Death Cab For Cutie

Part 1

0:03Is this Chris? Yes it is, is this Matt? It sure is man, how are you? Oh my god, I'm alright. What's what's with the oh my god? Oh wow, it's been a it's it's been an ordeal trying to figure out how to use the satellite phone from the great metropolis of Quincy, Washington. Really? Oh yeah, Gorge? Yeah, we're out at the gorge. Nice. Is it is a nice day at least because that's like my favorite place in the entire world. It is not a nice day. Oh, that's too bad. No, it's raining like crazy and Everybody on the main stage is sort of scrambling around with big plastic bags trying to keep the cures guitars dry. Oh, yeah, the cure is on tonight. That's right. That's true. Are you excited? I'm really excited. Have you seen them before? Let's see that the second half of the day goes something like Tegan and Sarah here president to the United States of America

0:53Then I spend the cure Wow, so you're opening for the cure. I guess that are sensibly we're opening for the cure. That's amazing It is pretty amazing. That's that's right. And Tegan and Sarah. That's so nice. That's not bad and they're from Calgary They are from Calgary. They're so from Calgary Have you seen them in the last while or are you just gonna be chilling with them later on? I we put a show with them in Las Vegas about a month ago, I guess. Okay. Yeah, yeah And then we're playing with them again tomorrow in some town outside of Salt Lake City. Oh, you're really going everywhere. Yeah, totally So how long you been in the road now? Like what a month not even well, not actually not technically really at all yet. I mean yesterday was technically the first show of the tour. Really? Yeah, we did like we built like six shows down the west coast to Coachella. And then we did

1:45You know, it's basically just been weird promo stuff like lots of lots of like acoustic radio things and stuff. And when we got on stage and put a rock show last night like You know, usually it's like the the radio things kind of feel like the thing that you're not used to doing Mm-hmm, and then we got on stage last night that was like oh, it's so loud and so fast and we kind of had a weird show Let me ask you this what song off the new record sounds the best acoustic What has been really working? Talking bird sounds really good. Yeah, I can see that slowed down. That'd be kind of cool. Yeah talking bird works out really well I will possess your heart actually doesn't work out too badly really Acoustic bass is that what's going on too? No, I think I mean Nick's been playing as regular bass And it works out. I mean it it works out pretty cool like it's I mean the thing about that song is that it's um, it's so just the just

2:38like the I don't know. I mean it just feels a lot like it felt when we you know when we recorded it It's just sort of a different instrument, but it actually doesn't feel all that weird cool Yeah, I want to talk about that song in a little bit, but we'll hold off Um because I want to start with a song that mentions Calgary in it follow you into the dark mentions Calgary You stripped it down black bird styles and I'm wondering if was there I know the producer and you must have been at some point Maybe we should those strings here or do this here was it always no way man. There bones. No. Yeah, I mean that was I mean there was talk at one point before we tracked it to put some more stuff into that song But the way that it got tracked was um I mean it's one microphone. That's it. You know, there's no mix. There's no multi track element to it

3:23It's just like it's been performing to one microphone in a room And it was a total fluke actually that we got that performance it was uh Ben was um, I was having some sort of technical problem with like something with his headphones And I was like waiting to you know, I was trying to figure that out and he was sort of in a holding pattern And he picked up a guitar and was just playing around in the room and he started playing that song and it was still Coming through the monitors and I just poked my head out and said, hey, let's just track that real quick This sounded really cool. And that's the song with all the record. That's amazing. That's it. It's like you You can't argue with performances and that's the to me more and more and more like that's the key thing with making records It's like, you know, you it would be such a the guitar vocal relationship wasn't like totally perfect man

4:17You know, it's just it's that's not what it's about like that's a I mean, that's that's the way You know, Ben he had never performed that like that before and he certainly hasn't performed it like that since It's like really a moment. So I'm just happy we got it. It's funny you mentioned that I remember talking to randy block in a while ago And he was saying some of the records he made back in the 70s like with the guest hoo and bto Yep, they would just have one mic in the room and they would just you know, that was the performance It doesn't matter if you if you screw up the guitar here or there if they felt that was a take that worked That was the one that was going on the record. Yeah, exactly exactly It's totally true and it's really funny when you're doing that when you've got the whole band in the room together how it changes your perspective on Perfection like, you know, if you're doing a single overdub or something like you the microscope is on whatever you're doing

5:06And it's like how I kind of fretted that no weird or like saying that a little flat or that's a little late You know, that sort of thing but when everybody stuff is going down together It doesn't it's not like that like you end up, you know, you end up just feeling everything together as it goes down and It gets to this point of like, you know, like people start nitpicking and wanting to like fix stuff But like are you really like fixing it if you dig into something like make you never know what the cornerstone of the whole track is And like by fixing that thing that seems like a mistake in quote Like maybe the whole track falls apart and like when we're working on tape, which is what we did for this record I love that. Yeah, most of our records like you don't you don't have any second chance Like you don't get to you know, there's no safety net So like you punch it in and like if it's not as cool anymore, then it's gone. I don't take too

