Where Death Cab Meets Glasswerk

• 21st Mar 2006

Towards the end of a six week stint in the UK, Death Cab For Cutie are treated to upwards of ten interviews in one day. Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? As I enter a plush hotel suite where Chris Walla (guitar), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums) are sat waiting for their umpteenth interview of the day, it becomes clear that this band understand the need for them to chat with journalist after journalist. They at least understand that it’s a part of their lives now, having signed to a major label, Atlantic Records, for the highly successful recent release of album Plans and being the most mentioned band on hit TV show ‘The O.C.’ as well as appearing in an episode… Plus Death Cab’s long standing underground success as a well respected, beautiful-song-crafting indie band and their current project with a different video for each song on Plans being premiered each week on their website (Directions)… It all means that a few people are going to want to talk to the band members making these things happen and hear what makes them tick. So, it’s a feeling of calm acceptance and three smiling faces (vocalist Ben Gibbard is on the phone to ITV) that greet me…

How’s the UK tour been so far?
Nick – Great, the UK’s been the best shows of the tour so far. Mainland Europe has been some good shows, but the shows in the UK have all been a lot bigger and a little bit more what we’re used to with the types of shows we’re playing in the US. The Astoria shows were some of my favourite and Glasgow was a really, really great show.

How different to America is it playing over here?
Nick – It’s different in lots of ways but ultimately they’re still rock shows… The main difference is in size. We play bigger places in the States than we do here.
Chris – We couldn’t understand anyone in Glasgow…

What’s your favourite thing about being over here?
Nick – Um, Walkers types of chilli chip… crisps. We don’t have them back home.

And Cadbury’s chocolate?
Nick – No we don’t have that either. Some food things, but it’s just kinda fun. It’s always fun to see different places, different cities. I think actually what’s surprising for me is the longer that we tour and the more places that we tour, it isn’t necessarily how drastically different every place is, it’s mainly how drastically similar a lot of places are. You know, everybody’s got a lot of pride about their own countries and their own regions and their own states or whatever else. It’s surprising to me, ultimately, how many similarities there really are in the world. It’s actually… nice.

How did you come to collaborate with the directors of the Directions videos?
Nick – We got lucky. I mean, really. It was an idea that sort of generated and kind of kicked around and we thought that it’d be kinda fun to work with a lot of directors and people that we’ve known over the years that do more visual art kinda stuff. We sent out a bunch of requests to different directors to see if they were interested in making a video and lo and behold we got a pretty great response. I think the thing that was really exciting about the project was that we really had no goal or end product in mind. It wasn’t like we were shooting for something specific, we just sort of left it up to the creative process and hoped that the directors would be able to make videos that they were proud of. Once things started to come in we realised ‘these are really great, they’re fun videos’. We ended up making thirteen videos. Eleven for the record and then two extra for the bonus tracks and it was like we had thirteen birthday parties. Every day was like [high pitched voice of amazement] ‘Oh my gosh! I didn’t even know I wanted that!!’ You know, it was really fun to unwrap those.
Chris – Nick’s been the point of contact in the band for the whole Directions project and it’s just been really fun. I mean, I’ve totally been more of an observer on the project than anything else. Like, checking in at different points, more regularly at the beginning of the project, just to see what was going on and how it was unfolding and looking through treatments and stuff. But, as it unfolded it became clear that the level of quality of the product, the videos that people were turning in, was so high. I got to this point where I was just like ‘I don’t want to see anymore until they’re all done!’ It was just nice to sit back and just listen to Nick get excited like day after day after day about how it was all going. It was really cool.
Nick – Yeah. It was very much a slow process. I wish I could preserve some of that feeling of here’s an Art opening and you get to have that feeling of just walking through the doors and seeing all the paintings hung up. That would be fantastic.
Jason – It’s kind of like the cook who prepares a meal but can’t smell how good it is.
Nick – Yeah, exactly… But I was very happy with the way it all turned out and the thing about it is I kind of nursed the project along and kept a watchful eye on making sure that everything was turning out. But I give all the credit in the world to the directors – the people that actually made the videos. I mean, I was completely and utterly stunned that for the amount of money we were able to secure to give these directors, which was very small, the level of work that they could turn around and make and produce for that was beyond any sort of expectation I had. Not like I expected them to turn out crappy or anything like that. I just had no idea that you could do the kinds of things that these directors did with that amount of money. It’s just a testament to their talent and their resourcefulness and who they are and their visions.
Chris – Yeah… and it’s a testament to what the labour of love can mean when you get very few dollars for it; it’s pretty cool.
Nick – When you let the artist be the artist. If someone came into the recording studio and all of a sudden said that what you’re doing is wrong, you need to do it this way. That’s what some of these directors are used to – making videos with some sort of executive producer who’s got some sort of template in mind and an angle for creating something that’s going to be marketable to a very small window of opportunity. MTV and VH1, things like that. We cast all that aside… I think that’s the thing with Directions – creating freedom.

