Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos comes out as gay

Passion Pit singer Michael Angelakos has come out as gay in an interview on Brett Easton Ellis’ ‘B.E.E.’ podcast.

The 28-year-old musician split with his wife Kristy Mucci back in August, the same month his Massachusetts indie band cancelled an Australian tour in support of their third and latest album, Kindred.

Angelakos, who been upfront with fans and the media about battling bipolar disorder, spoke openly about struggling with his sexuality as early as college.

He told Ellis: “Specifically with my sexuality, it was just, unlike bipolar, it was like ‘Don’t go and get help. Don’t talk to anybody.’ I lived in such a straight group of people. Not like anyone wasn’t going to be understanding, it was just not the time.”

When asked whether he meant the music milieu then or being in the college scene, Angelakos said, “Kind of both. This was dudes in bands talking about girls. It was so easy at the time to talk about girls. I just kept writing about them.

“I was going through so many difficult issues with girls in general that when I started dating my wife she just quieted them so much so. She was such a good friend that it became kind of a non-issue. Like, okay, I don’t have to think about it for now.”

Angelakos went on to speak about his marriage, saying: “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 really know what’s going on, it’s so much more comfortable to keep going back to what you know… That person’s not going to question you.”

He explained he’d told Mucci – from whom he filed a no-fault divorce from earlier this year – that he was bisexual.

“I just wanted so badly to be straight, because I love her so much. I think that was one of the most painful things when we decided to separate,” he said, adding that Mucci was instrumental in helping him come to terms with his sexuality and that she’d told him, ‘You need to figure out what’s going on. You can’t hate yourself anymore.’

Later in the interview, Angelakos told Ellis, “This is the kind of situation that every artist wants to be in — to get to talk to artists that they really admire. When this was all happening recently and finally, I just decided it might be best to talk about it here. I don’t really know what happened, but it’s just one of those gut feelings.

“It’s the same gut feeling that I had when I said, OK, I kind of just need to talk to people about the fact that I am. I’m gay. And that’s it. It just has to happen. This was exactly the type of situation where I don’t feel like I’m being threatened.”

Listen to the interview below – Angelakos’ comments begin at the 49:00 mark:

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