Interviews

Death Cab For Cutie

Interview with The whole band on Nov 30, 1999 by Archive Bot

This interview was done November 15 at the Glasshouse in Pomona, CA. Death Cab for Cutie has a new album out on Barsuk Records entitled “The Photo Album.” For more information and mp3’s go to www.barsuk.com. I recommend everyone check it out.

PB: Tell the people who you are and what you do.
Ben: I’m Ben, I play guitar and sing.
Nick: I’m Nick I play bass.
Michael: I am Michael, I play drums.
Chris: I’m Chris I play some guitar and some keyboards. 

PB: How did you first become involved in independent music, what got you started?
Nick: I don’t know if there was really a choice. I mean, there’s no other way for us to put out music. So, in that sense....
Chris: You can’t really decide to play dependent music.

PB: Well what about growing up, did you listen to independent music growing up?
Nick: Not solely. I mean we are just into good music.
Ben: I mean it’s never been like we only listen to bands that are on certain labels. I think that one day in the van, hearing what everybody listens to is enough to make you realize that we probably listen to the least cool music, in the indie sense of it.

PB: So what inspires you when you are writing? Do you draw inspiration from other musicians, or artists or movies?
Ben: Just kind of whatever is around me at the time. Obviously you hear bands and songs and stuff that you like and you want to incorporate it into what you do. Or on that same token, reading a good book or seeing a good movie. And whatever is kind of happening in my life at the time.

PB: Yeah, your lyrics seem pretty personal, does it ever get awkward in real life. Do people ever come up to you and ask “is that about me?” or anything like that?
Ben: A couple of times. But for the most part, everybody that has songs about them already knows. I try and let them know. I haven't gotten slapped yet or anything like that. There are a couple of songs out there that I haven’t ever talked to the people, but I end up writing the songs about them because I’ve met them in passing. And I’m not sure if they are out there still listening or know about the songs or whatever?

PB: Is there anything else you could picture yourself doing?
Chris: I could be making coffee at a coffee shop.
Nick: Yeah, there’s lots of things.

PB: Like what?
Nick: I could see myself being a firefighter or being a baseball player.

PB: So what made playing music the right decision for you?
Nick: It chose me.

PB: So then you really can’t picture yourself doing something else. On this album what were intentions when writing it? Did you want to make it different from previous albums?
Ben: A little bit of everything. We had a bunch of songs and it was just time to make a record. I think that there are certain songs that deviate from what we’ve done in the past. Or there are at least variations from what we’ve done in the past that feel new or more fresh. Personally, I didn’t go out when I started to demo this record wanting to make a totally different record or thinking “this is the feel I want for this record.” We just had songs we had in front of us and it was time to make a record and they sound a certain way. And Chris recorded them in a certain way and we arranged them in a certain way and it turned out in a certain manner. It wasn’t a conscious decision. 

PB: Was it easier to record this album because you got to do it all in one studio as opposed to before where you recorded in a few different studios?
Nick: Yeah, in some respects it was easier. It was nice to have a studio where you could go to in the day and show up, do what you need to do and then go home. And then, our other records were recorded in people’s living rooms and bedrooms and there was always really limited times that we could record. So it was nice to have sort of carte blanche to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. Anytime of the day, or to not do anything on a certain day and know that we could make it up some other time. But anytime you record a record there are always things that are not easy about it. In some respects it was easier, in other respects there were some more difficult things.

PB: Chris, didn’t you produce the album?
Chris: Yeah.

PB: Were there ever times that you wished you had someone else to bounce ideas of off, was it ever awkward?
Chris: Yeah, every now and again. I think that probably the next album that we end up doing we’ll end up having someone else involved at some point. What I’m thinking right now is I’ll do the recording and producing and we’ll have someone else mix it. Because after we’ve got the sounds and performances, the whole putting them all together at the tail end is kind of hard for me because I get really attached to certain sounds and certain performances. And its different from song to song. In one song I’ll be totally in love with the vocal and the vocal recording and in another song it will be a keyboard part that I just love. So, those things tend to stick out in those mixes, sometimes a little unnaturally. So, yeah, I guess in some respects it would be nice to have someone else involved. But then again, on the other side, its nice to have kept it all very in house and all under one roof. The four of us make the record and that’s the end of it.

