Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr on old favorites, new music

Francis Brew Reyes

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Death Cab For Cutie drummer Jason McGerr on old favorites, new music

We Are The Rhoads

Jason recalls playing for the Philippine audience and spills more about the stories behind some of those well known DCFC songs. Plus, info on new album 'Kintsugi'

MANILA, Philippines – Sung in a triumphant register by Ben Gibbard accompanied by bright guitar chords and lively drums, the first line of the opening song “The New Year” from 2003’s Transatlanticism sounds celebratory but feels defeated.

“So this is the New Year… and I don’t feel any different.” 

Death Cab For Cutie operates in contradictions. It is this musical MO that has endeared the Washington-based band to its loyal following, combining indie rock instrumentation, melancholy lyrics, and an everyman image that ironically has contributed somehow to hipster culture.

Formed in 1997, the band was beloved by indie circles; their fourth studio album Transatlanticism under the indie label Barsuk went gold (ahhh, those were the days) and thrust them into the mainstream. In 2005, they signed with the major label Atlantic and released the platinum-selling Plans (predictably to the chagrin of old fans who accused them of selling out; it remains the band’s commercial peak).

Subsequent albums 2008’s Narrow Stairs and 2011’s Codes and Keys sold less, but the band remained one of the flagship acts for indie rock. Musically, the band stretched its palette (Codes and Keys featured less guitar for example) but Gibbard’s gift for describing broken or precarious relationships was always the constant… or at least the melancholia never left, as something like “Stay Young, Go Dancing” could be interpreted as either a celebration of a relationship or a peek at its impending demise. 

 

The band’s latest album Kintsugi is named after the Japanese art form of fixing broken pottery and allowing the repairs to be visible as it is part of the history of the reconstructed object.

Gibbard’s lyrics always felt confessional, but the title also refers to an internal shakeup in the band’s history: long-time guitarist and producer Chris Walla departed the band, albeit amicably. Nevertheless, the band promised it would be a return to form, perhaps in a way that Codes and Keys was not.  

Fans might also probably interpret Kintsugi as Ben Gibbard’s post-divorce album: he was married to actress/musician Zooey Deschanel from 2008 to 2011. “Was I in your way when the cameras turned to face you? No room in frame for two” Gibbard sings gently over a jaunty happy rhythm, and lilting keyboards and guitars, on the opening “No Room In Frame.” It would be tempting to make a specific conclusion. Or it could be simply be about someone who hates photobombs. 

 

Via e-mail, drummer Jason McGerr says it’s really up to the listener.  

Question: Kintsugi as a title and idea fits the band’s situation with Chris leaving; what other situations inspired the idea? 

Jason: Life for all of us probably. Things get broken from time to time and we need to repair them, or we need to repair ourselves in some ways. The philosophy of not trying to hide these things is what resonated with all of us and seemed to be an appropriate album title.

Q: How different is working with Rich Costey given that Chris always produced your albums? Costey has worked with different artists (Muse, Sigur Ros) but was there any specific artist or album he produced that made you say “This guy will understand our aesthetic” and how much did you have to adjust?  

Jason: We chose to work with Rich Costey because he’s a great engineer and felt like one of us. He’s also very selective about who he works with and told us he’d be going all in on our record if we ended up working together, which seemed better than some producer telling us they only have a set window of time. We all agreed it would take as long as it takes. A few phone calls, one meeting and a month later we were recording. 

Q: In what ways does Kintsugi reference, as you guys have said, the “the threads that connect to the earlier stuff that people love?” Ben’s voice sounds a bit different on “Black Sun” and perhaps in some ways, the band as people are different as well.

 

Jason: Of course we’ve changed our sound and approach over the last 17 years of making music, but there’s a lot of what we do well that’s become more concrete. Ben’s voice has obviously matured and so has his approach, but the biggest difference to me is how he’s framed in these songs. the vocals are relatively dry and straightforward, making them more important. I’d like to think of our sound as having more intent these days.

Q: Ben’s writing style is very personal but resonates with a lot of people, and not in an obvious “Taylor Swift” sort of way (or at least not in a manner of directly referencing specific people whether lyrically or via media info). Was there a moment when he was careful of having audiences (fans and media alike) make specific conclusions about the songs’ subjects or his personal life? 

