MOVIE SCRIPT ENDING
On March 3rd, 2004, Death Cab for Cutie played the small hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam. At the time, everything seemed to be going right for the four boys from just outside Seattle. Bolstered by frequent name dropping on The O.C., the band’s unique brand of hook-driven pop married with singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard’s haunting lyricism and ghostly delivery have made Death Cab indie music’s hottest commodity. On top of that, Give Up, the 2003 release by Gibbard’s electro side project Postal Service, had just become Sub Pop’s highest selling album since Nirvana, and Death Cab’s album Transatlanticism, released the same year, was about to go gold in the States. Yet, on the last show of an exhausting month-long European tour, the members of Death Cab for Cutie took the stage in front of a half-empty venue. Hauntingly lit by the stage lights, Gibbard seemed to seethe with frustration.
That night, after Gibbard apologetically explained to the audience that he just wanted to go home, the band cut Transatlanticism’s epic title track from its usual eight-minute mark down to about four, and promptly left the stage. If this was to be the high point of a band riding on a wave of hype, they seemed to be saying, then perhaps it was best they just stay indie darlings, perhaps one day becoming a cult band like so many of their heroes.
But fate had some different plans for Gibbard, guitarist/producer Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr. Four years on, the band are doing better than ever. After controversially signing to major label Atlantic Records, they released 2006’s Plans—a tighter, more Pro-Tools-driven follow-up to the rocky, bare-bones Transatlanticism—which went on to go platinum in America. And now, with the release of Narrow Stairs on May 13th, Death Cab for Cutie had their first North American Number 1 album. It’s hard to believe that the band who seemed so frustrated with their lack of international success just four short years ago is now one of the biggest bands in the world.
On the phone from LA, fresh from playing the Coachella music festival where “some lights nearly killed our drummer,” Walla (Who has produced albums by Hot Hot Heat, Tegan and Sara, The Decemberists) claims it’s times like their show at the Paradiso and their small-band mentality that have been some of the keys to his band’s success.
“At the risk of sounding arrogant, I feel I do have a better understanding of the business than most people do. For example, I think that making records cheap is a big asset. Just because you have a $50,000 budget doesn’t mean you have to spend all of it, because you get to pocket the rest. And I think that works at all levels. That’s something that we do in Death Cab. For this record we had the budget to go to the Bahamas and record in Nassau for three months, but it doesn’t make a better record. Ten times the budget doesn’t make ten times the record, ever.”
Despite his self-assuredness, it was not always so cheery for Walla and company. After signing to Atlantic, Walla claims that the band lost sight of their vision.
“I don’t know if we knew it at the time, but Plans was very much a record that was influenced by the label. They weren’t even hanging on us; they’ve actually been really supportive, but we didn’t really know when we handed Plans in how much they’d want to rework stuff. So we tried to create something that was our approximation of what we thought our major label debut should sound like.”
For Narrow Stairs, Walla searched for a way to avoid that uncertainty and reconnect the band.
“By the end of the recording of Plans we were really confused about what it means to be in a band. It was a record that was made very much Lego-piece-by-Lego-piece, a bunch of pieces stacked together. Ben wrote all that stuff on piano and Pro Tools, so a lot of it was glitchy stuff which didn’t translate that well to the rock band setting. I think the thing that cemented us back together was touring. Then, when I produced a record in the middle of last year for a band called So Many Dynamos which was recorded live off the floor, that changed my whole perspective on how my band should record.”
The result is an album that is more haunting, existentially angst-ridden and self-loathing, which is to say a bit more dangerous than Death Cab have sounded in a long time. The whole thing is anchored by the eight-minute-long first single “I Will Posses Your Heart.” Not exactly Leona Lewis type affair.
“I was worried for the commercial success of this album in a way,” Walla admits. “But the whole goal of this record was to keep it close to home and make this record for ourselves. This record is the record that I think we would have made after Transatlanticism had we not [signed to a major label]. This feels like such a natural record to me. This feels like us not worrying about commercial appeal.”