PB: Now that the album is finished and out what do you hope people get out of it?
Ben: I just hope that people enjoy it. I think that when a band starts putting out more and more records, we are all sort of guilty of to a certain extent, you make a certain connection with a record early on. Like for me, Superchunk. Superchunk’s “Foolish” is one of my all time favorite records, its like the third record. You have something that you have a lot of emotional attachment to and sometimes its harder to get into later records because you have such a connection to the first one
Nick: Or the first one you heard..
Ben: Yeah, or just the first one you got into. And I know that I’m sure that goes for people to who listen to our bands as well. I just hope that with this records and the records we make in the future people just give them a good listen and people just try to enjoy them. I’ve talked to friends and they say “this ones my favorite, everything else is all right, but this ones my favorite.” But I think in making records, records are kind of a lot like your children, sort of. You see the negatives and the positives in them and you see that this could have been that way and that could have been this way but you still, like when we finished this record I was really proud of it. I like to think that we’ve made the best record we’ve made to date, but that’s also my really super subjective opinion. I just hope people give it a good listen and can enjoy it as much as they have the ability to, given whether or not they even like our band or they made a strong connection to the first record or the second. Whatever, I just hope people can give it a listen and try and enjoy it.

PB: So, you guys have been touring a lot to support the album, do you like playing the new songs live? How does your set go, is it a good mix of material from all the records?
Ben: I think we are trying to put in enough old stuff. I think this tour we’ve made a concerted effort to play more stuff off the first record. For the people that have kind of been with us for a while and also to just play some of the stuff that maybe people haven’t heard before. I think whenever it comes time to play songs that people, obviously a large chunk of the set is material off of the new record, you kind of see people glaze over sometimes when you play songs that they haven’t had a chance to learn or familiarize themselves with. When I put the set list together I try and make sure that we don’t play too many new songs in a row. The response seems to be pretty positive so far about the new stuff, people seem to like it.

PB: Are the certain that you look forward to go home to after being on the road for a while?
Michael: Thanksgiving.
Nick: Just being home in general. Having a clean bathroom and a warm bed.
Michael: Making a really good cup of coffee in the morning. Simple pleasures.
Nick: Just having your simple life routine back is nice. Everybody has there things that they like doing that make them feel good. When you are on the road for a month or more you kind of have to suspend all that. You have a routine one day, and then you have to scrap it and find a new routine the next day. So, it gets tiring.
Chris: I kind of like to record at home. I’m pretty much in the studio everyday of my life when I’m not on tour. And then we are on tour for five weeks and I don’t hit the record button at all. I kind of go through a little bit of withdraw.

PB: What's your opinion of the current state of popular music? Like how MTV plays all this rap metal and then there are bands like The Strokes getting airplay as well?
Nick: I don’t know. It is what it is. It’s kind of a different level and a different game than what we are into. I don’t personally like a lot of the new metal stuff, but, its obviously striking a chord with a lot of people. People are really enjoying it and liking it, so I can’t really bump that. I personally would take a radio full of Strokes songs over Limp Bizkit songs any day of the week. But, that's not to say that I’m even a huge Strokes fan. I just like the aesthetics of The Strokes and what they are about and where they come from. I understand it more, I’m more comfortable with their influences. I’m more comfortable with their philosophies than I am new metal. Maybe that’s all it is.
Ben: I think as I get older to I find myself older too, I find myself less concerned with the idea that is a market that we need to be involved in. I feel that we have seemed to have carved such a nice niche for ourselves in indie rock land that it doesn’t, I don’t see the state of major label music ever being anything that ever really effects us. I guess it does in the way that we’re not invited to play at that level. Everyday though it seems to be less and less of a concern. There are a lot of people that say “the state of music is so bad” or “major labels are so terrible.” But, of course, its always been that way. Major labels have always been operating in an ass backwards way. Major radio has always been bad. In a major label world there is no room to build a good career. Its just that being in this band its never been an avenue that we have felt that was feasible for us.

