Passion Pit (2008–present) The first Passion Pit songs, which would later become the
Chunk of Change EP, were written by Angelakos at
Emerson College as a belated Valentine's Day gift to his then-girlfriend. At first, he wrote and performed all his material alone using a laptop. After one of his solo shows in the Boston area,
Ian Hultquist, who was attending Berklee at the time, approached Angelakos and expressed interest in creating and playing music collaboratively. They formed a group that consisted of Angelakos, Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, Thom Plasse (bass), and Adam Lavinsky (drums). The band spent a considerable amount of time trying to flesh out a collaborative format and structure that would work best for them. Jeff Apruzzese and Nate Donmoyer joined the band shortly after they signed to
Frenchkiss in 2008, replacing Plasse and Lavinsky, respectively. In 2012, Adhamy was replaced by Xander Singh.
2007–09: Chunk of Change The band's debut EP,
Chunk of Change, was released on September 16, 2008. The first four tracks were those that Angelakos had written as a gift for his girlfriend, which had already become popular throughout the
Emerson College campus, where Angelakos was attending classes at the time, and had been passing out his own, self-produced copies. The first and only single to be released from the EP, "Sleepyhead", received a good deal of exposure through its use in numerous media campaigns and advertisements, while the video for the song, directed by
The Wilderness, was included on
Pitchfork's Top 40 Music Videos of 2008 list. The song contains samples of "Óró Mo Bháidín" by Irish singer and harpist
Mary O'Hara. Other songs from the EP received some exposure as well. "Cuddle Fuddle" was featured in
E4's second series of
The Inbetweeners and "I've Got Your Number" was used in an advertisement for the cash card from
O2,
Money in the UK.
2009–11: Manners The band's first full-length studio album,
Manners, was released on May 18, 2009, in the UK and May 19, 2009, in the United States and Canada. In celebration, the band played their record release party on the 18th in New York City on a Rocks Off boat cruise. To obtain a specific background vocal accompaniment the band was looking for on
Manners, Passion Pit enlisted the help of the
PS22 chorus, who recorded vocals in-studio for three of the album's songs: "
The Reeling", "
Little Secrets", and "Let Your Love Grow Tall." "The Reeling" was the first single to be released from the album and found success on the
Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the fall of 2009, where it peaked at number 34 in October and LittleBigPlanet 3 which led to the band's increased popularity among fans and players of the game, who eventually created an in-game instrumental version of the song to listen to in the first game. When the sequel was released, it came with the song's actual instrumental version used in the trailer. The song "Moth's Wings" was used in the fourth episode of the
third season of the
CW teen drama
Gossip Girl and in the closing credits of episode 36 of
HBO's
Big Love. It appeared in the
FIFA 10 video game and was featured in the film
Life as We Know It, starring
Katherine Heigl and
Josh Duhamel. Additionally, the track has been used as a background theme for
Sky Sports' coverage of the
UEFA Champions League and as the music for a dance routine in Episode 5, Season 8, of the US television show
So You Think You Can Dance, which received a standing ovation from the show's judges. It was also featured in MTV's show
Awkward. In June 2009, the band performed at the
Glastonbury Festival 2009 in
Pilton, Somerset, England, where they dedicated the final song of their set to festival headliner
Jarvis Cocker, who was to perform on the same stage later that same day. Afterwards,
NME, while favorably reviewing Passion Pit's performance, incorrectly reported the band as having dedicated their entire set to Cocker. On April 13, 2010, the band reissued
Manners in a deluxe edition format which contained new artwork and three additional tracks: stripped-down versions of "Sleepyhead" and "Moth's Wings" and a cover of
The Cranberries' song "
Dreams". The deluxe release coincided with the extension of their North American headlining tour. The band released another cover in June 2010, this time offering up their take on
The Smashing Pumpkins hit song "
Tonight, Tonight" as part of a promotion with
Levi's called "Pioneer Sessions". In September 2010, Passion Pit toured as the opening act for the English band
Muse for eight shows during their fall tour through parts of the U.S. Following those supporting shows, the band headlined the Campus Consciousness Tour, produced by Pretty Polly Productions in collaboration with
Guster guitarist
Adam Gardner's non-profit organization
Reverb. The two-week tour featured stops at twelve college campuses and, in addition to the music, focused on promoting eco-friendly lifestyles. Opening acts for the tour included
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and K. Flay.
2011–14: Gossamer In an August 2010 interview with
NME, Angelakos stated that work had already begun on the follow-up to
Manners and that the band intended to release the album in the spring of 2011. He then said that it will be released early in 2012, and finally that the release date was July 24. On April 24, 2012, Angelakos announced the title of the album,
Gossamer, and that it would be released on July 24, 2012. On May 7, the first track from
Gossamer was released, called "
Take a Walk". On June 12, the second track from
Gossamer was released, called "
I'll Be Alright". The track leaked early on June 11 and was released as an NME premiere on June 8. On July 9, a third track from
Gossamer, called "Constant Conversations", was reviewed and featured as "best new track" by
Pitchfork. It was released with the review as streamed content. Gossamer was officially released on July 20, 2012. On October 13, they performed on
Saturday Night Live. They played "Take a Walk" and "Carried Away." Angelakos,
Kill The Noise and
Fatman Scoop appeared on "
Recess", the second single and title track from American record producer
Skrillex's debut album
Recess. The single was released on July 7, 2014.
2015–16: Kindred and Merry Christmas, Mr. Fields On January 29, it was revealed that a new album,
Kindred, was in the making. The album was released on April 21. On February 16, the official track listing was released. From the start of 2015, to the album's release on April 21, the official Passion Pit blog released clues to the new song's lyrics and melodies in the form of Morse-encoded lyrics with the track number and time code the lyrics appeared at, and 4 – 10 seconds of melody for a select few songs. On December 12, 2016, Angelakos announced the release of a Christmas video album, called "Merry Christmas, Mr. Fields", and its soundtrack, which was later released on December 16.
2017–present: Tremendous Sea of Love On March 24, 2017 the album
Tremendous Sea of Love was self-released. This came one month after the album had been available for free in exchange for retweets of a tweet describing the importance of science and research. The official release of the album was announced on July 11 to be on July 28, 2017. ==Personal life==