A Conversation with Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard – HuffPost 7.18.11

Mike Ragogna: Ben, what was your approach in creating the songs and recording your new album Codes And Keys?

Benjamin Gibbard: Well, our kind of “m.o.” as we’re making records seems to be pretty similar from record to record. I kind of seclude myself from the band for a month, or we’re off–not touring or doing band activities–and I try to write as much as I possibly can. Chris (Walla) has also contributed some music as well. But I just kind of write as many songs as I can, really, and then we all meet up in the studio and go down the list of songs and try to tie things together. We see which songs maybe flow into each other, and also, primarily, which songs everybody likes, what songs people are inspired by. As we start recording, we start with the songs we all agree on and slowly, the record kind of shows itself to us. We never go into an album with a manifesto of, “This is what this record’s going to be about and here’s how we’re going to present it.” It tends to just be a very organic process.

MR: I imagine you feel a close connection with the songs on this album.

BG: Absolutely. I tend to think, whenever we finish a record, that the reason we’ve all agreed on recording all these songs and sequenced them in the fashion that we have is because they all mean a lot to us.

MR: Any track that you’re closest to?

BG: I think probably the title track, “Codes And Keys,” is one of the songs that is very close to me. I’m very proud of how it turned out. It’s one of the lyrics on the record that I’m the most proud of, and I think that over the course of its three or so minutes, it kind of takes a nice little lyrical journey, so to speak. It starts out a little nervous and ends in this very anthemic, uplifting out-chorus of sorts. It’s a song I feel very close to.

MR: I know what you mean about it feeling resolved by the end.

BG: Yeah, and it’s nice to have a song that opens up kind of nervous and you’re not sure where it’s going, and by the end of it, it’s solved its own question.

MR: What’s the story behind that one?

BG: There’s not a particular story. I think in the past, when I’ve been writing songs, I’ve had a very specific event in mind to such an extent that the event is referenced in the song or that a particular song on one of the older records exists in a very specific time and place, either in my life or in the fictitious, kind of pastiche of life that I surround myself with. One thing that I’m kind of fond of in a number of these songs is that I feel the details are very specific–the emotional details and touchstones are very specific, but the song doesn’t exist within a particular event. I feel that somebody can listen to the song and place it in their life and kind of interpret it in a way that fits them more specifically, because the song isn’t placing itself in a particular location by referencing that location.

MR: Do you find that ends up being the case, in general, for Death Cab For Cutie’s material?

BG: Well, I think that as I’ve continued to write songs, I think that I’ve always been at the whim of my own–I don’t know what the right term is–but I’ve always been within my own specific world as far as like, “These are the things I want to accomplish in this particular time and place.” Going back to the first couple records, there was a very specific agenda that I had and what I wanted to write about and how I wanted to present it. That was a reflection of the person I was at 21 and the kind of writers that I was really admiring at that time–and still do–and really wanted to emulate at that time. As I’ve gotten older and you hear more music, you read more writers, and what you want from yourself kind of morphs and changes. My writing has also changed and morphed along the way. So, it’s really just a function of being a living, breathing human being who is at the mercy of an ever-changing sphere of influence.

MR: You can hear it in the songs. I just wanted to tell you that I think the title for the album is perfect because of its metaphors and what’s going on in the lyrics. You have to be paying a little attention for those codes and keys.

BG: Thank you, I appreciate you saying that. To take it even a step further, I think that the title of the album and the song is very much open to an interpretation that can be anything–from something as intellectual as what you just said down to the codes of language we use with people who we’ve known for a long time, like our loved ones, our spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever. We all have those secret languages that we speak with the people who are closest to us, so that if a stranger comes into the room and all they hear is a series of non-sequiturs, the two people are talking or relating to each other. They’re speaking in their own secret code. There are also “keys”–the metaphorical keys and the physical keys–that unlock the doors, the physical doors and also the doors for ourselves that facilitate communication amongst people. It can be interpreted any number of ways, which is something that I really like.

MR: Do you feel that you took anything into this new project from your work with Jay Farrar on the film about Jack Kerouac, One Fast Move Or I’m Gone?

BG: I have many criticisms of myself, but if there is one that I continue to come back to, it’s that I feel there are times that I can get too precious about things. I can get too precious about how a guitar sounds or how people are going to feel about a particular song or this and that, and one thing that was so impressive to me about how Jay worked was that he’s just a journeyman’s songwriter. When he’s writing, he’s writing from a very real place. He’s kind of trying to focus his emotions to accomplish a particular goal. But at the same time, when it’s over, it’s over, and he moves on to the next one. That was really eye-opening to me. It was really inspiring to see him be writing and recording and seeing that he certainly, obviously, cares very much about what he’s doing. But at the same time, he wasn’t precious about it. I feel that it’s an important distinction that I’ve had a hard time making over the years–that you can have intent and you can take what you do seriously, but you can also be too precious about that. It’s important to remove the preciousness from the process without losing how important it is to you. I think sometimes people equate preciousness and importance.

MR: Nicely said. So, what advice would you have for new artists at this point?

BG: Well, we were just on tour with a band, and they’re kind of a new band. I was talking with the songwriter, and they’re struggling with that whole thing that artists tend to struggle with when they first get recognition in the sense that they’re concerned that any level of success–or not even success, but just not starving–is going to adversely affect their work, as if their creativity was completely tied into the fact that they have to wash dishes at an Applebee’s or whatever for a job. And one point that I always want to stress to people who are certainly younger musicians or artists. Whatever it is, your creativity comes from within who you are, your creativity is not going to go away because your life changes. It’s going to morph and reflect who you are and who you are continuing to be. As I was talking to this gentleman, I was like, “Listen. You’re a great songwriter. You’re going to be a great songwriter if you can make your rent playing music. It’s not going to go away because you no longer have to work minimum wage jobs so that you buy guitar strings. It’s not going to go away.” I think that we’ve bought into this myth about the “starving artist” to such an extent that people question their own creativity at times. That’s just kind of unfortunate.

MR: Ben, there is so much more I’d love to talk with you about. But for now, best of luck onCodes And Keys. It’s always nice talking with you, sir.

BG: It’s nice talking to you as well and thank you for having me.

Transcribed by Claire Wellin