After the May release of Manners, Passion Pit quickly became indie’s pop music darlings of the summer. The LP built on the buzz surrounding the band’s 2008 Chunk of Change EP, which featured the now ubiquitous, dare-you-not-to-dance track “Sleepyhead.” Stranger Dance caught up with Passion Pit’s drummer Nate Donmoyer on the band’s current tour.

StrangerDance: What effect do blogs and the internet have on a new band?
Nate Donmoyer: I think it makes it a lot easier, actually. If you’re lucky enough to catch one person’s ear they can pass it on to another blogger or put it on their blog and have another person, people, listen to it. Things are way faster now than they used to be.

SD: What is it like to deal with the massive amount of feedback that’s online in a way that bands, historically, haven’t had to?
ND: If it’s negative, it hurts, kinda. Like if, people really don’t care about you, they just caught us onstage and thought we were terrible… but when people start making fun of how we look and all that, you don’t want to pay attention to that.

SD: At this point, do you feel as though you guys have made it?
ND: Everyday we’re surprised by how many people are coming out and listening to the record. We just feel really lucky. I’ll feel like we’ve made it if in ten years we’re still doing this. I think that’s the hardest part now is prolonging the career.

SD: Was there are particular moment that you knew Passion Pit had reached a level that other bands don’t?
ND: I think for us it was when we played the last spot at Bonnaroo on opening night.

SD: You played during the storm, right?
ND: Yeah, it actually worked out perfect, because we were in the tent, and it pretty much forced people out of the rain and to push into the tent. It was awesome.

SD: Who are your contemporaries?
ND: It’s funny to talk about that Bonnaroo show because the band Chairlift, we’ve played with a lot this summer. They’ve been around longer than us and are kind of, about a year ahead of us.

SD: What are the hardest and bests part of touring?
ND: The hardest part is being away from your family and some of your friends and girlfriends, and not really always getting a shower whenever you want.

The best part is playing and getting to see all the fans and getting to do what we’ve wanted to our whole lives.

SD: Is there a particular place you got to see on tour that sticks out?
ND: I think the most surprising and overwhelming place was in Ireland. For some reason it was the first spot that people absolutely went wild when we played. It was really cool to see it.

SD: What are you listening to?
ND: A lot of the new dubstep stuff. A lot of dance music. And the new YACHT album.

SD: What’s next?
ND: Touring still, we die, pretty much. [Laughs.] Just trying to get the live show as good as possible.

Passion Pit will play San Francisco’s Treasure Island Festival on Saturday, October 17 at 2:50 on the Bridge Stage.

MP3s: