MGMT
Ben Baruch
ben@11e1evengroup.com
Dan Rucinski
dan@11e1evengroup.com
BOOKING
Kirk Sommer
ksommer@wmeagency.com
Stephen Schulcz
sschulcz@wmeagency.com
Passion Pit began as the solo project of singer-songwriter-producer Michael Angelakos. Michael would create music alone in his dorm room in Boston, and later in an apartment in Cambridge where he lived with four other friends in 2006, only sharing his music with his closest circle. Angelakos self-released the Chunk of Change EP, which included the songs “Batty Lashes” and “Tons of Guns,” and sold it for approximately seven dollars at his first show on March 20th, 2007 in the Cabaret at Emerson College. Unfortunately for the few purchasers of the EP, Angelakos had hastily applied a sticker that was meant to be used to label folders, not cds. The sticker damaged several customers’ computers, but none of them asked for money for repairs. He did, however, give them a new disc. He still owes his friend Colin Pratt approximately $250 for the printing and overnighting of the record sleeves.
Ian Hultquist and Adam Lavinsky, Angelakos’ friends and frequent collaborators at the time, spent months convincing him to make a band. He finally acquiesced, and the band went on to sell out every show they played in Boston. Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, Jeff Apruzzese, and Nate Donmoyer joined Michael as Passion Pit for live performances from there on out. They were named Best New Band by the Boston Phoenix, released a 7” featuring “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things,” (which would replace “Batty Lashes and “Tons of Guns” on the official release of Chunk of Change), and toured with far too much heavy equipment. And little discipline, to boot.
Following the 7” release, in 2008, and after being picked up by Frenchkiss, Chunk of Change was officially released. This release, and its hit "Sleepyhead," solidified Passion Pit and launched the band into years of success and near-constant evolution. “Sleepyhead” has remained an iconic track, going 3x Platinum; a Passion Pit x Sofi Tukker remix of the song was released in March of 2025 to instant success.
In the spring of 2008 in Brooklyn, while working on demos for what would become the debut album Manners with Grant Wheeler, Matthew Young, and Angelica Bess, and a three-week Piano’s residency in Manhattan, Michael signed to Sony Music for worldwide and Columbia Records for US releases respectively, licensing Chunk of Change as he initially self-released the EP.
Passion Pit released Manners in 2009, followed by Gossamer in 2012 which landed number four in the US, and in the Top 20 in Australia and Canada. “Take A Walk”, Gossamer’s standout single, went 2x platinum, and the album itself went Gold. Passion Pit's third album, Kindred, was released in April 2015, landing in the Top 3 in the U.S., and top 30 in Australia and the UK.
Throughout his success and creative evolution as an artist, Angelakos faced the challenges of managing bi-polar disorder amidst an often chaotic and taxing industry. He became, and continues to be, a leading mental health advocate and dedicates much of his energy to helping others. In 2017, he formed the Wishart Group, an organization created to provide support for musicians’ mental health. Also in 2017, Passion Pit released Tremendous Sea of Love for free via Twitter with the hashtag #weneedscience, to raise awareness for the Wishart Group– a viral campaign that trended worldwide.
Currently, Michael Angelakos is returning to how it all began: working and performing solo, experimenting with his sound and staying true to himself, while challenging conventions and outmolded structures. To that end, Passion Pit’s latest album, Nine Times Your Torch Song, will be released in iterative phases, and through unique recordings of live performances with additional collaborators, directly to fans. For more information, subscribe to Passion Pit’s Substack at: https://passionpitmusic.substack.com/.