5:55Yeah, I know your solo record all overdubs new death cab record a lot of it live off the floor Yep Was it more challenging for you to I guess, you know, Ben throws his heart on the sleeves with with lyrics in the songs But now it's you in the driver's seat your lyrics. You're talking about pro life You're talking about fema and I mean even just the basic, you know rock and roll love songs kind of thing But it's your voice right I it's not really It's actually really easy for me. It's uh, it's uh, I mean it's not easy to get all of the words and like It's not easy to glue everything together in a way that feels good saying that's the trickiest part, but in terms of like Subject matter and what I'm singing about and like sort of the basic, you know the basic presentation of each of the songs It's actually pretty

6:41It's pretty easy. I mean it's it's all the it's all the stuff that I talk about every day anyway like every conversation that I have is Um is political to some degree and it's just it's not I don't even think about it Like I wouldn't even know how to not write like that in a way. So so yeah, I don't know It was a it was a nice it was a nice thing to do and I will definitely be doing more of it nice good We're all excited to hear it. Nice Any of you gonna come out on tour you think I know it's a death cab tour and you and you want to play the death cab songs But you think you'll ever be like hey guys, what what about this one? No, it's not it's not like I not like a no My band won't do it man kind of thing. It's just we're just not set up like that like I mean it's This band was

7:26Like then when I met Ben he was in a two singer songwriter band Like he was half of the songwriting team for a band called pinwheel And he wanted to get out of that like that was something that was just really you know that it wasn't a great Fellow that he was in that band with and he really wanted to just Write his own songs and do something and like that's one of the cornerstones on which the band was founded And another one is that like I record everything. Yeah, so it's I you know It's not it's not like we're so stuck in our roles that we're not open to Doing more, you know like screwing around with the formula, but it's not It's just not important to me and I suspect that it's not important to the people who are coming to our shows either

8:12Like I would hate to get into the situation of like we're playing some of my songs And there's that like you know There was all of some band that you loved when you were a kid and you go to the shows And it's like oh, this is great and then he gets like the eighth song in the set and it's like The other guitar player's song he's got like one song or record Totally not the thing that you sign on for but your record's good Well, thanks. I mean I feel like it's good too But I also feel like it's not like if I was going to a death cap for you Show, I'd be bummed if they decided to play one of my songs Sure, I mean it might take the place of like a photo album to It's not it's just not part of the equation and it's totally it does not bother me or bum me out in any way like it's Completely completely democratic and completely cool. That's awesome. Yeah, let me ask you this

8:59I know you're busy and you're gonna probably be on the road with death cap for a year and a half or so Would you tour solo? I really want to at some point. Yeah, but there's just no there's it's just not in the cards I mean the rule number one of Economics is that if you spend your money on one thing then you haven't spent your money on the other thing and that sort of opportunity cost goes for Touring and making records too like if I go on a tour for a month that means that that's a month that I'm not out with death Cab and that I'm not working on somebody else's record I also love to do and I got lots and lots of offers I'm the table and I want to play some of those I want to play December is tuned a little later and not a surf tune But we'll get to those we're talking about your solar record. I want to play something off that

9:45I'll let you choose. I hear there's two plans out takes on there. Is that true? I mean the um Bachelor songs the brothers on a hotel bed came out of um what like I I gave Ben three or Maybe it was four I think it was four like instrumental tracks for him to ride around and the only one that he really gravitated toward was The song that became brothers on a hotel bad But the song that I turned into 250 the first song in the record well recorded pretty much in the same two or three days I'm from the same place. Well, let's play that for people. All right. Sounds great. How come such close release dates And it feels like the 60s, you know, we get the wall a record and then we get death cab four months later Man, it wasn't supposed to be that way. Was it our government's fault? No, no, no, no

10:32Your government is not To be responsible for any of the sort of border trauma that I experienced it was all on the uh, u.s. homeland security side I love how it gets caught but that's insane. No, it was weird. I learned so much about that whole process though Was really incredible. I got quite a civic lesson from uh, Mike millen his the Seattle They call him the local he's um for the for the blame crossing Oh, yeah, um, the the piece arch crossing and he Totally blocked through exactly what happened and why it happened and that was amazing. It was really cool more faith or less faith in your government now I thought broke even on the whole thing. Okay. Like I what happened was that I have a lot more respect for the people on the ground

11:19like at the crossings like those that border security job is in so many ways it's kind of It's it's a difficult job and it's not impossible, but it's certainly not that easy and the thing about it that is the most um The thing about it that's the the weirdest is that it's kind of a trojan horse in the You know in the internet file like it used to be that confiscating a hard drive was like yes We got it. You know like whatever it is. It's coming over the border whether it's like You know some tarras plot or like child pornography or some other like, you know thing That thereafter, which is exactly what they're after when they're like confiscating things, but it's like that's not how like

12:10I mean like records don't even really get transported that way all that often anymore. It's like I spend more time ftp Yeah, you think so up to you know people who are mixing things that I do like sending drives to people so So it's really it's kind of strange and it's kind of We hear that that record got um Knapped at the border, but you have a little more publicity though. It did certainly it was uh It didn't I mean it didn't have an exact it away that I would have wanted it to I don't think but well, you know whatever They come Yeah, let's move on to the death cab record because it's awesome Well, thank you and yeah, it really is and I liked it the first time I heard it But now listening to it in preparation for this. I yeah, it's growing on me quite a bit. Oh, thank you It's kind of weird. It's it's a little bit of a sleeper. I think I'm starting to think that we don't know how to make a record

