Interview with Death Cab for Cutie

Aug 13, 2004 - © **

In indie circles, Death Cab for Cutie has had a healthy buzz for a number of years. With the release ofTransatlanticism (their best record to date) and the help of some prominent endorsements (such as onThe OC), the band's mainstream profile is now bigger than ever. Having just signed up alongside Pearl Jam for a quick jaunt through swing states on the Vote for Change tour, Death Cab will have another chance to take their music to a very large audience. Guitarist/producer Chris Walla, who has also done a slew of notable behind-the-boards work for some of the better bands in the Pacific Northwest (The Long Winters, The Decemberists and Carissa's Wierd among them), takes some time to catch us up on all the progress.

ADAM: Thanks for doing our interview, Chris. How's life?

CHRIS: Life is quite good, thanks for asking. It's hot in Seattle this week, and my windows are painted shut, but that's a minor complaint.

ADAM: So...please bring us up to speed. What's been going on with the band since Transatlanticism had its release?

CHRIS: Lots of touring and very little of anything else. Nick went to Comic Con in San Diego last week. Jason got married and turned 30. Ben bought a house. I've been recording rock records for other bands. These things have eaten all of our spare non-touring seconds.

ADAM: The record continues to do well and, as you mentioned, you guys seem to be on the road non-stop. Is there a sense within the band that you guys are going to be around awhile? You're already approaching "veteran" status in indie-rock terms.

CHRIS: Funny, I feel like a veteran now; I'd have scoffed at that concept a year ago, I think. We've done a lot of things, many of them inspiring and good. I see no reason for us to stop anytime soon. We're all dying, however, to be done with the touring cycle for this record so we can write / record the next record.

ADAM: Death Cab co-headlined tours with Ben Kweller and The Dismemberment Plan. A lot of bands I've talked to have had bad experiences with these 50/50 sorts of ventures-and not just the Hole/Marilyn Mansonpairings, although it does seem like it gets more complicated as the bands get bigger. Is that just an ego thing, do you think? And what are the best aspects of this sort of tour for your band?CHRIS: The best aspects of doing a co-headlining tour are pretty unbeatable. The idea is that you get to play for lots of people who will like your music but just haven't heard it yet. And it's great to meet people who are in the same stage of their career as you are; similar glories, similar problems. We've done very well with our co-headlining tours, and I certainly wouldn't rule out more in the future.

ADAM: Transatlanticism was released on Super Audio. I wasn't able to attend the listening party and am sort of out of my depth when it comes to audiophilia, but how big of a leap is there in "listening experience" when you're listening to SA? Is it worth checking into for the casually obsessive music fan, or is there be a better format on the horizon?

CHRIS: There isn't a better format on the horizon, that's for sure. I'm honestly a little tired of trying to explain the SACD's merits in text, because it's very, very difficult to do without getting into a bunch of math that no one (myself included) understands. I can say, however, that I can't tell the difference between the SACD and our master tapes, whereas the CD is a much smashier and grainier representation thereof. I do wish the SACD would catch on.

ADAM: The title track of Transatlanticism was featured prominently in a recent episode of Six Feet Under. Is it important to admire the various entities that license your music, or would that just be poor business? Or too idealistic?

CHRIS: I've never even seen Six Feet Under, but I hear it's good. In fact, I don't even have a TV, so I have to trust what other people tell me about the shows or movies we're licensing our music to. It's important to respect your work enough to be selective about what happens in that world, though, or you end up totally overexposed.

ADAM: You guys were on the bill for Coachella. This leads to the questions we always ask: if the world ended and Ticketmaster put you in charge of the bill for the festival in Heaven, who'd be brought on board?

less and less satisfactory.

CHRIS: The Traveling Wilburys, because you'd get both Roy Orbison and George Harrison back. That's all I could ever ask for, I think. George was the antidote to Paul, and since his death, I find my toxicology reports coming back less 

ADAM: And if they put you in charge of booking Hell?

CHRIS: The Magnetic Fields will play the festival in my own personal Hell. No one else.