Over the years, Boston has been an incubator for hundreds of pop acts, including Aerosmith, Dropkick Murphys, New Kids on the Block and, of course, the arena-rock head bangers, Boston. The thriving music scene in Boston can be attributed to both the uniqueness of Boston itself as well as the “wealth of bands in the area that continue to generate both local and national attention,” according to Brian Appel, co-founder of the Boston Calling Music Festival. Perhaps that is why Appel intends to grow his festival by adding more show dates and venues in future iterations of Boston Calling. In fact, Boston Calling will feature three days of music this spring on May 23rd, 24th, and 25th with even more local acts. According to the festival producers, “It’s shaping up to be an unforgettable weekend of music”.
We interviewed Ian Hultquist, the founding guitar/keyboard player of Passion Pit, to learn about how his band came together in Boston and why Passion Pit proudly asserts their headlining Boston Calling performance as a “homecoming gig”.
Ben Silver And Mitch Mosk: Boston Calling is a great example of Boston’s appreciation for music. I’d love to here from you how the Boston music scene brought Passion Pit together.
Ian: The members of Passion Pit all went to different colleges around Boston (Berklee College of Music and Emerson College) and we met because we were playing in different bands together. We started Passion Pit in 2007 as a combination of the indie rock scene and the underground dance scene, which were really popular at the time. I think that one of the reasons why people first got into the band was because they were able to connect with elements from both upbeat styles of music.
There are a lot of memorable venues in the Boston area. Which has been your favorite place to play?
We played Great Scott a lot. We were always there. We also liked playing The Middle East downstairs. That was a favorite of mine.
Gossamer was produced in a very appealing way. It’s very bright and crisp and features wide-ranging instrumentation. How did you and the rest of Passion Pit go about translating studio recordings into a live setting?
Since recording the album, we have performed everything live with no pre-recorded tracks. But to get there, it took a lot of hours. [laughs] Our singer Michael was the only one in the studio for Gossamer. He arranged the songs with the live show in mind. Michael sent the rest of the band the individual tracks from the recording sessions and we learned them all by ear. We were able to break all the songs down into chunks. We all have our own roles of what we play in the band. If there is a synth lead line, it is more likely that our keyboardist Xander Singh will play that. Or if there is a piano part, I’ll probably take over. We spent a full month working on our keyboards and other instrument arrangements. It was a lot of work, but so far has been extremely rewarding.
In so many ways Passion Pit is both a local and national act. You guys have gotten so big over the years and at the same time, you’re just a bunch of guys that met up in Boston.
It’s great. We all met up and started the band in Boston and although now we have since moved out of the city, wherever we perform, we always say, “Hi, we’re Passion Pit from Boston.”
Written by Benjamin Silver and Mitch Mosk, Originally posted in Melisma Magazine
Passion Pit played at last year’s Boston Calling. Get tickets for this year’s festival here.