12:57That's not a sleeper But yeah, thank you very much some songs hit you right away and I know everyone I've played it for a great vine fires Everyone's just been like, yes, that's the one Really interesting I told you that last week too and you were like thanks And you said I was listening to an interview bender's intern in many autobiographical songs, but this one was yeah, this one's actually a true story it's um Yeah, and I don't I mean I think it's actually a pretty literal true story I don't think even the you know unmentioned to protect the emissant I suppose but it's it's absolutely a true story I mean, it's just a you know, it's just a day in and around allay with one of his you know one of our best friends and

13:43And and her daughter and a couple of other people and they ended up on a hillside sort of Watching you know watching watching the whole great vine to the north sort of and it just happened at the place that they stopped Was a cemetery to have their picnic, which is kind of weird. I think but yeah, it's absolutely a great song Yeah, I think so too. I really like that one a bunch You think it would be a single or is that even is that even up to you guys? It is it's funny. It's less up to us than it used to be. I mean, you know the big record company Uh the big record company secret these days that they don't watch it and know is that when the record comes out They go to iTunes and they look at which songs are selling the best and that sort of determines what the next single is gonna be

14:35Yeah, it kind of does like wow what are people gravitating towards? I really hope is a single at some point that uh, I don't know if I mean I've heard from it's weird Like I hear from sort of equal parts people that it's great vine fires Is their favorite song and that it's long division of their favorite song Oh, that's cool too. But long division is so buried in the record and people have such short attention fans that I don't know if I don't know if it'll actually get there. Yeah, what is it like nine or ten on the record? Yeah, it's it's in there. It's uh, yeah, I think it's number nine Had a little uh little buried in there, but You know, whatever. That's what happens. Uh move on to possess your heart. Yes Recorded live off the floor that four minute jam intro. Yes, that's true. Did you feel it might be too long?

15:21Was there ever a chance where you were like, uh, maybe we should trim it. Oh, we did trim it. Um, I About I guess it's like 26 seconds out of it Um, it was it was just the amount where it was like like it was it was the it was the The phrase where it was just feeling too long And it was really easy to get in with it there with the razor blade and just just hack it out Oh, yeah, we're going on tape. So it would be a blade would be it was an actual physical razor blade That's amazing. There's a lot of that on this record like pitting in fear is seven cuts Long divisions like five cuts like wow. I mean, you know there are not a lot of things in this world But I feel like I'm actually really excellent at like one of them is scrabble Two is that I can actually make a really good espresso drink

16:07You're gonna work making mid-fi indie records. Yeah, exactly and then three Mid-fi indie records exactly what I can cut tape like I learned how to do that. I'm really good at it Doesn't freak me out. It freaks bands out like crazy, especially in 2008 Just the band starts sweating and like they turn red and they like stop they can't talk anymore And it's like look it's really not that big to be like you just cut it you go back together It's fine You mentioned pity and fear and I heard that that tabla kind of drum machine was originally supposed to be on that track Um it was both the the demo for the demos for pity and fear and I will possess your heart both came in with That drum machine and with I will possess your heart. It just didn't it didn't feel like much of Anything it felt like a you know, it's not like an easy way to present a demo

16:57Um and with pity and fear it really felt like it was part of the song So we ran with it for pity and fear and then sort of threw it out for I will possess your heart Yeah, I like it. Let's play it for people the edit or not the edit. What do you want to hear? That's that's that too crazy for radio. It's not too crazy Awesome, let's do it Did you have to mix the edit too? Did they get you to do that? Do they get someone else? I did that. Yeah The edit was a real bugger to put together because I couldn't I mean there's no place because it's a totally linear Performance and because Jason doesn't have a part And I mean he's got like he's got a framework and like I definitely didn't have a part part at that point um

17:43You can't just like cut it So that was uh I had to cross thread a bunch of stuff together with the multi-track master and kind of re retool the whole thing. So So that was a project You should have just been like screw it. You're playing the eight minute song Right. So like well, I mean the other thought was god. Maybe we should just cut it and go there's your radio on it Like I guess I don't know. It's I don't know Or more or some conversations about it, but I actually really sort of enjoy the radio at it I think it turned out all right. Yeah, they're both cool Were you in front of the board the whole time playing guitar heard that you were like in the in the control were basically the entire time Playing guitar and mixing at the same time Yeah, I mean our uh the guy who does our front of half more on tour will mark well

18:33he He recorded about half of this Record like he was always in the studio with us. We didn't do anything where he wasn't around um And he was you know, he was running the tape machine and you know doing stuff on the fly Um just so I could actually perform and like not have to worry so much about head fun mixes and all that kind of thing So there was he was he was really really involved He was definitely like a part of the creative process all the way through and that's the first time that that's ever happened too That I've really had somebody that I can lean on for that kind of thing for a whole fat That's kind of nice. Yeah, it was really good. Would you ever have someone else would you want someone else to produce the record a death cab record at least um At some point it's gonna happen and I'm really

