: You graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 'Music Business'. Has that been useful knowledge for Passion Pit as a band? JEFF: I think so. Nate and Ayad both went through Music Synthesis which was all about computer programming - and Ayad was also doing Film-Scoring alongside Ian - so I think that really helped them [with] composing and gave them a lead in using synthesizers and sequencing. I wound up graduating in Music Business, but I was also majoring in Performance. I think, if anything, it honed my skills in on being a better musician and being able to play with people better. I think it definitely pushes you in the right direction - and that we knew we all wanted to play music together. CDM: Considering your own personal experience from interning at the indie-label Kemado Records, would you recommend it as a path to pursue for those wanting to get a foot in the door of the music industry? JEFF: I completely agree with it. It was weird how it worked out, because originally, that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to go work in the [music] industry. I didn't really have any plans of being in a band. When this all happened, it took me off guard. The biggest thing that you can do in a way, is expand your Rolodex and meet people and talk to people. You never know when you're going to see those people again. That's kind of what happened with us. One of the guys that I was interning for when I was interning at Kemado - Paul Hanly - he turned out to be working at Frenchkiss. So when they came to see us play there for a show, the first show that they came to see us, he showed up and it was like: What are you doing here? / Oh I work at this label, what are you doing? / I play in the band... weird! It was a very fun coincidence. And I think if any of the pieces of knowledge that I picked up, it's important to meet as many people as you can, and keep in touch with them. And harass them! *laughs* CDM: What do you think is the biggest myth about the music industry? JEFF: You don't become rich instantly. It's not all... I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people know that. It's just, we still work very, very hard for what we have. We weren't playing in this band because we want[ed] to become famous, or make tonnes of money. We were doing it because we had fun doing it and we liked playing with each other. I think that if we had done it for any other reason, it wouldn't have really worked out because... when we first started playing, it was bad. Dude! Serious[ly], we'd go on tour and then we'd came back and we'd be completely broke. There was even a time where Michael almost got arrested because he was flying from L.A. to New York, and he was in the cab and didn't have any cash on him and he had no money in his bank account, and his credit card wouldn't work. Our [album] producer Chris Zane had to go down to the airport to pay his cab fare, to avoid him being arrested. It takes time to make any money.  CDM: Chiddy Bang's latest single 'Truth', samples the 'Chunk Of Change' track 'Better Things'. What are your thoughts on the song? JEFF: I think it's great! We actually played a show with them, like two weeks ago. We played a college show. I think it's awesome! They actually just made a music video for it too. We knew about it, because they actually contacted our manager and were asking Mike if he was okay with them using it. I think there's plenty of - I'm trying not to bad-mouth anything - but there's plenty of remixes and things out there that use our samples, that aren't anywhere near what this is. I think this is great. It could have turned out awful, but it sounds awesome! In the way they pushed Mike's vocals up, I think he for real sounds like a woman. *laughs* CDM: What was it like touring with Ellie Goulding? JEFF: It was great! We were actually friends with her before we went on tour together, through mutual friends that we have in London, we had met a few times. It was really great to see that - she kinda just blew up out of nowhere and it was kinda crazy - having her support us, and she has a number one record... and she was opening up for us. We weren't even on the charts at all. It was kinda funny. But she's lovely, her band is great. It was really awesome. I'm pretty sure that's one of the first tours that they had done on the album, and it was really great being on it. We all really liked the cover of 'Sleepyhead' that she did as well. We all wish her tonnes of luck. CDM: You also just re-released your album 'Manners'? JEFF: There was a bunch of things that went into it. The re-release is being put out through Columbia, because it was originally Frenchkiss and Columbia, then we changed over. We upstreamed to Sony/Columbia, so it was a proper release for them. The original release of 'Manners' was so rushed for us, literally the day after Michael finished tracking the vocals - no jokes, no exaggeration - the day after, we went back out and on tour, for about 3 more months. Then we came back for five weeks and rehearsed, and then we went back out on the road again. So we were planning - we were picking all the artwork and the layout designs and the font - while we were on tour primarily in Europe. So we'd get back from shows at 2 in the morning and be looking at artwork. When we looked back on it, we weren't really that stoked on it. We were like - Oh, it kind of looks like a moth-y blob, why did we decide to do this? - so we were really lucky that we were able to re-package it and fully re-design the packet with beautiful new artwork and new bonus tracks, which include acoustic versions of 'Moth's Wings' and I think 'Sleepyhead' is on there too if I'm not mistaken. And there's [also] the cover that we've started playing, 'Dreams' by The Cranberries is on there [too]. That's a song that's just really in Mike's range, so we started playing it, and then we were talking about re-releasing the album: oh and we should put that on there too! CDM: In a magazine interview you did last year, you mentioned how it annoyed you that reviewers sometimes focus on the way Passion Pit look, rather than your music. Does that still plague you? JEFF: No, actually that kind of stopped after a while. I wonder if it's because we started dressing better? I don't know... I don't think we did it on purpose. Maybe we just kinda grew up a little bit? And we started thinking about how we were appearing to people, when they came to see us? When we first started playing, we were just literally wearing clothes that we'd been wearing for a few days, and [then] going on-stage. But we haven't really been getting as much commentary about that anymore, which is kinda nice. But it's still weird, that people would even do that. I think that was at a time, where we were so fresh into it, and that was our first impression to people. No-one had really heard of us and our first impression was I guess, was that we looked homeless. CDM: If it makes you feel any better, I thought you were all dressed fine at Big Day Out... JEFF: Oh, we looked all right at Big Day Out? CDM: Yes. I approved enough to let you all back in the country a second time. JEFF: Awww, thanks! CDM: Finally - for those that missed out on seeing Passion Pit last time round, as well as those that managed to catch you live - what can we expect come July 30th? JEFF: We're just going to be out there having a good time playing! We'll probably play any song that they want to hear, considering we don't have that many. So, they can look forward to hearing the song they want. It's so funny for us, we'll be in our third or fourth song in the set, and people will start requesting 'Sleepyhead'. It's just like - honestly? We only have like sixteen songs! We're pretty sure we're going to play it at some point throughout the night, let alone that it's one of our singles. Read our interview with Passion Pit synth/samples player Ayad Al Adhamy HERE - from backstage at Big Day Out 2010.  |