Jason: I’m not going to try to explain where Ben’s coming from as a writer, mostly because he could never say for sure what I think about when I write my drum parts. But I will say he’s left it up to the listener to fit the lyrics into their own life however they want and the songs on Kintsugi have a more universal meaning to them. Whether the story  seems fact or fiction is up to the listener. 

(Listen to Death Cab’s NPR Tiny Desk concert here:)

 

Q: Was Chris relieved somehow that he was on the album without the extra concern of being in the producer’s chair and “just” be one fourth of the band? 

Jason: I can’t accurately answer that question for Chris. I know he really enjoyed being in the same room as us playing live for a change and learning as much as he did watching Rich Costey work. But if I was to guess, I’d say he found some relief in not having to manage the whole project while trying to meet everyone’s expectations. All he had to do was just be creative. Producing a record is a huge responsibility.

Q: Please describe the writing process for Kintsugi. What was the first song written for it? 

Jason:  Hmmmm… I don’t know if I can recall what the first song was. Maybe “The Ghosts of Beverly Drive” though its original form was a lot different than the current album version. “Hold No Guns” was another one that was written earlier on. The process starts the same with every record. Ben writes the lyrics and accompanies them with either an acoustic or electric guitar, or a piano, sometimes bass or drum loops that he grabs or I send as demos.

Then he sends us batches to listen to and we compile a master list of things to take into the studio. Things almost always change once we play the full band versions. There are songs that travel a huge distance, and some that stay exactly the same as the original demo… like (from Plans)  “I Will Follow You Into The Dark.”

 

Q: In the Sept 2005 issue of SPIN magazine, (bassist) Nick Harmer described Ben as fire, Chris as ice (as in This is Spinal Tap). How do things work internally in the band now that each other’s foil is no longer around regularly? 

Jason: Maybe someone else will pick up the ice! Everyone is moving ahead with as much optimism and enthusiasm as we can possibly have. We’ve made a great record and we need to bring our best to the stages of the world. We’ll figure out the new dynamics as we go!

Q: So far, which of your albums do you feel best sums up DCFC in the sense that your goals and fan perception was perfect?  

Jason:  I don’t know… Is there such a thing as perfection when it comes to making music? I feel like I’ve been trying for more than half my life to obtain my goals, but they’re always just out of reach. Though I’m very proud of every album, I always feel like we could have done a little bit more. Maybe I’ll have a different perspective 20 years after the last record is made.

Q: Are there any songs in your catalogue where you think “I don’t exactly feel that way anymore, but the fans like it so we’ll play it?”  

Jason: Only in the sense that some older songs feel slow to me now! Every time I play an older song, I still close my eyes to find myself back in the place where I first heard it and played drums.

Every song has a joyous nostalgia and therefore makes it easy to perform anything from our catalogue… there are some deep cuts that people still don’t know that are always fun to play, but you gotta play the hits!

Q: Every artist has ideals and goals, aesthetically and career-wise. Which of those were achieved and which are yet to be realized? Twenty years is an amazing amount of time and the band is still running.  

Jason: Many goals have been met. Primarily the ability to make music for a living. And it’s such a gift! Also, personal growth as a musician has always been important to me but the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher! I still get out of bed early every day to work on my craft. If I don’t, I get really down on myself! One DCFC goal I’ve had for a long while is to play Madison Square Garden in New york City. Fortunately that’s going to happen later this year! The only goal I can think of is to have 10 albums… and I’m sure we’re going to meet that goal as well. 

Q: Will you play in the Philippines again for the tour? Any memorable experiences you had when you played here in 2012?  

 

Jason: I would love to come back to the Philippines. We had no idea it was going to be so memorable, or that so many people would come see a show. It was an amazing place and I wished there was more time to explore, because we really didn’t have any extra time before or after the show. I gotta hop on a jeepney! I don’t know if we’ll be back in 2015 or 2016, but I promise we’ll come back as soon as we can. – Rappler.com

Francis Brew Reyes is a musician and music writer. He played guitar for The Dawn, Peso Movement, POT, and other acclaimed artists and is responsible for the 5 note MTRCB theme. He was a music blogger for Yahoo PH and former chief announcer of NU107.

 

 

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