19:20You know, I'm really looking forward to it at some point. So I don't know. I mean, I don't know when it is. Yeah, I guess we'll go to some point. Well, see it will happen at some point. Yeah Um, I the uh the fellow I could who produced uh the crane life with This fellow named Tucker martine is a good friend of mine and he is He's really the only other producer I've ever Worked with like that that record's the only uh the crane life is the only co-production. I've ever really worked on And it was really fun like just to be able to throw stuff at him And I feel like we played the one another strength really really well too. It was just it was a totally fun thing to do So let's play something off that record. Yeah Because I love it. I love both records actually both December's records well all of them, but thank you the two you've worked on one the tane as well

20:09Um that's the main 20 minute. I funk made me play all of it on aridial ones That sounds like fun. Yeah, exactly. That's great. Um, let me choose two that way we can talk about war and obama and all this And your mail in primaries as well. So what do you think yankee bayonet or 16 military wives? I would say yankee bayonet So you had a mail-in primary? Yes, that's true. That sounds ridiculous, but did it work? Well, I think it worked and I I don't feel I don't feel like it's I mean for me It's not ridiculous because I've been voting absentee for years anyway um and there's uh The thing about a mail-in primary because there's so much talk about like um You know, there's so much talk about like positive voter id and disenfranchisement and all that sort of thing like the mail-in ballot actually seems like a

21:02A reasonable way to get around some of that because you have to match signatures And and it's like like you have to be registered about and you have they have to have a signature on file But like that's a positive way to um match Signatures and that's like that seems that seems reasonable to me. I don't know. That's um, I mean it's our our our about system is such a disastrous Rec just in general that I don't even know where to start. Well the electoral college is kind of The electoral college is the least of our problems. I do remember the democratic party. You're lost Like just learning. I mean like we haven't had to think about super delegate since 1980 I don't think something like that. Yeah, and it's like just getting into all the like

21:49this entire primary process with uh senator clinton senator obama has been uh just this arcane ridiculous like I mean It's been a huge civic lesson. It's been like all these people getting into like democratic party Bylaws and ways and means committees that nobody ever even knew actually existed And I keep hearing these interviews with people who are like members of their you know local democratic party or you know state democratic party or You know, whatever who have always been sort of Involved in politics. I'm like part of the process, but they have no idea what's going on And it's so crazy to be hearing interviews with you know super delegates who are just local party leaders who are like oh wow

22:35Oh, I didn't know that this is what I was saying. Oh wow. That's really crazy It's funny to hear how our dean talk about it too because he's trying to sound like you know, but I don't think he even knows what to do And he's probably got a better clue than most but I I mean it's like the Like the There's just been so much Research that everybody's had to do it's like I'm so insane that like we have to research our own process to like figure out how it works When it actually gets Democratic like that's the thing about this primary process. It's been so I mean, it's really it's it's kind of strange because it's been an actually democratic process and it's driving people crazy Because it's taken too long I mean it's I'm like it's been so funny like I um

23:23I don't know like I'm such a political junkie and like I've been following just a little bit like before we went to the uk It was like right before Labor lost their shirts in the uk election and then I have a bunch of Australian friends and John Howard finally got voted out. Yeah, my roommate's Australian. He's a static. Yeah. Yeah, exactly and like but like the Australian elections Like Howard was in power for 11 years. I think yeah something like that and they called an election and three weeks later He was gone like that's it. It's just Incredible how fast it moves and it doesn't have to be like this like this campaign's been happening Since the last campaign It feels like we just went out on the vote for change tour Like you can't be doing that again something like that. I think we will end up doing something like that again. Yes

24:11I don't know exactly what yet, but it's I mean Everybody's sort of waiting for the thing to get settled so they can figure out how Mobilized everybody feels like they want to be And what we're mobile who were mobilizing around Yes, like it's I mean it seems like it's uh senator obama, but it's you know, it's it's so hard to tell She's not giving up She will not give up. No, that is true If there's one thing that we've learned about senator hilly Clinton is that she is not a quitter No, yeah I mean somebody might pull the plug on her campaign at some point and So this run out of oxygen, but I don't know we'll see what up until then Go back into music. Um, you think katrino outcome would have been different had a democrat been in power Yeah

24:56Um, I don't know. Um, I feel like Wow, I just I'm sorry to hedge on this question, but I just realized how loud it is out there I'm an epestable right? Yeah And the uh, there's a band called 65 days of static that is on stage right now and they're playing like About 35 feet above my head Right now and it's I mean it's just the sort of like I can't tell what's going on at all But they're this blazing instrumental like hardcore band And they just stopped the song and I just now realized like how sort of worked up it was making me about everything I'm calming now now that I was gonna talk about katrino All came together and Exactly. So I don't know I mean It's Katrina is one of those

25:44it's one of those Moments that I think any any administration or any government could be Blindsided by and I It's just it's so hard to tell what happened and why it happened. I mean there were failures at every level of government From you know from the city all the way up to the federal government with um with that with that disaster I mean, you know reinaig and the mayor of new Orleans was pointing his fingers at you know the state and the state was pointing their fingers at theme uh and theme was like well, we didn't get any director from the White House and meanwhile like people are drowning and everything is underwater and like it the thing that's I don't know. I mean the thing that I'm really Department by the most about that process is how