So, the directors basically did what they wanted?
Nick – What they really wanted. Yeah. I mean, obviously we were picking treatments so we kinda knew what the subject matter was. I mean it wasn’t like we gave them money and said ‘Whatever you wanna do man!’ So, they submitted ideas… There was a large submission process where we were receiving treatments and ideas from lots of people and from there we separated the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. And just figured out ‘OK, we like these ideas first and foremost…’ but once we sort of just picked the idea and the director, then it was up to them to turn in whatever they could accomplish.
Chris – Were there any editorial revisions or suggestions at all…?
Nick – There were none. The only thing that ever happened was that we had one director who had a large family emergency that happened. He wasn’t able to complete his video and so there was another director, who had also submitted in that category, who was like our number two choice at the time but we ended up being able to contact him and he was able to turn something round and be able to be a part of the Directions project. It was very awesome. I mean, I guess if there was any editorial thing early on, it was just making sure that we were taking care of the directors. This one director in particular, who was enthusiastic and then had this tragedy in his family and couldn’t complete it – it was about helping him find a replacement. But yeah, there were no… nobody submitted anything at any point for us to look at. They tried! Some directors… Rob Schrab who did the ‘Crooked Teeth’ video, he sent in an animatic of his video. He was like “Here’s the animatic, here’s what it’s gonna look like” and he sat down and looked at me and I think he was expecting me to look at the animatic and make some suggestions and things like that and I just looked at it and was like “Fantastic, go for it!” and he was like ‘But.. this is my rough draft, teacher, what paragraphs do I need to cut out?!’ I think some people were a little stunned at how truly hands-off we were about what they were making.

So, it was more like a massive project than a collaboration really?
Nick – Yeah, I like to think of it as we’re like curators kind of. We built a museum with our music and the directors just want to hang pictures in it and we’re picking the photos or pictures or paintings that we want to hang. Really we don’t have anything more to do with it than looking.

Have you got any other big ideas or projects lined up?
Nick – I’ve always got big ideas. We’ll see what happens.

Is there anything in the making…?
Chris – Nothing in the short term.
Nick – Definitely nothing in the short term.
Chris – Erm.. We get home in a couple days then we go on tour with Franz Ferdinand across the US and Canada.

How are you feeling about that?
Chris – Really excited about it. It’s a different sort of tour for us. We’re taking out more production than we’ve taken out in the past. It’s just on a bit of a different scale to anything that we’ve done before.

So, bigger?
Chris – Big-time, yeah. We’ll be playing to six or seven thousand people sometimes and an average probably of about four thousand.
Jason – In the past it’s been maybe two and a half. Something like that on the last tour.
Chris – It should be really fun though. They seem like really good guys.

Have you met them before?
Chris – Um, I haven’t met any of them…
Jason – We’ve been talking to Alex. We played a couple of festivals with them already, sharing stages with them, meeting their crew. You know, the whole process of getting to know people in order to prepare for something like this. Our manager and their manager are getting along really well. So, it should be fun.
Nick – I’m really excited about having spent six weeks over here; things are starting to really flow. We won’t have to figure out so much what we’re doing as a band on stage ‘cos that’s what we’ve been doing over here. We’ll just be able to enjoy it.

What’s your opinion on Franz Ferdinand and the other British bands becoming popular at the moment?
Chris – Well, in my opinion, Franz is a cut above most of what’s happening in British pop music right now. Those guys are just top notch. I think they’re great. Um I think Bloc Party’s really really great. We’ve gotten to be friends with those guys. What else is going on?

