Death Cab For Cutie - Interview - July 2011 [Part 2]
By: Stan Morgan
Are there any songs that you rarely play live that you’d like to?
Ben: We have a song called ‘No Joy In Mudville’ on our second record (We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes) and it’s just such a difficult song to fit into a setlist because at this point we’re playing two hour sets, and we only really have room for one or two ‘down’ moments, and one of them always has to be ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’, so it’s very difficult to find a place to play that song in a set. It’s also hard because most people won’t know that song, so you have to make a compromise, which sucks, but we have to do it. I saw Suede played three different records in their entirety on three nights here, which is a cool thing to do, and maybe someday we might do something like that, but at this point it’s hard to find a place for songs we love but people don’t know.
Have you got to the point where you can write songs and not worry about having to play them live?
Ben: There’s not going to be a moment on this tour when we’re going to bust out ‘Unobstructed Views’. There’s not room for a six and a half minute piano and rumbling keyboard odyssey. I love that song, and we’re really proud of it, but we now go into a record making process not thinking “how are we going to play these songs live?” We make the record and then try to learn as many songs as we can, work out the ones which will translate the best and play those. After maybe a year of touring we’ll maybe introduce some other songs.
Nick: We do pay attention and listen to people who have listened to our music. If overwhelmingly people were telling us we really need to be playing ‘Unobstructed Views’, that it’s the song, then we would do it. We don’t only listen to that kind of feedback, you have to look at what songs not only are you are excited about, but what your audience are saying. You should pay attention to what they expect and what they want to hear, otherwise you may as well just stay at home. If overwhelmingly there was a song that people kept requesting that we kept hearing about or whatever, we would always play it. There’s no song we’ve ever recorded that we can’t play live for any reason.
Ben: We’re playing about 25 songs a night and of that 25, 15 are the same every night, and then it’s just a matter of swapping out the other 10 to keep it fresh for us. We’ll realise that people have been yelling for ‘Styrofoam Plates’, for example, so we might play that one night. I keep my eye on what people are asking for.
Looking back, do you think signing for a major label for Plans had a major influence on your career?
Ben: Yeah. I think in the thick of signing to Atlantic, and making Plans, we were all doing our best to convince ourselves that nothing would change, we’d be the same band and do the same things. Looking back, I mean we all got along just fine, but I personally was a lot more nervous and jumpy than I’d ever been before. Only in hindsight can I acknowledge how affected I was by the fact that people were now truly paying attention. We were no longer an underground band, some secret band where people were like “Aw man you need to check out Death Cab, they made this great record We Have The Facts…, nobody’s heard it, it’s really great.” That just wasn’t us anymore, and it was only a couple of years previously that it was us, so it was fresh in our memory of being an underdog, and now we’re on a major label and there’s a loud portion of the music community with all these expectations of us. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we took a lot of flack for it, but I personally felt like going out and doing more than we should have because I felt insecure about the situation. I was worried about the general perception that we’d changed. It doesn’t happen anymore, but there was this false perception that you sign with a major label and then you’re instantly rich. So we were fighting the whole “these guys are just a bunch of rich rock stars” thing. None of us owned a house, and no one was driving off in an Aston Martin from the signing party.
Do you put the success of your most recent albums down to the fact that you moved to Atlantic?
Ben: I definitely think that in 2005 being on a major label was very integral in our success because what a major label could do that an indie label couldn’t do was get us on the radio. In the States people hear a song on the radio and then go and buy the record, so it definitely took us to another level. Transatlanticism did about 300,000 copies, and then Plans went platinum and sold over a million. Just judging by that leap it was certainly something worth doing. We didn’t sign to a major label to continue sheepishly being this “shucks, we’re just a…” kind of band, we certainly had ambition. The perception is that if you have ambitions then you’re somehow ‘selling out’ and losing some kind of artistic purity.
Nick: It just doesn’t exist, that fictional person who is able to straddle both sides of that.
Ben: The one thing that I’m most proud of is that the band has always become more successful on the shoulders of the way we’ve always made records. We’ve had little bumps and help from pop culture and things along the way, but at the same time we made Plans as we made Narrow Stairs and as we made Codes and Keys, just the four of us in a studio with Chris producing. It didn’t go from us recording on a four-track to being in a studio with Daniel Lanois.
How have you had to adapt your lyrics as you’ve settled down in your personal lives?
Ben: Human relationships are always complicated, and just because I’m a married man doesn’t change the fact that I have my eyes open to how people relate to each other and how they interact with each other. One of the false perceptions of this band is that I’m always writing about myself, that all the songs are about me and the people I know, and that’s never really been true. I’ve certainly taken from my own life, but I’ve also taken from those around me, the movies that I love and the books that I read. I like using a lot of personal pronouns, I’s and We’s, but just because it’s written in first person doesn’t mean it’s from my perspective, listeners like to put the songwriter in the narrator’s shoes. In some songs there’s more of me than others, so some songs are exactly what people think they are, but there are others that couldn’t be further away from me.
Have you made any plans beyond the touring of this album?
Ben: We only see what’s directly in front of us. We’ve been in Europe for two weeks and everybody’s just kinda homesick and ready to go home. Right now I’m just excited about sleeping in my own bed…
Nick: I’m such a homebody. I love being at home, being able to cook and hang out with my wife. You miss the simple things as you get older, all my friends and everything. When I was young it was all about going out and doing crazy things and having a good time, and now I just miss home. I miss my wife first and foremost, and then I miss my record player! We went record shopping in Manchester and I’m dying to get home and put them on, sit around in casual clothes, do laundry whenever I want, drive on the right side of the road!
Lastly, Ben, in one word if you have to, is there going to be any new Postal Service music any time soon?
Ben: Maybe. But if somebody has decided to go down underwater in a deep sea diving suit and not come up until they hear more Postal Service music, they’re going to run out of air, they’re going to die down there.
Artists in this article: Death Cab For Cutie