26:33crippling and how hamstrung we were by the By the red tape of our process and that's that's the thing that I hope that our next administration can try and do away with some of Like that there's a real um Just trying to implement some sort of a real like, you know safety switch like when something actually terrible happens to our people like I mean Like New Orleans is part of my country and there's still thousands upon thousands of people without homes in the richest country in the world Wrong that's not all right. That's not what I find on for that's not what I pay taxes for Like it's really really frustrating to me. So

27:20So I don't know it's it's it's so infuriating that it's difficult to talk about it with any level of um So I can't even I don't even know where it is. Well, it is now. Yeah, yeah exactly And it's like what two three years ago. Well, it was the same week your record came out the last record plans Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean it's been yeah, it's been two and a half years now almost three years That's insane and you wrote a song about it a lovely song about it. Well, thank you. See how I was I was getting into it there Everyone needs a home. It's a great song and I love the line of FEMA trailer is not used to blow And I don't I just don't think it does. I mean I haven't actually seen one firsthand But I've seen some pictures and FEMA wants them back now. So yes, but yeah, you still don't have a home And you know, like this is nice motel that's 400 miles from where you still have that you can move into now

28:07That we want to see a trailer back and they want the Mac for what that I don't know Some other disaster like I it's just I don't know. I don't understand Ask everybody five questions one more answers. Yes, please iPod or CDs iPod lennener mccartney mccarnie alcohol or marijuana Neither song you've written you're most proud of or I guess produced maybe or Okay, I'll do I'll say thing again. Oh, this is that why I was a single? No, it wasn't even supposed to be the single It just sort of happened that way. Okay. Yeah, I don't know one word death cap for cutie smoking I've never heard that before that's good I like that. Let's play another track off the new record. Okay, um twin size bed or calf

28:53Cat how come I like cat. It's good song. It's not that I don't like twin size bed, but I'd really I'm loving loving Cat right now. It sounds like it could have fit on one of your first records I feel that as well. And I think that maybe that's why I am so drawn to it. I don't know. I mean there's It's uh, yeah, it's just a it's it's just a little rock song like I don't know and I love the lyric and I love the way the bridge breaks down I want to sort of the the lyrical home run of the The bridge that you said your vows bit. I think that Ben really really hit one with that. Cool Yeah, you talked to the dvd about holla justice and how people turn it over and sell it back and forth. Have you sold it yet? The building has never been owned by whoever has occupied it

29:44Um, it's been It's a funny little Building it's a it was built a hundred years ago. I think oh wow. Yeah, it's like I think it was built in 1909 and it was um It was a uh, it was like the convenience store between the town of baward and the town of frimont to districts of seattle before they were annexed into the city and It's I mean it's been abandoned at different points, but it's been a studio continuously since 1978 And it's just been passed on over and over and over from rock bands or rock band or from producer to producer and like it's just you know, we've been practicing in there and It's sort of a storage depot for all of our, uh empty road cases

30:31Muffets time, but but yeah, it's uh, it's a good place. It's um, it's a place that I I miss when i'm not able to be in there That's cool. Yeah, so it's still yours. It's so yeah And I mean, uh, the band has talked at different points about moving out because it's actually kind of small at this point for what we need Um, but if the band does decide to move out, I think I may take the least back over from the band and Maybe make it a little bit more of a uh, uh, uh, recording studio again. That'd be cool. Rent it out to whoever wants it Yeah, exactly. Nice play one of the singles from the last record. You know how it is. Yes, of course soul meets body or crooked teeth Uh, I would say soul meets body. How come? I don't Jeez, I don't even know I mean that that's one of the songs from the last record that I have not yet tired of performing

31:20On stage like every now and again you get to a song and people still want to hear it and you're like, well It's been like three years and i'm kind of over it because I played it I know you weren't there for all 400 times. I played it last year, but I've kind of played it a lot I'm kind of kind of over it, you know, but soul meets body doesn't have that effect on me at all I just I can hear it over and over and over again and I it just it hasn't gotten old for me and I love the kick drum melody at the beginning It's such a cool way to do it. It's like you almost tuned the kick drum differently to make it work Oh wow. Well, I that's good. Yeah, I've never heard that before So you're on the road for a while. What's next? Uh, what is that? Well, I mean, this is a month long Whap around the states and only just

32:06Uh only just Toronto and Montreal and Canada. I'm sorry Calgary Well, you mentioned to me in the email the other day. Maybe Calgary in the fall. Yes. I certainly think so. Yeah, we'll end up doing We'll end up doing more of Canada in the fall like we'll do Calgary with the Edmonton We'll probably do Winnipeg. We'll do You know, we'll get into the the deep interior. Yeah, maybe south katoon. Oh, I don't know Maybe a new Vic. Maybe we'll go all the way up white stripes that it when they were here Yeah, I know like that's the coolest thing ever. I'm just so I've really I have the chip that makes me want to go to the far far far far north Oh, it's cool man. I did a drive up to the northwest territory is just for fun the other Yeah, this was last summer now and it was yeah, did you get all the way up there to yellow knife? Yeah, yeah, I see I saw them in the

