August 14, 2008

Death Cab For Cutie: They Will Possess Your Heart

By Cheryl Leong

Once upon a time, a Beatles fan hailing from the little town of Bellingham, Washington, named Ben Gibbard, took it upon himself to start a band called Death Cab For Cutie. Starting as a solo project in 1997, the startling success of his debut You Can Play These Songs With Chords led Ben, on vocals and guitar, to rope in long-time friends, Chris Walla (guitar), Nick Harmer (bass guitar) and Nathan Good (drums) to join Death Cab.

Several favorably received albums and changes of drummers later, Jason McGerr stepped up to the plate in 2003, and together, the famous four recorded Transatlanticism, their first breakthrough into the mainstream. Tracks from this album were a constant feature on tv shows like The O.C. (where Seth Cohen even publicly announced Death Cab as his favorite band) and CSI: Miami.

This independent band signed on with Atlantic Records in 2004, and recorded Plans, which received a Grammy nod for Best Alternative Album of 2005. After a lengthy tour in the US, the boys have now returned with Narrow Stairs, which is an album that boasts of the remarkable energy and prowess of their live sets.

MTV Asia sat for a quick chat with Jason McGerr on what life on the road is like, why 'indie' is no longer 'indie', and how broad interpretations of the band name can lead to quite a few unfortunate laughs.

MTV Asia: The band name, Death Cab For Cutie, is directly inspired by the song from 1967's Magical Mystery Tour starring The Beatles. What was it about the song title that jumped out at you?
Jason: Well, Ben has always been a big Beatles fan, and he was watching Magical Mystery Tour, the part in the movie where the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was performing with John and Paul, and they were singing this song. I don't know exactly what about the song, its style, or whatever was going on in Ben's head at that moment but the title impressed him. It was probably a "You know what, some day if I have a band, I'm going to name it 'Death Cab For Cutie'." moment, and it just happened. The only thing is that sometimes when we go on tour and all, and people do independent show posters, and they tend to take it a little too literally. So you have, like, some skeleton face of a cute little girl with a bow in her hair, in a taxi-cab, looking all smashed up. That's the only bummer. [Laughs]

MTV Asia: Death Cab has been labelled an 'indie band,' since its inception. What does 'indie' still mean to you, now that everything's become so commercialized? Did you set out wanting to be indie?
Jason: An indie, or independent band, wherever the label came from, was actually just a band that did everything DIY as much as they could, from the recording to booking their own tours. The effort was all their own, or from small record companies, versus the major labels per se. However, the labelling of indie rock carried over into bands signed onto major labels, and after a while, became more like an aesthetic than anything else. Some of it has to do with the sound. Indie rock records weren't always polished, perfect-sounding records. It all ties into the indie thing, but today, it has encompasses more of a lifestyle thing, I think. But also, because the music industry needs a label for everything, so who knows? We might be catapulted into a whole new category, or we may stay indie rock. There're so many styles in the pop category, in But I think these days, we still embrace an indie work ethic, trying to oversee everything that we do, from album layout to recording our own records, where you're going on tour. When you've started out as a band for the first few years without a major record label, it's hard to let go of those things. So even though we're with a major label now, we still try to pretty much take an independent approach.

MTV Asia: Did you listen to Death Cab's music before you joined? Could you also tell us how you came to be a part of Death Cab?
Jason: I played in a band with Nick for three years before Death Cab For Cutie started. But we all already knew each another because we all hung out and played in the very small music scene. The funny thing was, the band Nick and I were in, we actually kicked Nick out. [Laughs] And he went on to be in a far more successful band, and I just didn't do anything much, although we still remained good friends. Meanwhile, Death Cab had begun their rise. They had a real drive and desire to just tour, tour, tour, and be the best live band that they could. I was a witness to that because I was a fan, and I would hear them on the radio. Knowing them all, I was just happy and proud of their rise. I went to their first show in Seattle, and I guess I kind of had a feeling that I might get an opportunity to get to play with them again some day.

But it wasn't until maybe after four of five years of Death Cab's career, that they went through a few drummers. Nick and I happened to do a project again together, and remembered how much we enjoyed playing music together. I just boldly stated, "You guys should use me for your next record." [Laughs] He said, "Really? Well okay, let's see what the other guys say." He took it back to them, and everyone agreed that it would be a good thing to try. And it wasn't like there was an audition. We've known each other for like 13-14 years, and I had a crush on the band, the band had a crush on my playing. So it's all one big love-fest. [Laughs] I even wrote out all the drum parts, because I was a music teacher as well. I had everything ready to go when I showed up for the first band rehearsal, and everyone just laughed at me. They told me I didn't have anything to worry about, and after about a month, we just started recording Transatlantisicm. And the rest, as they say, is history.

MTV Asia: Do you think Narrow Stairs is more reflective of the Death Cab sound?
Jason: Narrow Stairs is pretty much a culmination of everything we've done. You can hear in the album bits and pieces of the past, references to previous records. And also, we've been spending the last couple of years on the road, playing hundreds and hundreds of shows. Then there's this thing that happens as a group when four individuals put on that kind of mileage on stage together, sweating it out from scrappy rock clubs to larger venues and all. So Narrow Stairs is just one big amount of work, from every record we've done and the different recording processes, to how we've been able to be as a live band on stage. We just took that live aspect largely into the studio for Narrow Stairs. So what you hear on that, is as live as you'll get.


MTV Asia: Take us through a day in the life of Death Cab For Cutie.
Jason: Well, we have a lot of work to do, for the first six months of any record. So that usually means four or five days a week, there's press, then anywhere from an hour to three hours of interviews with television and radio. Sometimes there're acoustic performances. You need to let the world know, whenever you're at somewhere new, like Singapore, that you're happy to be here. You do all that for the first half of the day. While we're doing that, our crew's helping to set up for the show, and then we do our soundcheck after that, make sure everything looks and sounds right. If there's time, we might do some more press. Usually we take a break, and then it's all about the show. We'll focus all that we have to make it as enjoyable as possible. After that, you fly all night, or drive all night, wake up at the next venue, and do it all over again! [Laughs] And it's often five or six shows a week, for about eighteen months to two years worth of work, in general. In the case of Transatlanticism, that day in example, lasted four and a half years. [Laughs] So yeah, there're some sacrifices. But it's okay. We're all here, we survived, and we're all ready to do the same again.