  Death Cab For Cutie |
Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard wants us to follow him into the light.
Marriage, sobriety and a healthier lifestyle have brought balance to his life and art -- though that might not be what fans want to hear.
"I feel one of the things that has attracted people to this band has been the melancholic nature of how I write songs," says the singer-guitarist over the phone from Seattle. "I think that all came to a head with our last album Narrow Stairs. While I'm really proud of that, it's a dark record. It reflects a time in my life that I'm not really proud of."
Since then, the 34-year-old indie-rocker has got his act together. He quit drinking, took up running and married actress-singer Zooey Deschanel.
"The challenge for me now, being a happily married man and being in a much better headspace than when I wrote Narrow Stairs," he says, "is to be honest with myself and our listeners as a songwriter and capture what's on my mind -- and to shake this notion that I have to continue writing dark songs because it's what people expect from me even if it's not who I am anymore."
To that end, the band's lush and expansive seventh studio album Codes and Keys (in stores May 31) buoys Gibbard's gloomy romanticism -- famously displayed in songs like I Will Follow You Into the Dark and I Will Possess Your Heart -- with optimism. Relatively speaking.
"By my count, there's maybe three or four songs that have more sunshine. But I feel it's a very well balanced record emotionally. It reflects the darkness and the light at the same time."
With Death Cab -- rounded out by guitarist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr -- bringing their balancing act to Canada this week on their first tour in nearly two years, Gibbard called up to discuss his new outlook, writing about his wife and the key to Death Cab's longevity.
Are you playing the whole new album on this tour?
As a music fan, I don't like going to shows where you're hearing 50 minutes of new music in a row. And as a performer, I don't like looking at blank faces for 50 minutes. It doesn't make for a good show. Also, at this point, we have a catalog of things people want to hear. So of 25 or 26 songs, maybe five or six will be new.
The newer songs have a lot of electronics and overdubs. Are they tough to play live and integrate in with the older songs?
We do have to rely a little more on samplers. But we've arranged the material for a live setting. It's not that we're trying to recreate the album, because it is a very meticulous record. It wasn't one we learned how to play and then recorded. We very much constructed it in the studio. I think that is where a lot of its strength lies, but it does make for a more complicated thing to play live.
Why record this one differently?
The songs just required that. With this record, a lot of the songs I brought in were more open-ended and less regimented. I wrote them with a very minimal amount of arrangement. I didn't spend time trying to write riffs and develop the songs. I wanted them to live in smaller, simpler arrangements.
How did this new writing style develop?
That's interesting. While the record certainly doesn't sound this way, I find myself as a listener being much more attracted to traditional songwriting. I've grown to appreciate the sound of vocal performances and concise lyrics. So I was trying to do more of that rather than be overly verbose or overly arrange things. In the past, I would spend the first verse just trying to set a scene. On this record I'm trying to get right to the point.
When you write about love now, you must know people will wonder how much is about Zooey.
Oh yeah. And there are moments on the new album -- like Stay Young, Go Dancing or the first verse of Monday Morning -- that are about my wife. I love Double Fantasy. I love Ram. I love marriage records. And I'm very aware that given the fact that I'm married to a person who is very well known, the assumption is going to be I'm referring to Zooey. Sometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. That's just something people need to deal with in their own way.
So, will you two make your own Double Fantasy soon?
(Laughs) I don't think so. I think she's got a lot more records to make with She and Him and I've got a lot more records to make with Death Cab before we get to that. But I guarantee you that if we were to make a record like that, Zooey's selections would be a little bit more melodic than Yoko's. And I say that as a Yoko Ono fan.
The band has been together for 14 years. What's the secret?
It's something a guy who ran a record label we almost signed to years ago told me: The secret to any band is just staying together. You just have to work through stuff. It's also about recognizing that when you put this collection of people in a room, something special happens. I'm not saying this to be grandiose, but we sounded great right off the bat. We just clicked. I remember what an impression that made on me back in 1997. And through all of this, I've never forgotten that. This will definitely be the last band I'll ever be in.
Death Cab for Cutie's Canadian dates:
May 18 | Toronto | Phoenix
May 24 | Edmonton | Shaw Conference Centre
May 25 | Calgary | Stampede Corral
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