32:52LNF I've been as far north as um, I guess I've never been in the northwest territory. I've been to the Yukon. I've been a White horse and dog. Uh, yeah white horse and Dafan and Everywhere in between and we thought about taking the drive up to a new Vic up to tempster, but yeah It was in the shoulder season where it's like Not quite Melty enough for the ferries throwing across the river is not quite frozen enough for you to be able to drive So we didn't do it. Oh one day one day. I hope to do it. I just can't wait for 400 miles of gravel road Sounds like a dream. Well, that's what you're doing on the road. I guess you have to sleep on the bus though Well, we we get to sleep on the bus and the thing about the bus like I you know we we did like 18 van tours in the first six years we were a van and

33:39The thing about being on a bus is that you don't get any of that sense of travel like you don't get you know Like I mean the like the first time that we drove across Canada was like I mean you just you it's so hard to fathom that like You know you get the winnipeg from Toronto and you're halfway to Calgary It's not it's so insane. It's so vast and like in the States west pexas is like that like it's Between Austin and Phoenix and like the first 11 of that is just nothing. There's nothing out there Was like Nebraska and Utah. Yeah, exactly. It's ridiculous how colonized the east is and the west is so spread out Yep, totally. Totally. Yeah, and I I do really miss some of that. I miss some of that vast expanse

34:28I miss that like on a 10 hour drive through the plains. I miss all of the you know I miss all the emotions that you go through on a drive like that like the first hour is like wow This is beautiful. I'm then hours two through five are oh my god. This is In terminably long. Yeah, are we there yet? And then hours six through nine are somehow just blissful and perfect Because you've gone crazy. Yeah, it's totally crazy. You're really into this idea that this is just peaceful and it doesn't stop And then the last hour you just really mean to pee True And then you're at the hotel or the menu or whatever and be it such a long drive that you're late for sound check and you're all stressed out So I miss some of that. I really do You can not reacquire that. Yes. Um, maybe someday. Thanks, man. Awesome. Sweet. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for all my

Part 2

0:00In some ways this kind of is the first show. How so? Well, production for one. We've been kind of downsizing the operation to play and hold the places before getting here. So this is the first show at the full rig. Oh, nice. The PA and lights and everything and for a show with bright eyes. And yeah, it kind of feels like it's 0.5 first. Yeah, something that qualifies before the full mile kicks in. Yeah, this is maybe a little more of a show and a little less of a rehearsal with an audience. Oh, that's good. How are you guys enjoying the road so far? What's it like to be out this time? Pretty great. Good. You've got me some of the week where I ask us like six weeks in and when it's right. No, it's been really fun this time out.

0:45We've had a lot of time off, which makes us all hungry to be back out and play shows again. And of course, playing a new record is super fun and getting to work those songs out for like a mini tour for new songs. Yeah, how are the songs coming? Because it's very keyboard. So you're playing a lot of keyboards in Chris, I assume, live. I'm playing. Yeah. I'm juggling. Doing a lot of juggling, picking up multiple three and four things. I thought I had to have independence but looking over at him now. It's hands and feet and brain and voice and it's a challenge. Did you consider being someone else on the road? On the road. Right, yeah. I think we talked about it for about a half a second. And well, I think that it just seemed

1:32like we should try and figure out if we can pull it off just with the four of us. And we've all of us down and it seems like I think the answer is yes, so far. So yeah, it doesn't seem like it's probably necessary. It's sounding well for you guys though. Like it works a lot. Is there four piece? Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Cool. I think we haven't had to cut any corners or really make any big arrangement changes or sonic decisions. Like, I mean, largely one of the keyboards that Chris brought out, which is all over the record, is with us. And it's so nice to be on stage and hear the same thing that inspires you in the studio. Right, let's go through some of the songs on codes and keys. Because it sounds like it could have been called textures and grooves, too. Like it's all just about construction and textures. And we listened yesterday.

2:18It's like nothing you guys have done before. It's something brand new. Textures and grooves. Yeah, I mean, it's a little different. This is good, by the way. The pastry, what is it? It looks like it's chocolate. It appears to be a chocolate brownie inside of a little shortbread pastry shell, which is sort of a, I don't know what you would call this, is maybe some, it's probably some mid-elberton specialty of some sort. Of course. But yeah, no, I mean, this record is a, yeah, I mean, the idea was not to make a record that was radically different than anything we'd ever made. The idea was just to try and incorporate some textures and build the songs from foundations and from places

3:03that maybe we'd never built songs from before. And like trying to, I don't think there's, I was thinking about it this morning. I don't think there's a single place on the record, say for the last song, stay and go dancing. The folk song. The folk song, where a guitar actually strums through any part of a song. Like the guitars are all used as punctuation. They're just like little lines here and there for the most part. Like there's no big pastoral guitar soundscapes. Like all the anything that, you know, that flesh is something out in harmonic terms is usually a synthesizer or a piano. There's a lot of random sounds, even at the beginning of tourists, I heard you were tuning short ways. Oh yeah, there's a piece of that. I found a piece of a short way broadcast.

