How to characterise an American indie band over almost three decades and 10 albums, each with a subtly different flavour? Death Cab For Cutie took their time to get started, but have grown steadily into an American cult classic. Perhaps only after 25 years in the music business is their sound truly settling.
I never forget a recommendation that sticks. In the case of Death Cab For Cutie, it was my friend and music writer Eamonn Forde that told me I should listen to the Narrow Stairs album, specifically the song I Will Possess Your Heart - an eight minute long jam that the band released as a single (albeit a shorter ‘radio’ edit, it was even nominated for a Grammy). That record and the next, Codes and Keys, set me on the course to become a fan and a lucky one, given the band’s rich catalogue even back then (in particular their two most successful albums Transatlanticism and Plans which have earned their place in the Canon of American indie classics). I spoke with Ben Gibbard and Nick Harmer, the band’s two founding members as they were about to release album number 10 Asphalt Meadows.
How to characterise an American indie band over almost three decades and 10 albums, each with a subtly different flavour? One recent review I read described the band as “masters of dreamy, emo-tinged Americana” and while that’s rather simplistic, their two albums (2018’s Thank You For Today and 2015’s Kintsugi) have had sort of ‘dreamy’ feel, a softer production and reflective almost gentle character (or as Ben Gibbard described one of their earlier records Codes and Keys, a “Prozac happiness”).
The band’s latest LP Asphalt Meadows has something more vital and varied going for it however, with the band capturing a combination of post-pandemic zest for life with a state of self-reflection. There’s a depth and a mystery to the record that somehow seems fitting with the band’s current standing – one of a handful of longevous indie Americana bands that can make exactly the music they want to make with no interference. Not even from a major label. As frontman Ben Gibbard attests:
“Atlantic Records has never once stepped in to change something or baulked at a creative decision we’ve made. It’s been the exact opposite of the horror story narrative that you hear about all the time”.
Indeed. The music industry’s elephant’s graveyard of indie bands that signed to major labels but could not make it work may be large, but it does not and will not see the likes of Death Cab For Cutie. Over almost 18 years with Atlantic Records, they’ve made things work - what has been the secret to that?
The band’s other founding member is bassist Nick Harmer:
“It is a symbiotic relationship. Atlantic has brought stability and worked steadily and have become a dependable band from their perspective. There have been so many elements of luck to it but we’ve both worked really hard on every record”.
Like all bands of longevity, Ben struggles with the idea of being in a position to advise bands now as to how to forge that path, especially in today’s more competitive and less forgiving circumstances.
“The stakes for saying something uncouth in an interview or having a bad show - for fucking up – are so much higher now than when we started. It’s important to remember to have fun. We’ve always gone in with the singular focus of making music that we’re proud of and that says something about our lives”.
Timing of course, is something no band can do anything about yet is such a critical ingredient to success, and the early days of Death Cab For Cutie coincided with the dearth of interesting music that was the end of the 90s, when grunge and Britpop had given way to a tide of empty, vacuous pop and misogynistic hip hop. Death Cab emerged into this scene as a new breed of more sensitive indie, drawing from a broader musical palette. The band took their time to get started, but have grown steadily into an American cult classic. Ben Gibbard.
“If there is one element of our career I’m grateful for, it’s having the time to develop as a band at the beginning, before anyone knew who we were. If we were to launch now at the age we were then – 21, 22 – we would have imploded from the pressure. “Every time we went back to a city we played to more people, not exponentially but organically via word of mouth”.
As the band transitioned into the streaming era, that fan base has grown into millions (the band notches up 3.7m monthly listeners on Spotify as we speak).
I wonder then, if that last track on Asphalt Meadows, “’i’ll never give up on you’ might well be adopted by those fans as a tribute and a theme when the band takes the album on the road. Live, the band channel something of a quasi-religious experience as we reference in this conversation more than once. It would be fitting then, for a band that cracked the code to longevity in a way few of their indie brethren could have managed.