Passion Pit frontman and songwriter Michael Angelakos has come out as gay.
The former Emerson College student appears on the latest Bret Easton Ellis podcast, which you can listen to below, and he discusses a wide range of topics, including his battle with mental illness, writing Passion Pit LP Manners when he was just 21 years old, how his life has shaped Passion Pit songwriting, and his recent divorce from stylist Kirsty Mucci.
Angelakos says he struggled with his sexuality dating back to his band’s early days, when the narrative surrounding Passion Pit’s debut EP Chunk of Change centered around him writing it for a former girlfriend. “With my sexuality,” Angelakos tells Ellis, “it was just ‘don’t go and get help, don’t go and talk to anybody.'”
Angelakos adds: “I was going through so many difficult issues with girls in general, when I started dating my wife she just quieted them, she became such a great friend. It became kind of a non-issue.”
As far as coming to terms with being gay, Angelakos partly credits his ex-wife’s support. “It’s always been about putting it off in my head — not consciously. When you’re teetering on the edge of heterosexuality or homosexuality and you don’t know what’s going on, it’s just so comfortable to keep coming back to what you know… I just wanted so badly to be straight, because I love her so much. I think that was one of the most painful things about, you know, when we decided to separate was, she said ‘I don’t want anyone to think that this is your fault, and that’s because you’re gay, this is… it’s not your fault.’ And she was really sweet about it.”
As if a weight was just lifted off his shoulders, Angelakos just tweeted: “everything’s going to be okay.”
everything's going to be okay
— Passion Pit (@passionpit) November 9, 2015
The entire Ellis podcast is well worth your time, and Angelakos begins to discuss his sexuality around the 49-minute mark. Listen below.
[h/t SPIN]