INTERVIEW

Death Cab for Cutie by Trevor Johnson and Kris Adamo

We had the pleasure of meeting up with Death Cab for Cutie on November 3rd at the Glass House in Pomona. They were on tour with Pedro The Lion and had just released a new e.p. on Barsuk Records called "Forbidden Love" that has three new songs and two modified songs from their last album, We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes. We sat down with Ben Gibbard (vocals/guitar), Nick Harmer (bass), and Michael Schorr (drums) for a casual meeting of the minds before their set.

Where did the name Death Cab For Cutie come from?
Ben: The name was a song by a band in the Sixties called The Bonzo Dog Band. It was in The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" movie and we just decided to use it as a band name.

We heard that you (Ben) did the vocals for a track on the new Harvey Danger album. How do you know them?
B: Oh, we've known those guys for the last couple of years. They had gotten a tape of us somehow and we just became friends and started hanging out. They just said, "Hey, you want to come sing on a couple of tracks for our new album?" and I sang on a couple and my girlfriend sang on a couple that were cut from the album, actually. Yeah, it was fun.
They gave us our first show in Seattle. We were living in Bellingham at the time. That's like an hour and a half north of Seattle, it's a college town. So yeah, it was weird--we met them, then the next month the "Flagpole Sitta" song just started blowing up. It was kind of strange. It was very interesting to have friends going through that one-song-big-hit kind of major label thing, to see from an inside perspective how it's not all it's cracked up to be. Those guys are great, they're still really good friends of ours.

How did the fans that came for them react to you guys playing? Were they cool?
B: Not really, they were there just there to hear one song. People who listen to large KROQ-type stations don't really care about bands or albums or careers, they just listen to the songs they hear on the radio. So it was pretty much about 400 people every night who really couldn't give a shit that we were even there. I mean, we sold some stuff, but for the most part, people would come and hear "Flagpole Sitta" then half of them would leave.

So you guys wouldn't want to be played on stations like that, KROQ and the like?
B: I don't know, I don't really think there's a place for us on stations like that. I mean, if the question is "Do we want a big hit single?" then the answer would be no. Given the climate of today's music industry, as far as major labels go, it's just not very conducive to building a career. So there's no point for us to try, it's not really something we aspire to. If it were to happen, it would happen. But it's not anything that we think is going to happen or necessarily would hope to happen.

Is your first tour with Pedro The Lion?
B: Actually it is. We've been friends with those guys for a couple of years, our first albums came out pretty much the same time.
Nick: We've played with them a number of times.
B: Yeah, we've played a whole bunch of times, and tried to do a couple of tours, but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out. So this is the first actual tour that we've been on with them all the way.

How old were you guys when you first started getting into music, was it in high school or...?
N: Oh, as long as I can remember I've always been around music. I don't think I was really musically inclined, but I've always been a fan of music ever since I was a little kid. I never realized I could actually make music or play music until about second grade when I started taking piano lessons, and I started figuring out that if you put your fingers in this certain way on this machine it makes this certain sound, and then you start piecing it together from there. Then I was in band class in my elementary and junior high school, I played clarinet then guitar for awhile, so it kind of just built on itself. Then it just seemed like a logical step, when you're hanging out in the small boring town where I grew up there wasn't really anything to do, so it was just something we ended up doing to kill time. Playing with friends and making bands, from there on it goes.

Did your parents approve of this whole being in a band thing, professionally?
N: My mom does, she's a super big supporter. My dad, he understands what I'm doing. I think he wishes that I was doing something else but he also realizes that I'm my own person and I can make my own decisions. We get in an awful lot of conversations about, "You went to college for four years, so you play in a rock band, are you going to do this for the rest of your life? How are you going to support a family?", and those kinds of things.
B: All our parents have been really supportive. My parents put me in school and I studied Environmental Chemistry for four years and I came out with a baccalaureates. Now I just goof around and be an idiot all day long, making music. But they were totally, really supportive. It's nice to have your parents backing up what you're doing. And on some levels they still pay for us and really help us out when we're in a jam.

We heard that after this tour you're going to go back in the studio sometime next year to record a new album.
B: The idea is to start recording in May or June, springtime.
N: We're shooting for October (for the release).

Do you have a lot of new material?
B: I have a bunch of material that I've written, out of the seven or eight odd songs that I've put together over the last year or so. We've been starting to work on arranging and changing some songs that are going to be on the new album, but it's all very much like a bunch of pieces sitting on 4-track tapes that haven't been worked on yet. We brought a couple of new songs on the road with us, to test them out.

Where do you get all your inspiration for writing songs? Does it just come to you, or do you sit down and think, "I'm going to write a song?"
B: I'm not a really prolific songwriter. I don't sit at home and write ten songs everyday. I'm lucky if I can write a song a month that I really like, but I just don't really push it. I doodle on guitar and eventually I'll get something I like and start putting something together and start writing lyrics depending on whatever I feel is appropriate for the song.