Have you heard the Arctic Monkeys?
Chris – Yeah, we’ve heard the Arctic Monkeys. They’re ok. I’m not really a fan. Not clicking. I mean they’re fine, it seems like they’re decent and dependable but I can’t wrap my head around the furore that they’ve created in the press. It just doesn’t make much sense to me.
Nick – I imagine they can’t get it either.
Chris – Yeah, I don’t think they can. Kids from Sheffield, I mean, I don’t know.
Nick – I like that one song. I think it’s hard to evaluate new bands with so much energy around them because you almost need them now to make another record or two to see what’s happening. What band they’re gonna be. I mean, they could be a great band, they could be a phenomenal band. I don’t know yet and it’s too early to tell. It’s funny that the press has been so adamant about it and in some ways they’ve made it that much more difficult for them to be a band.
Jason – It’s like a rookie who steps up to the plate for the first time and hits a grand slam…
Chris – Well, in the history of bands that have gone through the English music press wringer… not very many of them have come out the other side. You can name them all through the nineties. The Stone Roses, Suede, Supergrass… How many of those bands actually made it? I mean, Oasis made it. Blur made it.
Nick – Coldplay made it
Chris – Coldplay made it. But the Coldplay story was really weird cos it happened in the States before it happened here didn’t it?
Nick – No, I think it happened… all I remember is they were nowhere then…
Chris – There was this video on TV with this guy on a beach!
Nick – Walking on a beach. Who knew a stroll on the beach could be so compelling to watch but it really was. It really was.
Chris – So, I don’t know. I’ll be really interested to see if the Arctic Monkeys can make it.
Nick – I hope they can.
Chris – I guess that Paul Weller was their age when The Jam happened. He was like 17, 18 something like that? 1978… I mean they made 6 records in like 5 years or something. They’re some of the best records that have ever come out of this country.

I kind of don’t want to, but I’m gonna ask about 'The O.C.' I know you’re probably sick of hearing it…
Nick – It really hasn’t. surprisingly, affected us that much. In the States it came and went but here because of tape delays and DVD release schedules it’s lasted a little longer I think. But it’s kinda come and gone. One of those little moments in your life that was superfun… I think journalists and people expect there to be more story involved but it just sorta happened.

What are your favourite songs to play live?
Nick – Um, songs with bass… [Chuckles all round] Actually one of my favourite songs to play live right now is ‘Marching Bands of Manhattan’ – the first on the record. We kind of do a little bit of a slight different arrangement live. It’s pretty fun and sets up the show well. I’ve actually been discovering that I’m having a good time playing ‘Different Names For The Same Thing’ as well.
Chris – I have a really good time with ‘Expo ‘86’ from Transatlanticism. And I think it’s because the pace of the song and the way the song unfolds happens in a way that… I guess there are a couple of other songs that we have that have that kind of structure but nothing is paced that way. It feels to me like the big rock blow-out in the middle of that song is so many tiers above what the rest of the song is feeling. It’s just really exciting for me to play and I don’t get sick of it at all. It’s a real fun one for me.
Jason – I enjoy playing ‘What Sarah Said’ a lot. Just cos it’s such a different dynamic from the rest of what our set is about. It does kind of the opposite of what the majority of our songs do and it also allows us to make good transitions. It’s just a full-on, you can feel it in the room, total change of focus with people who are there just to maybe rock out. We generally try and open up the set fairly energetically and big and then that song arrives in the set and it’s just this big inhale all of a sudden.

I wanted to ask about that song actually… I read that it encompasses the thesis of Plans as a whole, the main theme being the realisation of death being an inevitable part of life. I was just wondering if there were any other central themes or influences in the album.
Nick – When we made the record we never really sat down and consciously picked central ideas. You know what I mean? It wasn’t put together that way. I think that some of that is a little bit in the ear of the listener in some ways. I mean, we’ve had some people that say ‘Man, this is a really dark and melancholy record – there’re a lot of themes of death and loss.’ And I’ve also sat in rooms and have an interviewer say ‘This record is really upbeat, one of the most poppy records that you’ve ever made and there’re a lot of declarations of love and hope.’ That, to me, is what’s kind of exciting about the record. I think it’s about who’s listening to it and how they’re listening and what they’re already bringing to the music in their own lives, emotionally. So, they can find some nourishment either way.

It’s kind of a double-sided record in some respects?
Nick – It is. I mean, it can be… We’ve been programmed over the years that anything that’s up tempo is happy and anything that’s slower is sad, right? That’s just sort of your initial impression: ‘Well, that song’s a mid-tempo song so it’s probably pretty sad’ and ‘Oh, they’re upbeat now, they’re energised about something so it’s gotta be happy’. I think one thing I appreciate about Ben’s lyrics is that they’re not necessarily tempo dependant, so to speak. We can have one of our most upbeat, poppiest songs ever – ‘The Sound of Settling’ – and it’s really dark and kind of sad lyrics really, if you get down to it. Then we have some other slower songs like ‘I’ll Follow You Into The Dark’ and that song’s pretty happy and hopeful to me. Some people think it’s pretty sad I guess…

On my way out I catch a snippet of Ben on a phone interview. He’s saying how the lazy journalists only want to talk about The O.C., The Postal Service and being signed to a major label. I’m not too lazy then…

‘Plans’ is out now on Atlantic Records.

www.deathcabforcutie.com

Interview by Sarah Maynard