BigHassle.Com: Active Child

ACTIVE CHILD is the new project from choirboy-turned-indie pop musician Pat Grossi. His debut collection of songs features the skilled use of various 80s-tinged synths to create ethereal, soaring soundscapes, punctuated by crisp electronic drum samples and handclaps. All of this lays the groundwork for Grossi’s exquisite vocals, which, with their unearthly sound and evocative lyrics, take on an enchanting, hymnal quality that would not be out of place amongst the richly colored sunlight of a church’s stained-glass interior.

ACTIVE CHILD’s songs are an intriguing study in contrast. The organic elements of Grossi’s angelic vocals and the occasional delicate strumming of a harp cast light on the eerie darkness created by the haunting synths and cavernous reverberating of percussion.

Grossi cites the musical environment in his childhood home as an early inspiration for his own desire to make music. After participating in a school choir as a child, he joined the Philadelphia Boys Choir at age 10. The influence of chorale singing, along with the sensibility of non-secular music, is as apparent in ACTIVE CHILD’s work as the influence of 80s synth pop bands like New Order, Joy Division and Tears for Fears.

Pitchfork Media recently reviewed the ACTIVE CHILD track “Wilderness,” giving it a rating of 8/10 and comparing Grossi’s “trembling falsetto” to that of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons. The review went on to say that ACTIVE CHILD’s mixed-genre work “is a good example of the positive results to be yielded from a musician straddling two disparate styles” and “pulls from different directions but still manages to aim forward.”

A six-song EP is on the horizon for ACTIVE CHILD, out Spring ’10 on Filter Records, as is a stint at Austin’s South By Southwest music conference in March.

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For more information, please contact:

Jim Merlis/Big Hassle Media

323.456.3490 or jim@bighassle.com

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Photo Credit: Brent Mullins

ACTIVE CHILD

ACTIVE CHILD is the new project from choirboy-turned-indie pop musician Pat Grossi. The influence of chorale singing, along with the sensibility of non-secular music, is as apparent in Active Child’s work as the influence of synth pop bands like New Order, Joy Division and Tears for Fears. His debut collection of songs features the skilled use of various 80s-tinged synths to create ethereal, soaring soundscapes, punctuated by crisp electronic drum samples and handclaps. All of this lays the groundwork for Grossi’s exquisite vocals, which, with their unearthly sound and evocative lyrics, take on an enchanting, hymnal quality that would not be out of place amongst the richly colored sunlight of a church’s stained-glass interior.

Press Highlights:
“evidently capable of great, great things”
“excel[s] at a sort of ethereal organic sprawl that’s been absent from LA music.” – LA Weekly

“a good example of the positive results to be yielded from a musician straddling two disparate styles.”
– Pitchfork Media

“an ideal soundtrack to icy winter nights and stumbling around messy warehouse parties, Grossi’s new wave synths and dreamy vocals soar above lo-fi detailing to produce echoey pop anthems.”
- NME

Named Band of the Day January 5th, 2010- The Guardian

Current Releases:
Sun Rooms cassette tape on Mirror Universe
“She Was A Vision” 7” vinyl single b/w “Voice Of An Old Friend” on Transparent UK
“She Was A Vision” digital single b/w “Voice Of An Old Friend” on Filter US Recording

Upcoming Releases:
Curtis Lane Digital EP and 10” Vinyl
Via Merok in UK: May 24th, 2010
Via Filter Recording in US : June 1st, 2010

Upcoming Performances:
3.9.10 El Rey, Los Angles, with The Big Pink
SXSW Music Festival
Club Spaceland Showcase @ Beauty Bar Annex
Filter Magazine -Showdown @ Cedar Street Showcase
Brooklyn Vegan Party @ Club Deville
NME Showcase @ Latitude 30
Grand Life/Nylon Party
3.27.10 The Echo, Los Angeles, Aquarium Drunkard Presents Show
UK Club Shows May 2010

More Information & Streaming Music:
www.ActiveChildMusic.com
www.Myspace.com/ActiveChild