Death Cab for Cutie

Atmospheric Pressure
Death Cab for Cutie shift musical direction on Codes and Keys

By Jeff Niesel

Since forming in 1997 in Bellingham, Washington, Death for Cutie has slowly carved out a nice niche for itself. The indie rock act hasn’t veered too far from the hushed vocals and atmospheric music that distinguished early albums such as 1998’s Something About Airplanes and 2000’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes. Even signing to a major label in 2003 for Transatlanticism didn’t lead the band into an entirely new direction. But with its new album, Codes and Keys, which has already produced the single “You are the Tourist,” the band takes a more significant musical departure.

The guitar hooks that distinguished tunes such as “I Will Possess Your Heart” and “No Sunlight,” both of which are from the band’s previous album, 2008’s Narrow Stairs, are gone. Instead, the band opts to create dense musical textures driven more by synthesizers than guitars. Even the vocals take a back seat. While the music can still be identified as Death Cab, it’s a big step in a different musical direction. Calling from Los Angeles where he was in rehearsals for a short tour (a longer fall tour is in the works), guitarist-keyboardist Chris Walla spoke about the band’s longevity as well as its willingness to try something different.

For something that began as a solo project for singer Ben Gibbard, Death Cab for Cutie has really endured. What’s been the key to the band’s longevity?

I don’t know. It really boils down to communication and respect. Some of having fun in a band is luck and circumstance. But some of it is a choice. It’s a matter of balancing your priorities. We’ve said it a lot, but I mean the hardest thing about staying a band is staying a band. It sounds reflexive, but it’s true. There are lots of other things that you can do. Each of us has to decide every day that this is still what we want to do. Thankfully, it’s still creatively rewarding and we’re having more fun together than I think we’ve ever had.

Is it true that Ben Gibbard wrote all the songs and then recruited you to help him record them because you had the recording equipment?

That’s the Wikipedia version. Ben did do everything on the first record, but we started the band together. He was a friend of a friend. We met the way I suppose lots of people meet in bands, sort of as friends of friends who play music.

Where did you record the new album?

We recorded all over the West Coast in a bunch of different studios. Primarily, it was tracked in Sound City in L.A. and the Warehouse in Vancouver. With every record, I’ve made it a point to try to make the record a manifesto and build a set of operating ground rules. For the last record, for example, the whole idea was to track as much of it live as we possibly could. We wanted to do vocals on the floor and not stop to do a take. It’s a whole working philosophy. With this record, the idea was that guitars were effectively going to be used only as set dressing and decoration and not as primary building blocks for any of the songs. I really wanted to use a palette that we had never used before. We ended up with a lot of drones and a lot of synths.

I think your new approach is apparent right from that opening tune, “Home is a Fire.”

Yeah, more or less. Guitars get used in different ways throughout the course of the record, but yeah that is the case.

Even though it’s super mellow, I like the song. What exactly is it about?

It doesn’t seem that obscure to me. It’s just the idea that there’s some urgency to building a home that you care about and want to get back to it.

And I think there’s orchestral instrumentation on the record, too.

Yes, the Magik Magik Orchestra did strings on two songs.

Because of the orchestra, the title track has such a lush sound. How did you wind up working with the Magik Magik Orchestra?.

I met Minna Choi, who is sort of the mastermind behind the orchestra through our friend, [singer-songwriter] John Vanderslice, and she has been playing with him for a couple of years. I hired her last year to play on the Lonely Forest record. They’re on the first track on that record. I had a great experience with them. It seemed like a really natural step for the songs they play on this record. They don’t put out records of their own, but she has done a few scores for lots of different projects. But they have no records of their own.

You have a great ear for music and have done some great production. What do you look for in a band’s sound when you’re deciding whether or not to work with them?

I just look for intent and commitment more than anything. I have to like the songs. But I can love the songs and think they’re genius songwriters but if there’s no willingness or ability to commit to content or an arrangement or the very making of a record, I probably don’t want to do it. They have to be focused on what they’re doing and there has to be some kind of personal connection as well.

Does it go back to being a college radio DJ?

Not really, not specifically.

But I know you’re a big music fan who listens to lots of different music. Does some of that stem from having grown up in the Pacific Northwest?

I don’t know. I guess it’s a little bit of a bubble. I don’t know. If there’s anything that’s unique about Seattle musically, it has more to do with the radio climate than anything else. There’s a really strong collection of both public and commercial stations in Seattle. Pretty much every corner of the spectrum is covered really, really well by one station or another. There’s a long history of being able to get anything you want from the radio.

I’ve always thought Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival reflected the diversity of music that is popular in the region.

Right. Bumbershoot started as a free festival for the first 15 or 20 years. It’s only been in recent years that it’s become a more traditional festival. That’s indicative of what the climate for music is like.

To what do you attribute the loyalty of your fan base?

I don’t know. I think it’s a combination of luck and work and hopefully a little bit of skill or talent or something. It’s really hard to say. We’ve stayed focused on making music and making records that are interesting to us. We’re just trying to be good and trying to improve by standards that we’ve set for ourselves and not gauging ourselves by anyone else’s measure. I don’t know. I think there’s an element of just being honest in trying to do the best can. I’m constantly amazed and humbled by everything, but especially by the fact that we make a living doing this. It’s still pretty amazing.

Especially at a time when people’s attention spans keep shortening.

Yeah, that’s really true.

Do you see Codes and Keys as more of a departure than other records?

I think so. But I think that way about every record. It’s hard to tell until it’s actually out. It’s tough to get a read on how different it actually is versus how different it seems to us.

Tour Dates

5/18 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
5/20 Chicago, IL Metro
5/21 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
5/24 Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference
5/25 Calgary, AB Stampede Corral
5/27 Bend, OR Les Schwab Amphitheatre
5/28 George, WA Sasquatch! Music Festival
6/1 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
6/3 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
6/4 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
6/5 Boston, MA The Paradise
6/7 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
6/9 San Francisco, CA Fillmore