Passion Pit

Mon 19th Jul, 2010 in Features

Despite releasing their debut album Manners more than 12 months ago, Passion Pit are in no rush to ride on the back of their success and reproduce Manners number two just yet.

Instead, the band has chosen to take some time out to work on individual side projects in between continuing to perfect the live Passion Pit experience with extensive tours both in the States and beyond.

Excited and humbled about the band’s upcoming trip to Australia for Splendour in the Grass this month, member Ian Hultquist was kind enough to share a few words with FL from his home in Brooklyn, NY.

Passion Pit is set to come back to Australia for July’s Splendour in the Grass festival. That means you will have played at pretty much Australia’s two biggest festivals within almost a six-month period, how does that feel?
Pretty amazing. First when they told us we were going there in January for Big Day Out, no-one could really believe it, and then afterwards when we eventually figured out that we might be doing Splendour too, it seems unfair, it seems like we’re not supposed to be able to go back to Australia twice in a year to play music!

Are you familiar with the Splendour festival, do you know what the line-up is this year, all the hype that’s surrounding it this year?
I was looking online, and I can’t remember everyone that was there, but I remember seeing a lot of names that I was really excited about seeing. I’ve heard some people say it’s actually better than Big Day Out, so we’ll have to see.

You said that you’ve had a brief look at the line-up, so some of the big names are the Strokes and the Pixies obviously, but there are also some pretty popular current Australian bands on there as well. Do you know much about the Australian artists, or are there any that you’ve crossed paths with through touring that you are a fan of?
There’s not too many that I know of… this one band, Empire of the Sun, I really like some of their stuff a lot.

Did you meet anyone at Coachella? There were a few Australian bands over there…
Oh wait, what am I talking about, The Middle East! We’ve hung out with them a couple of times, they’re all really nice.

You’re playing a couple of sideshows and I guess a question a lot of people might have is that with just six months since your last shows here, and no, that we know of, new material, how do you plan to reinvent your show – sort of re-impress and engage those people who perhaps went last time?
Hopefully we’ll play a couple more songs… I don’t think we’ll play anything new, but we’ll probably be playing songs that no-one in Australia will have heard live before…hopefully.

In the band’s last interview with FasterLouder just before the Big Day Out, Michael told us that every single step you take is another step towards this “overwhelming extreme”. Six months have passed since he said that, are you still overwhelmed by what you’re doing and the reaction you’re getting to things, or is it kind of becoming a bit more normal?
It doesn’t have quite the edge that it used to, I would say, like everyone has a better time of dealing with whatever’s going on. But it’s still kind of shocking all the time, and everyone always gets freaked out when anything big happens, but we try to be humbled by it.

Was the upcoming support slot for Muse’s U.S tour a pretty big thing for you guys?
Exactly. Like, it’s a band that I grew up listening to in high school a lot, I’ve known them for years and years, and I still kind of keep forgetting, I think I’m pushing it out of my head so I don’t freak out that we’re actually going to go on tour supporting them!

I was reading an interview with the producer of Manners, Chris Zane, who said that he’s been working with Michael and writing some songs for other artists, and I’ve also just discovered that you and your girlfriend also have a side project… ‘Aislyn’. What happens when you come up with an idea for a song, part of a song, a tune or whatever, say in your head or when you’re by yourself, how do you decide which act that’s going to go to?
It actually works out pretty easily for me, because Mike [Angelakos, vocals/keyboards] pretty much writes all of the music for Passion Pit. So if I’m thinking of writing something musically, it’s almost definitely going to go to Aislyn, or even just something of my own that I’ll have kicking around.

So I don’t really have to make that decision, which is a good thing because I wouldn’t like to have to make it, haha. It’s kind of fun how, seeing since everyone has a little bit more free time just these past couple of weeks, everyone’s been in the band for a while, that everyone starts kind of branching out into different areas of music, and seeing what everyone does.

Do you think that’s healthy for a band? I mean, some bands are pretty against side projects, they want all the members to be focused on that band and that’s it.
I think it’s healthy. I was talking to Mike the other week about how it’s good to keep busy, I mean we don’t want to overwork ourselves and some people think ‘how can you even play more music when you’re not on the road, since you’re on the road so much?’ but it helps keep us sane. You know, just dabbling in different things, messing around. Also it’s just really fun, I really really enjoy playing live, and Aislyn’s about to have their first show next week.

I guess you would have those lulls in between tours, and if you’re not specifically working on a new album I guess you need something to keep you occupied…
Yeah, but as far as Passion Pit is concerned, it’s not really easy to write on the road. Passion Pit is definitely more of a studio project, where nothing new is really going to come about unless we’re sitting in the studio surrounded by keyboards and inspiration.

That leads me to my next question. You said you’ve got a bit of a break from touring at the moment, obviously you’re about to kick off again in the next few months. But are there any plans for the sophomore Passion Pit album?
Nothing definite. It gets talked about more recently, but it’s more like ‘so Mike, what are you thinking about doing?’ It’s really that, just little conversations here and there, so there’s nothing I could really say.

Do you feel much pressure to come up with something?
Not yet, I’m sure it will kick in at some point. For now we’re still working on Manners, and we’re going to be working on it for the rest of the year, pretty much.

Do you mean working on your live performance?
Yeah. Basically touring behind it, so we don’t really have to feel that pressure of writing a second record just yet.

Just one last question. I’m sure a lot of these questions I’ve asked today are probably starting to sound like a broken record, so is there something in your time of being an interviewee that maybe a music journo hasn’t touched on, that you’d like to talk about?
I’m a gearhead, I’m always waiting for someone to ask ‘what kind of keyboards are you using onstage?’

Alright, tell us… now is your moment!
Haha, okay. Well, I use a Nord Wave and a Nord Electro 3. That felt good to say! [laughs]

Glad I allowed you to get that off your chest. Is that equipment you take with you regardless of whether you’re just touring the States and will you bring that same setup to Australia?
Yeah, that’s always been the hardest thing about this band, or one of the hardest things, is that we are very peculiar about what gear we use. The keyboards I just listed are new, that actually I’ve only started using in the past couple of months. We usually use vintage keyboards from the late 80s or late 70s, and that’s always been a hard thing when they break down, or if we are going somewhere and can’t take them with us, what do we do instead? It’s always been an ugly thing with this band, is what do we do? Because everything’s so keyboard based.

FasterLouder presents Passion Pit sideshows:

Monday 2nd August – The Forum, Sydney
Thursday 5th August – The Prince, Melbourne