Recently, I checked in with Nate Donmoyer (pictured center), drummer of Passion Pit, as he took a break from their current .jpg)
tour through Europe. Since the release of their album Manners, Passion Pit has seen rising numbers at each of their shows both in Boston and nationwide. For more information and for music, check out their website at: http://www.passionpitmusic.com
WC: Let's ease into this by telling the story of your musicianship and your perspective on the genesis of Passion Pit.
ND: Well it's funny because I've seen both sides of the band, from helping booking them play one of their first shows at Basstown at the Great Scott (which i was a DJ at) and interviewing them for my blog to a few months later being asked to join the band. Who knows Will, maybe you will be playing bass in Passion Pit before the New Year.
WC: Who would you pin as the primary musical influences for yourself? For Passion Pit?
ND: Personally, any and everything influences me, from music I completely copy to artists I listen to in order to learn what not to do. Right now though, I’m obsessed with dance music and most of it comes from Europe. The band is more heavily influenced by all things "Pop", while there’s a heavy synth based element really, we are aiming for The Beatles and Beach Boys and all other pop that has stood the test of time.
WC: What is the writing process for Passion Pit?
ND: Michael is the songwriter of the crew, and he brings it to us to flesh out in the full band live setting. In the studio, him and I work in a little bit [of a] risky way by not really having finished songs walking into the session, like say a rock band would do. It's expensive but we got a pattern down with Chris Zane, the producer, and Alex Aldi, the engineer, where we built the album like a Lego building. Each song is a room and we built every piece of furniture one Lego piece at a time. While one of us was grouting the tile in the bathroom another was picking out the matching bath towel set.
WC: How has your approach to writing and drumming evolved in a band that employs a lot of electronic textures in it's sound?
ND: It’s kind of a dream come true for me to be in a band setting that allows [me] to program and sequence a lot and still get to play behind the kit. I always practice to either a click or dance music so doing it on stage is actually more comfortable to me then playing click-less. It’s kind of a crutch actually, where I start getting paranoid about speeding up or slowing down, all I have to do is wait for the next click.
WC: I find that your music lends itself well to hip-hop. Can we expect any cross-genre collaborations in the future?
ND: Actually, there [are] quite a few projects in the works. Maybe not all as Passion Pit, but there are a few MCs we are getting in the studio with very soon…but I don’t like to jinx things, so we'll see.
WC: Through your experiences with Passion Pit and The Peasantry, what tips can you give for generating buzz?
ND: Oh man, those experiences have been so different, we worked really, really hard to just scrape by in The Peasantry. We put tons of our own money and time into that. Which [is] why I can appreciate how lucky we have been in Passion Pit. While I can’t explain why the experience was so different, in both cases we found it most beneficial to not shove it down everyone's throats that we are in a band and have an EP, but to make friends, honest genuine friends. And they are the ones that spread the word, if it is good music, which is the most important factor.
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