I interviewed Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit via email in advance of Passion Pit's upcoming show here in Portland. An article on Passion Pit appears in today's paper; you can read it here. Passion Pit on record is almost entirely the work of Angelakos, although the band is now a five-piece group for live shows. Check out their EP, Chunk of Change; the song "Sleepyhead," in particular, is unstoppable. Listen to that song by clicking on these words, and listen to some other songs at their MySpace page here.

Passion Pit plays on Wednesday, October 29 at Berbati's Pan (10 SW 3rd) opening for French disco sensation Yelle. These are two dancey, shiny, synthy, beaty acts NOT to be missed.

MERCURY: We've heard how the EP was recorded for your girlfriend. Can you tell us the story with a little more detail?

ANGELAKOS: The EP is generally about how hard I was to put up with, how I never came through on my promises and such. We were going through a really rough time. It was as much a make up gift as it was a Valentine's day present. I realized about halfway through collecting the songs that what I was doing was essentially writing a little letter to her--something to that degree.

What was her initial response? Did you really record it not thinking anyone else would hear it?

In terms of how she responded to it, I'm not sure she even thought twice about it. It was extremely casual. It didn't necessarily mend anything or help the relationship much, nor did it put a dampener on it. But, really, I certainly wanted my friends to hear it. I put some of the material on MySpace. I had been writing songs for a very long time and it was my first time doing that, so that was a relatively big deal. It was scary, at least.

Is there anything really personal on there that you weren't totally comfortable sharing with a bigger audience?

Truthfully, I'm really not scared of being candid or opening myself up to other people so long as it's in this particular context, maybe even more specifically this medium.

How did you make the transition from one-person recording project to five-person band? What is the instrumental setup? How has playing the songs live changed them?

Ian [Hultquist, synths] approached me after the first solo show asking if I wanted to add members and turn it into a band. I was hesitant because I thought the project was plain shit at the time. I didn't have much faith in it. But I agreed and we slowly built the band up. We began going line by line in the recordings, playing them exactly as I had recorded them, but it didn't feel right to me. It felt so mechanical, boring, and I have this love for bands that put on shows that reinterpret the songs on the record for their live shows. I realized that we had this great opportunity; no one really knows who the hell we are. We can rework, rearrange, extend, manipulate all of the songs as much as we want. It's very liberating. So when people come and see us live, they get this really unique experience, different from the album, but an experience that aligns itself perfectly with the albums energy and songwriting. It keeps the entire process very exciting for us and hopefully for audiences as well. We've never wanted to be an iPod band and I don't think we'll ever let ourselves become one. Just never has felt right, that's all.

How are the songs put together? Are they "written" first, with melody and lyrics, or is the arrangement part of the writing process, i.e. finding sounds and samples etc.?

They come together differently, but I mostly have ideas on loop in my head. When I sit down to write and put something down on paper (figuratively speaking), it's likely that I will regurgitate something from weeks ago. Sometimes I'll stumble upon a sample and I'll build the song out of that, that's not standard for me. But I find lately that I'm obsessed with texture and layering, and I can hear melodies very easily when I build these said textures.

Do songs come from unexpected places? What were some of the major influences, and why did you decide to make the vocals so high? Feel free to get technical about the recording process, tools, tricks software etc.

I've been writing songs for so long, as long as I can remember, and I think you just kind of come to terms with the fact that it's something you understand better than other things--like math, which... I personally cannot figure out. But if it's so close to you, you become like a sponge, and I feel like you soak up literally everything you hear and see and it'll leak into what you do no matter how hard you try to deny it or stop it from happening. I grew up on the Beach Boys and Beatles, and one thing that I've found really hard to do is to shake the outright pop in my music. I've been brainwashed, essentially, by pop culture.

And, so, the concept behind the original Passion Pit recordings was making extremely simple, seductive pop songs--songs that emphasized the pop structure, were heavy in melody, played into the most memorable moments. Pop to me is having untouchable, perfect melodies in place, and then not screwing it up by arranging it poorly. It's such a delicate construction because there is just SO much pop, and there is so much room to mess up, to be included in that department of the ever-so shameful "overdone."

Furthermore, I'm not sure why I sing the way I sing on these recordings, but it feels right, and it feels better every single time. It's a character designed specifically for this music. I never used to sing like this. On the new album my range is explored a tad bit more. I do not use an octave pedal or auto-tune. Someone in some blog mentioned that I used too much auto-tune. That made me laugh because the whole point was to do maybe one or two takes and then just say, "Well, that's good enough," and move on. That's why my voice is all over the place--you don't even need to listen closely to hear that. I'm no T-Pain. But I overdub my vocals many times, over and over, to kind of emulate a screaming group of excited children or something. That sound just freaks me out. Joanna Newsom can do it pretty well. It's terrifying and beautiful if done correctly. The rest of the recording was pretty simple, aside from the fact that I pulled most of the synthesizer sounds from other recordings and dropped them into a sampler in order to get better, more effective synth sounds. I can't afford a CS80. Sorry. At least not yet? That process took awhile. Otherwise, Ableton is a pretty quick program.

Can you briefly tell me your thoughts about the Boston music scene? It seems like a lot is happening all of a sudden. Do you feel part of the scene, or like outsiders?

There's a bit of a resurgence, yeah. We know what's going on with our friends but not really much else. Nate [Donmeyer, drums] is also a very active DJ here as well and he seems to be more in tune with what's happening. Since Nate joined us we have met a lot more people, but I still personally feel like I'm not really necessarily part of anything, per se. We just like a lot of people and our friends play really great music.

What can we expect with next year's album? Is it finished? Is it really a double-disc concept album? Will it have some of the same songs as the EP? Will they be re-recorded, or original versions? Are you doing most (or all) of the work in the studio?

Next year's album is going to be gorgeous. I couldn't be more excited about it. I did some sessions with Matt and Grant of Landau in June and July, but I'm now finishing it up with Chris Zane. It's all new material--nothing from the EP--and yes, I am doing primary work in the studio, though the band does join me occasionally for some tracks. We will also be having some guests: children's choirs, handbell choirs, etc. It's the album we're supposed to be making right now.