For those worried that Death Cab has lost its love of the perfect pop song, Walla has these reassuring words. “We’re pretty impatient people ultimately, and we’re in love with the three-minute pop song. We’ll go to bat for the three-minute pop song. I think that with ‘I Will Possess Your Heart,’ it was a unique case where we just said, ‘Let’s try this.’ By the fourth take, we all just knew we had it. I dunno if we’d ever do that again. It was us screwing around with an idea and then coming to really like it as tape was rolling. I think this is a unique record. I don’t anticipate that we’ll do this again.”
That night, after Gibbard apologetically explained to the audience that he just wanted to go home, the band cut Transatlanticism’s epic title track from its usual eight-minute mark down to about four, and promptly left the stage. If this was to be the high point of a band riding on a wave of hype, they seemed to be saying, then perhaps it was best they just stay indie darlings, perhaps one day becoming a cult band like so many of their heroes.
But fate had some different plans for Gibbard, guitarist/producer Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr. Four years on, the band are doing better than ever. After controversially signing to major label Atlantic Records, they released 2006’s Plans—a tighter, more Pro-Tools-driven follow-up to the rocky, bare-bones Transatlanticism—which went on to go platinum in America. And now, with the release of Narrow Stairs on May 13th, Death Cab for Cutie had their first North American Number 1 album. It’s hard to believe that the band who seemed so frustrated with their lack of international success just four short years ago is now one of the biggest bands in the world.
On the phone from LA, fresh from playing the Coachella music festival where “some lights nearly killed our drummer,” Walla (Who has produced albums by Hot Hot Heat, Tegan and Sara, The Decemberists) claims it’s times like their show at the Paradiso and their small-band mentality that have been some of the keys to his band’s success.
“At the risk of sounding arrogant, I feel I do have a better understanding of the business than most people do. For example, I think that making records cheap is a big asset. Just because you have a $50,000 budget doesn’t mean you have to spend all of it, because you get to pocket the rest. And I think that works at all levels. That’s something that we do in Death Cab. For this record we had the budget to go to the Bahamas and record in Nassau for three months, but it doesn’t make a better record. Ten times the budget doesn’t make ten times the record, ever.”
Despite his self-assuredness, it was not always so cheery for Walla and company. After signing to Atlantic, Walla claims that the band lost sight of their vision.
“I don’t know if we knew it at the time, but Plans was very much a record that was influenced by the label. They weren’t even hanging on us; they’ve actually been really supportive, but we didn’t really know when we handed Plans in how much they’d want to rework stuff. So we tried to create something that was our approximation of what we thought our major label debut should sound like.”
For Narrow Stairs, Walla searched for a way to avoid that uncertainty and reconnect the band.
“By the end of the recording of Plans we were really confused about what it means to be in a band. It was a record that was made very much Lego-piece-by-Lego-piece, a bunch of pieces stacked together. Ben wrote all that stuff on piano and Pro Tools, so a lot of it was glitchy stuff which didn’t translate that well to the rock band setting. I think the thing that cemented us back together was touring. Then, when I produced a record in the middle of last year for a band called So Many Dynamos which was recorded live off the floor, that changed my whole perspective on how my band should record.”
The result is an album that is more haunting, existentially angst-ridden and self-loathing, which is to say a bit more dangerous than Death Cab have sounded in a long time. The whole thing is anchored by the eight-minute-long first single “I Will Posses Your Heart.” Not exactly Leona Lewis type affair.
“I was worried for the commercial success of this album in a way,” Walla admits. “But the whole goal of this record was to keep it close to home and make this record for ourselves. This record is the record that I think we would have made after Transatlanticism had we not [signed to a major label]. This feels like such a natural record to me. This feels like us not worrying about commercial appeal.”
For those worried that Death Cab has lost its love of the perfect pop song, Walla has these reassuring words. “We’re pretty impatient people ultimately, and we’re in love with the three-minute pop song. We’ll go to bat for the three-minute pop song. I think that with ‘I Will Possess Your Heart,’ it was a unique case where we just said, ‘Let’s try this.’ By the fourth take, we all just knew we had it. I dunno if we’d ever do that again. It was us screwing around with an idea and then coming to really like it as tape was rolling. I think this is a unique record. I don’t anticipate that we’ll do this again.”
