The “humble DJ”, as he calls himself, Jeff Apruzzese is the man fueling Passion Pit’s live DJ sets that has sent them traveling to festivals all across the globe. He’s no big shot. You mostly see him with the band on stage humbly strumming a bass, playing keyboards, or even singing, he does it all. However, as the electronic dance music scene has taken America by storm, the group is now becoming more involved in both live DJ sets as well as silent disco’s, with Jeff heading the decks.
It all started around New Years of 2008 as Passion Pit was just breaking in, and the entire band was divided on who all wanted to play a New Years show. “Me and one of the guys suggested lets throw a party and we’ll DJ it, and it will be awesome, but I didn’t know how to DJ at the time. From there we started to DJ more after parties and then events.” 
The band itself has always maintained a heavy electronic sound fused with exceptional sampling, featuring quite a variety of everyone from themselves to Irish folk singers. While Passion Pit has seen a great amount of success with their own work, DJ gigs have offered an escape into a completely new world of music which Jeff feels offers him more room to experiment with his sound. “When someone goes to see the band play, they know what we’re gonna play. With the DJ sets, I never know what people are expecting me to play. So it’s always like if I want to be a good DJ, I do witness testing to see what people respond to. Or sometimes, I’m just like whatever, I want to listen to like eight minutes of minimal house, that’s what I’m going to play.”
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Despite how commercial the scene has grow here in America, Jeff remains grounded in his roots, playing a variety of everything from Passion Pit remixes, to UK Garage, Disco House, Chicago house, and even a little bit of trap. The intent of each set is to play “songs of the summer that people really associate with”. To capture this, Jeff prefers live mixing: “I try to go up and mix as much on the fly as possible and feel it out.”
Jeff’s talent is truly exceptional and he rocked Camp Bisco both on bass and on the decks. Be sure to catch one of his sets and see for yourself why we find him so incredible!
Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg – California Gurls (Passion Pit Main Mix)
