DEATH CAB for CUTIE and Electronic Music, Trying to Meld Those Making Beautiful Music from “Electronic Junk,” One Note at a Time Two Worlds

MAY 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MAY 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A up with many guitars at all. It was in part a both prone to going too far in our respective and they were all places I had worked before reaction to the songs that Ben brought in. crafts at the expense of making something except for the Warehouse in Vancouver. He’s been writing almost exclusively on his that feels good. This record wasn’t so much I’m pretty comfortable at Sound City. acoustic guitar, and the songs are killer—the about that. There was way less digging in It has the best-sounding drum room pretty best he’s ever written—but they were taking terms of songcraft than there has been, but much anywhere, and I love working there. on a very singer-songwriter vibe. And we in terms of arrangements, we deconstructed But it’s in the valley outside of L.A., and made a record like that last time. Knowing these songs more than we ever have. there’s nothing to do out there. It’s very we didn’t want to repeat that left us in a ’70s and dark. It’s like 1:30 in the morning place where we had to rethink our approach How important is process? 24 hours a day, and it leads you to a to everything. We were going to present Process is everything to me. Everything specifi c kind of concentration. Synthesizer the stories of these songs as little movies about how you make a record informs how tweaking and patience is really rewarded without just plowing through them with guitar, it ends up sounding. If you make a record on in that studio, as are rock ’n’ roll drums. bass and drums. tape, it moves at a really specifi c pace and Then we took it to the Warehouse, which you make decisions about what’s a mistake is this beautiful, third-fl oor wall of windows, Why de-emphasize guitars? and what’s not. If you make a record on full daylight, full-service, state-of-the-art, As Ben continues to write and have songs computer, that’s a different threshold and feel-like-a-million-bucks kind of place in the turn up in his solo work, his impulse as a you end up working in a completely different middle of one of the most beautiful cities musician is to strum on a guitar and sing a way. If you make a record in a studio without on the planet—and you make a completely song. That’s a super-awesome way to deliver a lounge, you get a ton of weird energy on different kind of record there. The biggest a song. But as this band evolves, one of the it because nobody can get away from each luxury of being on a major label is having things that differentiates us from what he or any of us do on our own is trying to push the envelope of the songcraft and presentation without making it feel tricky. We’re trying to fi nd ways to present pop music in colors that you don’t normally associate with pop. We’re trying to fi nd other ways to deliver a sentiment. Did you have particular benchmarks? Danny Clinch I’d been listening a lot to Low and Heroes by David Bowie, and the last couple of LCD Soundsystem records—different versions of rock bands playing with electronics DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE and electronic music, trying to meld those Making beautiful music from “electronic junk,” one note at a time two worlds. We ended up with stacks of monophonic synthesizers and these weird textural tone poems. It was just trial and error, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE GUITARIST months,” Walla says. “There were a lot How did you approach the record? throwing ideas and sounds at songs until and producer Chris Walla didn’t want his of days that were like, ‘Dude, that note Every record we’ve made has been a reaction they felt like songs. bandmates getting too comfortable during sounds great!’ Progress reports were to the previous record, taking the experience the making of their seventh and latest album, pretty incremental.” of what happened and trying to refi ne it, make What took so long? Codes and Keys. To keep them on their Along the way the band transformed it more musical, more functional and more The thing about playing electronic junk, toes, he crafted a recording itinerary that frontman and principal songwriter Ben interesting. It’s how the band operates as a especially from that era, is that it’s tedious took the group to more than half a dozen Gibbard’s acoustic demos into atmospheric unit. The last record was very much live, on the stuff to work with, very detail-oriented. It’s studios over 10 months. “Environment is songs pulsing with rhythm and underpinned fl oor, tracking vocals and everything. It was slow enough that if it sucks, you stop doing everything with records,” says Walla. “It’s with analog synthesizers. It was meticulous, time to go back to the construction-project it. It gets boring. You don’t actually get that often overlooked.” even tedious work—yet Walla, Gibbard, world and fi nd new sounds, a new palette. far into an arrangement if it’s not working. It’s Ben Gibbard, Jason McGerr, Nick Harmer, Chris Walla Not much was overlooked during bass player Nick Harmer and drummer natural and spontaneous for four people to Danny Clinch the making of Keys. Instead of playing Jason McGerr had a blast. “We’ve never What was your vision as producer? pick up their instruments and play. But when together in the same room, as they did had this much fun making a record,” Walla I’m into restrictions and boundaries, so you’re building things note by note simply to other to take a break. You’re in on 2008’s Narrow Stairs, the musicians says. “We were more on the same page and things don’t spin wildly out of control. The make chords, it really forces you to quality- the control room or on the fl oor, ‘We went into this painstakingly assembled the tunes one more engaged than we’ve ever been. We biggest restriction for this record was that control stuff all the way along. As an exercise, and that provides a particular record with a concept, part at a time. “It was like taking apart an went into it with a plan and a concept—and I didn’t want to end up with a bunch of it’s amazing. It’s yoga-like, it pushes on the kind of record. Shaking up entire car and inspecting all the parts for 10 we stuck to it.” strummy guitars. In fact, I didn’t want to end impulse of music-making in a way that forces processes and methods will and we stuck to it.’ you to think about it quite differently. lead you to a different result with the same people. You’ve said your role as producer was the budget to be able to spread out, take ‘Shaking up processes and methods will lead you to reining in Ben as a songwriter. How was the environment this time? your time and make considerations like that. different results with the same people.’ That was true at one point, and it was also his By design, we changed it a whole bunch. It’s just fun. role to rein me in as producer. He and I are We recorded in seven different studios, –Eric R. Danton 2626 27 M mag 11.indd 26 5/31/11 8:47:18 PM M mag 11.indd 27 5/31/11 8:46:55 PM.

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