People have been talking about what the song "Bend To Squares" is about, and there have been so many different interpretations. What does it really mean?
B: Actually, I kind of piece-mealed the song together when I was writing lyrics. I was reading a review of what, at the time, was the new Frank Sinatra biography, and it was talking about how much alcohol he drank. I haven't read the book, but that's what the review was saying. How he was always drunk all the time, like, "yeah I was hanging out with this guy and I drank a fifth." So I was reading the review, and doing laundry at the laundromat. So while reading this review I just started making a character based off of what that review was saying. It's not a very focused song, really.
N: There was a time when we were trying out new drummers and we had this guy come in and he sat down and went, "There's that song "Bend To Squares" I'm really curious about it.You mention every number except the number four in it. I'm wondering if that was a conscious effort?" And we're just looking at him like, "What the fuck is wrong with you? You've listened to the song that many times and figured that little pattern out?" It was just kind of funny that he had actually tried to figure out that Ben had written out this super secret thing. It's just a really random thing, the song.
B: I like just taking little instances at a time and making little characters out of them, or embellishing a lot further than they probably should be embellished.
N: I think those are better kinds of lyrics. I like that in bands I listen to. I mean, straight-ahead narrative lyrics like, "I went for a walk tonii-ight, down the streeet"-- it's obvious exactly what he's doing. Those kinds of lyrical deliveries don't leave a lot of room for interpretation and I think for better or for worse, interpretation is always a good thing. It allows people to find their own connection to a song.

So tonight will you be playing more songs from Something About Airplanes or We Have The Facts And Are Voting Yes or other stuff?
B: I think tonight we're only playing two songs from Something About Airplanes and two songs from the new e.p., a couple of brand new songs and then four or five off of Facts.

Are you going to play the new version of "Company Calls Epilogue" that's on the e.p. or are you going to play the regular version, if at all?
B: Not tonight, but the alternate version was just, like, when we were recording the album, by the time it got to the time to record the song, we didn't have access to a drum set, it was too loud for the neighborhood. So we used just a lot of weird things, some ridiculous setup we had; like a snare drum on a keyboard, playing a high-hat from another track and a kick drum from something else, it was just really piece-mealed. I think we all like the way it sounds, but at the time it just didn't fit on the album. It's not totally different--the sounds are different and the production is different, but it's still the same song. But when we finished recording, we decided it just didn't fit on the album, so we had our old drummer come in and we re-recorded it.

You've been with the Barsuk label nearly the whole time you've been recording. Do you really care about what record label you play for? Does it matter to you?
B: In a way I think it does. The first CD was going to be on Elsinore but Barsuk had a bit more resources to add to the pot of money, so it was co-released. It wasn't expected to do very well, but then it started selling fairly well, and we had to repress it and crap.

Okay, well, we have some random questions that people have wanted us to ask you. First up, what are your middle names?
B: I just have an initial, "D." (He took out his driver's license and showed us) My grandpa gave my dad the initial "D" in his name too, and now it's turned into a kind of family tradition.
N: My middle name is Scott. Chris's middle name is Ryan. (Chris Walla, guitar/backing vocals/organ) And Michael's is...
Michael: Allen.

What did you do for Halloween?
B: I didn't do anything this year, and Halloween is like my holiday. Out of all the holidays, that's the one I get excited about, and we were leaving to go to San Diego the next morning this year, so we couldn't really do anything because we had to wake up at five in the morning. The year before, two of our best friends got married on Halloween because that was the only time they could reserve the chapel, so it's been kind of wrecked the last few years.
N: I read the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine and there were some great makeup ideas in there for mummies and vampires and stuff. I really wanted to try a few of them out, but we had to leave the next morning so we just watched a movie that night. I gave out some candy to trick-or-treaters--a lot of great costumes this year.
M: I made dinner, had a bottle of wine, then listened to The Sea and Cake. A very good Halloween this year.

Have you seen the new Halloween episode of "The Simpsons?" There's a new episode this year.
N: I know I know, don't even get us started on "The Simpsons."
M: We were somewhere between San Francisco and Bakersfield.

Were you good looking babies?
N: No, I was really fat.
B: I was a really, really good looking kid. No, I'm serious, I was a model in Japan. Time has ravaged my once youthful good looks. I actually have magazines, Japanese magazines, with me modeling these little outfits with little shorts and a tiny bow tie. I actually have one ad, and at the time of the shoot I had measles, so I was just miserable, my face was bright red, and I was crying. So here we are, doing this ad, and in the picture there's me just giving this horrible look. I'm crying and looking nasty in my little outfit, then next to me are all these other Americans giving these smooth looks and posing just right, looking really suave, and I was just screaming and making this horrible, horrible face. So, I was a great looking baby, I was.
M: I had really red hair, if that means anything.

Do you guys get all psyched up before playing a show or do you just walk out there ready to play? Do you still get nervous before playing?
N: I don't know, I think it really depends on the situation... there's always a little bit of butterflies, but it's become pretty routine.
B: I get nervous sometimes but it's not that bad.
M: A lot of the times I panic right before a song because I can't remember how to play it. Ben will say "Okay, this song is..." y'know, whatever, and I can't remember, not even a single part of the song. And then, like a second before we start it all comes back to me and I'm like "Oh yeah!" and launch right into it.

Do any of you happen to like Jello pudding snacks?
B: I'm vegan, so no.
N: I love Jello. Jello is a great substance. Ben's kind of hindered it for me over the years though, because now when I eat it I think, "I'm eating horse hooves," so I just don't get the full enjoyment of it anymore.

Ben, how long have you been vegan?
B: For a long time now...since '95.

Do you miss anything?
B: No, not at all. I mean, at first it was pretty hard, but after awhile, I just got used to it and now it's not a problem.
N: But Barbecues still smell good when you're walking by, I bet.
B: Yeah, of course, I'm not gonna deny that.