DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: Gets Analog in a Digital Age

With its extraordinary ability to balance art and integrity with commercial success, Death Cab for Cutie is arguably the most important modern band in America in 2008. Boasting world class songs, an amiable demeanor and a warm closet full of gold records-including its near-platinum 2005 Atlantic Records debut Plans-Seattle-based DCfC returns with its second major label offering and sixth proper studio album, Narrow Stairs.

With its extraordinary ability to balance art and integrity with commercial success, Death Cab for Cutie is arguably the most important modern band in America in 2008. Boasting world class songs, an amiable demeanor and a warm closet full of gold records-including its near-platinum 2005 Atlantic Records debut Plans-Seattle-based DCfC returns with its second major label offering and sixth proper studio album, Narrow Stairs.

Marking an about face from the technology-touched Plans, the new disc is served by the memorable, up-tempo “Bixby Canyon Bridge,” the pensive, shimmering winner “The Ice Is Getting Thinner” and the nine-minute jam-turned-single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” Marking the group’s return to the analog approach that gave its 2003 Barsuk Records swan song Transatlanticism life, Death Cab’s erudite frontman and principal songwriter Ben Gibbard says the overall tone of Narrow Stairs is dark, sad and energetic.

Gibbard, who is joined by journeyman guitarist and longtime producer Chris Walla-also a veteran of outside projects by the likes of Tegan and Sara, Nada Surf, The Decemberists and The Long Winters-and the inventive, unyielding rhythm section of bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr, concedes that the vibe of the record was partially informed by a decision to go back to writing with his guitar.

“I’m feeling like I’m a lot more proud of this record than I am of any album we’ve done in a long, long time,” Gibbard says. “I think the fact that I came in with songs where the structure was in place, and the songs had a lot more sections and pieces to play with, allowed it to flourish.”

At the time, we speak in mid-January, DCfC is in the mixing stages of Narrow Stairs and honing in on album art. Not surprisingly, Gibbard and Walla are still excited by the disc’s innovation and newness. “There are four songs where we got Ben’s vocals off the floor, which is so fun and cool!” Walla announces. “Ben is such an amazing singer. He’d have to be able to pull that off.”

“The big, sort of…goal for this record was to get everybody playing and singing live for as much of the disc as we could,” Walla continues, “and to very much build the record from that idea, if not have that be the actual record. When we made Plans, the way we did it just left so much time for scrutiny and evaluating things. You end up tracking so much more. Going away from that has made for a really interesting record this time, where the performances are all complete thoughts again. It’s got such a linear feel to it, and it’s not micromanaged chorus by chorus, or verse by verse, or line by line.”

Take the aforementioned, nine-minute long “I Will Possess Your Heart,” which-save for a couple of overdubs-went down absolutely live. “There was a moment in that song where I kicked over Nick’s bass Pi and it made this loud distorted noise,” Walla laughs. “He almost stopped playing, but he didn’t, and our engineer, Will, ran in and plugged it back in. Now when you listen back to the song, you can here Nick’s Pi exploding a minute and a half into the song. And it is bizarre, but it sounds really good.”

“That was a live recording all the way through that we built onto,” Gibbard marvels. “We added some keyboards and some delays, and Chris was playing guitar and just killing it…and the whole thing just came together and it sounded beautiful. That never would have happened if we just tried to map it out, and pace it out and have everyone just record their parts.”

“The first five minutes are a jam, building up, but we’ll edit the last three-and-a-half minutes into a single,” Gibbard adds, chuckling at the very idea. “We know what we’re doing. We’re not like, ‘Eight-and-a-half minute singles-Atlantic, deal with it!’ We want to sell records as much as they do. OK, maybe not as much as they do, but we wouldn’t be on a major label if we didn’t have an interest in success.”

Just the same, Gibbard and Walla both use the term ‘departure’ to describe what the latter calls the “creepy, heavy tone” of Narrow Stairs-whose title was suggested to the band by Harmer and reflects what Ben calls the album’s “dark aesthetic.”

“We all sort of got really interested in distortion this time,” says Walla, who just released his politically themed solo disc Field Manual (Barsuk), which showcases his own tremendous songwriting abilities. “It’s a funny thing; the demos were pretty heavy, topically-with the exception of one really bizarre case which was like the fluffiest, happiest sounding thing we’d ever done.”