PB: So, you are happy with Barsuk and everything? Don’t you guys all live in the same town and don’t they own the recording studio you recorded at?
All: Oh yes.

PB: Is it kind of like a family?
Chris: Very much, and Josh is our daddy.
Nick: Probably in more ways than you would think. As we acknowledge that its become a family, then you can imagine that there are times that you just want to get out of the house. Not be around your family and all your family affairs. Your family can make you really happy and gives you a lot of support when you need it. It’s all the good things and the bad things kind of rolled up into one. I think we are all very much accepting of it and embrace it for what it is. It’s kind of our philosophy most of the time that you never really get rid of any problems in life, you always just trade one set of problems for another. So, if you know your problems already, then you can deal with them and cope with them. There’s really no sense in thinking that there are greener pastures everywhere else. We are very happy there. 

PB: What are guy’s goals for the future? Just to continue along the same path?
Nick: I would just like to see us become better and better players. And just continue to make records that we are happy about and to try and stay as much out of, as you get more and more popular people start asking you for your opinion about your band. And a lot of people start asking you what do you think about what you are doing and where you are going and all that stuff, there’s a part of me that would just like to stay out of that objective kind of thinking as possible. I would never say that we can ignore all of that, but at the same time I would like to get away from having to think about that. Other than just knowing that I know that I’m having a good time, I know we are playing good songs, I get along great with these guys, I have a lot of respect for them and as long as we can keep making music that the four of us are inspired by, to me I would feel fulfilled. It’s kind of strange. Even on this tour I find myself asking a lot of questions about our band that I never did before. What are our goals? Where do we want to be in five years? Just because you get it so often and you had never really stopped to think about it before and then all of a sudden you are thinking about it and it gets kind of scary when you are thinking about it in those terms. We don’t have a mission statement.
Michael: If we aren’t playing stadiums in two years, I’m out.
Nick: It sounds sort of cheesy to say that, and very sort of, maybe ignorant in some respects. To live in a vacuum like that. But I think that at some point that’s all you can really do. Otherwise you just start second guessing yourself. Is this really what we are about? Is this our sound?
Michael: And I don’t think that you can plan for a lot of the things that happen, they just do. You have very little control over them. And I think we are very real about that. We’ll just do what we do and see what happens. It’s very hard to say, well, we need to be playing two thousand seat venues by 2002.
Ben: Or incorporating Brazilian beats or something. Like when people ask what direction you are going to? I don’t know. I’ll be able to tell you what direction we were going into when the band is over. Like Nick said, there is no, like, on the next record we need to incorporate, like whatever.
Nick: But we might if it sounded good to us. But it wouldn’t be because somebody told us that’s what should happen. Whatever sounds good to us at the time. Maybe Chris will come in and say “you guys, the digiredoo is the fucking instrument of the future and we need to put digiredoo all over this record.” Who knows, I don’t know.

PB: Are there any bands that you guys would really like to tour with?
Nick: I only want to tour with bands that are nice.
Michael: We did five days with Shiner and they are awesome, they are wonderful guys.

PB: Shiner? I’ve never heard of that band.
Michael: They are from Kansas City. They are a rock band.
Ben: We are on tour with The Prom, and have been for the past month. And they are really great. People seem to be enjoying their music live as well.
Nick: I would love to say that I would want to tour with Radiohead or the Yes reunion tour. But those guys could just be jackasses and then it wouldn’t be fun at all. I like playing with bands that are really cool and are aware of the fleeting sort of aspect of everything. That they don’t carry themselves with a sense of entitlement. Like I deserve this, this is where I dreamed to be and I’m here, so god dammit.