3:52Because there's something that's unique to short wave. As you cycle through the bands, you end up with this. There's something about that frequency of transmission that allows it to get all the way across the globe. But one of the artifacts that introduces is this kind of pitched warble about it. And if you just record Dead Air, you end up with this big, long chunk of pitch. So I grabbed that and that lives inside of tourists as sort of one of the harmonic beds. How do you decide that that's the song that needs to sit on? Well, it's so random. You can go anywhere. Well, right. Yeah, but it's sort of like that was a song that just the way that we constructed that song, it ended up that needed some harmonic heft

4:40between the bass guitar and the vocals at a certain point. So it was, and it didn't feel like it needed another part. Really? It just needed some glue. So I ended up sort of inventing some tape loops and sort of doing that kind of stuff. Are you playing all acoustic kits where there are electronic kits on there too? No, on the album it's all acoustic. But live, I have a sampler for some of these beds and colors that just run underneath real quiet. Kind of our MO for operating is, or mine is like, if a sample goes down, it shouldn't throw the show. Like we don't rely that heavily on those sort of things. But it's nice as we play these songs and take them out live to represent as best as we can, what went down on the record. It's just because the drums sound different on every song.

5:26I don't know which one of you is doing that or the collaboration between the two of you. It's a team, right? It's a team accident. Yeah, yeah. Happy team accidents. Like we, Chris and I, I think both have a lot of trust and faith in each other and follow each other's noses. And I mean, like perfect example, as we went into a studio and we see the warehouse and it was, I think the ceilings were probably 35, 40 feet high, full of glass walls, beautiful big area, huge sounding room. And we built the tiniest little cabin around my drum set where I had to like crawl through a space, but that was the appropriate thing for that song. What song is that? It was. Portable television. Portable television. Nice.

6:11And stay young, go dancing, same thing. We're in that giant room and I ended up being in more of a storage closet. Yeah. That was full of glass with a whole bunch of cases and partitions in front of my bass drum. Like four feet away. So I mean, we, I think that the most refreshing thing I was that I know that with every song, it's generally gonna be a different sound, a different thing. And so in the past, I've brought out way too many drums, but I mostly relied on two of my favorite kids this time and knew that we could do environmental changes and everything happening. But it's important, I think, to do that, to address the song differently each one. For sure. And they certainly, speaking of different songs, stay young, go dancing, you mentioned that. That sits on the record. It fits, but it doesn't fit. And I think you understand what I mean by that. Is that a precursor to maybe a folk record next?

6:57Hadn't really planned it that way. I'm just curious. No, I think, you know, these songs, St. Peter's Cathedral was written in 2002. Everything else was written between 2008 and halfway through 2010, like while we were still recording. So the real broad range, I think, is what we contribute to the different styles and Chris wrote music for Home of the Fire, as well as underneath the Sycamore. And going to all the different studios, seven or eight different studios to inform different sounds and workflows and everything. I mean, I don't think you could take any three songs and put them out as a three song. Mini EP and like, imagine that it's going to work out. Like, how could these three things live together? But it's, you know, as evidenced by that last song,

7:45but it's in no way, I think, an indication of it. It's not a chapter before the next chapter. It's not a setup of the scene. You mentioned St. Peter's Cathedral in there. You had mentioned something in an interview right about Ben using his voice as more of an instrument this time. And I think it comes across really well in that song, especially because of the dry vocals that you put on it. Like, it sounds like there's nothing on it at all. Is that true? St. Peter's Cathedral. For the lead vocal, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Are you just singing on there too? I hear you somewhere in the background. No, no, no, I don't sing on St. Peter's Cathedral. I don't think I sing it. No, I sing a little bit on codes and keys, but not on that song at all. Okay. No. Yeah, no, there's a little, the lead vocal on St. Peter's Cathedral is completely dry. There are the, those badum bottoms, that little callback thing that that does.

8:31That's a, that was definitely a treatment, but yeah. Cool. Yeah. You'd mention another, like an EP. Is there plans for another EP like you did last time in a couple months? Are there any songs that are left over from the sessions? There might be. We have to go through it, I think. Yeah. But we're just focusing on this record for now. And I mean, it's funny we've been rehearsing since the beginning of April. We've done just a handful of things. And this is like I said before show. And the record still hasn't even come out yet. Right. So people are starting in the future. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. I mean, people want to know what the next single is or what is there any P's or what's next. And we're like, hold on. We haven't even opened up a cover. Right. Yeah. It's still, I haven't even pulled the book off the stand. It's still on the boxes.

9:17So. How does that affect the live show? Because now you're incorporating a bunch of new songs. I would assume what? Like probably six songs make the show. Show that. Something like that. So what? It's been between four and six. Yeah. So what leaves? What songs leave the arsenal for the set lists? I think actually the sets we've been playing are pretty long. I think we've actually just added four songs. Oh, really? Set. Yeah, we've been playing for like two hours. Yeah. It's been like, yeah, that's longer the most one you hear. 24 songs at night. Crazy. There's, I think, as many as five new songs each night on a big set. So what's your favorite to play live with anyone's? I really like how codes and keys has been going. But some boys has been really fun. Some boys has been really fun. I've been enjoying portable television a lot.

10:03Doors unlocked. I mean, so doors unlocked from the top, we've just started playing home as a fire and codes and keys and some boys. And doors and I say doors and doors. There's unlocked. There was unlocked. Portable television underneath the sycamore. And tourist. And tourist. So six. That wasn't counting for sure. That was good. Yeah. And so who knows maybe more will surface. But I don't think that we did that for a narrow stairs. I don't think we did that for plans either. So it's nice to have the majority of a new album that's presentable. Codes and Keys has a real 50s groove to it. Really? You don't feel that way? Because they're in, it's mostly the drums kind of to do it. I think it's sort of.

10:48I mean, that's in the presentation. The song, not the record, I should say. The demo definitely came in that way. It did. And that was something I was kind of trying to avoid for the album. But I guess I didn't do it. You're trying to avoid it? Yeah. No, no, no. No, I don't. Why were you trying to avoid it? Why would you avoid something that's coming? Well, it was. It sounded to me like it could have been a bigger song than the demo. I mean, that's just the demo version, which may be out there at some point in time. It just sounded like someone was listening to 50s music and not like someone was trying to push to. Right. Yeah, it felt a little more contemporary. It felt like the song was, I mean, it felt a little bit throwbacky, I guess, as a demo. And it was like trying to push it out of that texturally was sort of the idea, I guess.

11:36Yeah. Cool. Sick of more. You guys want to talk about that? Yeah. I mean, the whole musical part of it happened is I mean, it was like, I think I wrote the instrumental thing that Ben ended up writing the lyrics and melody around in like an hour in my basement. And it was like an hour of I was supposed to be doing something else. I was procrastinating and I had an idea I wanted to get out. And so I did it. Great. You worked. You sent it to everybody. And I think the next morning, Ben had written the lyrics. Yeah. It happened. So he was really excited about it. It happened really quick. Yeah. And then we retract virtually everything for the album. Yeah. It's a perfect pop song.

12:22It's a pop song in a mix of all these new order stars and it's kind of like synth tunes. It's cool. Right. It's well into it. It should be a single actually. I know it's not up to you. It's up to you. No, it's kind of tough. It's hard. Yeah, you have that kind of say? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's also, I mean, it's pretty easy to tell these days via iTunes or Amazon or whatever. Numbers are getting back. It's like, what's the next single? Oh, I guess that's the next single. Because it's got the biggest bar next to it. So unless there's a whole bunch of bars next every song, then what do you do? Yeah, you do. I don't know. Let's hope for that for your sakes. Yeah, it would be very nice. No, it is hard to pick what's next. Like I said, that's also why we're playing a lot of stuff live. To see what we want to play. Right. As a single. Totally.

13:08Alan Wlder makes this one. Yes. Not you. Not me. Why? Jason's got something to say? Christmas, the first two songs. That makes the first two songs. Oh, OK. Yeah. But yeah, Alan, I've had a couple of really great experiences having third parties mixed records that I've produced in the last couple of years. And it's been a slow, really, really, really slow evolution in process for me to get to the point where I feel like I can do that. But the experiences that I've had with them, Dave Sardi mixed St. Hunt the Teak and his Sarah record, the Howard, Rhettocop and Jason and I all worked on. That was awesome. And our friend, John Goodman, is in mixed alone before our record

13:54that I did this last year. And I just, you know, we'd never done that for a death cab record. And it sort of felt like maybe it was the right time to do it. And Alan was my first choice. And I started pasturing him and his management. And then we sort of got some label folks to sort of cheerily the process a little bit. And turned out he was really into it. And it turned out really, really well. Yeah. How hard was it to give up control like that? Well, I mean, when you prepare for it, it's really not hard to do. Like, if you get to a point where you're ready to start mixing the record, and then somebody is like, actually, you're not mixing a record. Somebody else is mixing it. Like, that's a really hard thing to deal with. But, you know, if the band is like trying to wrestle that away from you

14:42when you're like sort of, you were expecting it. But, I mean, preparing for it and knowing that that was going to happen from the word go made it really easy. And by the time, you know, we'd, by the time I handed it off to him, I was more than ready to have somebody else put their ears on it and to get somebody else's perspective. Yeah, especially on the shoulders. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The rest of us, the three of us were jealous. Chris got to go to London and hang out with Alan and hear stories and then watch him work. And it's like you got to do some continued education. I did. Back to school. Yeah. Yeah. We do something called five questions, five quick questions, one more answers. We've done this before, but you guys can both answer. OK. Road or studio? Studio. Studio.

15:27London or McCartney? McCartney. Well, Lennon. Most important thing in a song. Lyrics, melody or rhythm? Rhythm. Rhythm. Cool. A song you've written you're most proud of. I wrote a song called Sing Again on my solar record that I'm really fond of. Cool. Field manual for those who don't know. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still thinking. I've written them most proud of. I don't have a solo record, so that is what I can't. A song I've been a part of that I'm most proud of. Yeah. We look like giants. Nice. Going back. Nothing has come up in the last three records.

16:13No. You know, I could say a whole bunch of stuff on the St. Hood, too, just because that was such a bell on the front. You played on the scene? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Cool. A collaborative record. So I'm very proud of that record in Chris playing bass. And it was like a rhythm section in a different way. And in one word, death cat for cutie. Here. Committed.