Death Cab Want You To Vote

10/29/08 4:13pm

by Jen Zoratti (CHARTattack)

Like most Winnipeggers, I was excited when I heard that Neil Young, our beloved adopted son, was coming to town for the first time in more than a decade. I was even more excited when I heard Death Cab For Cutie were hand-picked by the granddaddy of grunge to be the opening act. (Wilco gets the honour on the tour's second leg.)

There's good reason for my (and, more importantly, Young's) enthusiasm about the band. Death Cab For Cutie have an excellent record on their hands.

Back in May, the Seattle-based indie rockers released their sixth studio effort, Narrow Stairs — the feverishly anticipated follow-up to 2005's Grammy Award-nominated major label debut, Plans. That record went platinum, spawned heavyweight hits such as "Soul Meets Body" and "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," and made the names Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar), Chris Walla (guitar, keyboards), Jason McGerr (drums) and Nick Harmer (bass) recognizable to more than just the bookish, glasses-wearing indie rock fans who've been with them since the beginning.

But while the band could have certainly rode on the white-hot lightning of Plans, they opted to take some risks on Narrow Stairs. That meant everything from releasing a debut single that clocks in at nearly eight-and-a-half minutes ("I Will Possess Your Heart") to forgoing modern recording luxuries and laying the entire thing down on two-inch tape. Those risks paid off. The resulting album is hyper-intimate, highly creative and beautifully literate.

In advance of the quartet's fall dates with Young, ChartAttack chatted with Harmer about making Narrow Stairs, playing in the majors and why, much like their hearts, Death Cab For Cutie wears their politics on their sleeves.

ChartAttack: You guys are about to head out on tour with Neil Young. You must be excited.
Nick Harmer: Yeah, absolutely. It's such an honour, and I think these shows will be great. We're excited about touring Canada with Neil Young. We've always had a great time on our own in Canada, but it'll be cool to see his reception.

I'm sure your reception will be good as well, since this is the first time that many of the cities on the bill will hear anything from Narrow Stairs live. This record was a bit of departure from Plans. Was that intentional?
I think it wasn't that we set out to make a different record. A lot of it came about from Ben's demos. We wanted to challenge ourselves and take some risks and we're very proud of how it turned out. But yeah, it's certainly a departure from Plans.

Speaking of, Plans ended up being a pretty explosive record for Death Cab For Cutie. It was a critical success, it was a commercial success and it also happened to be your first record for Atlantic. Was there any pressure when it came to recording a follow-up?
See, honestly, there was more pressure making Plans because it was a major label debut. There was a lot of attention being paid to how the new environment would impact the band. We had that constant feeling of "I hope this goes well." I think once people realized that we were a band they still recognized and that we still got recognized, we got some confidence back.

Recently, I saw an interview in which you were asked about [Narrow Stairs'] live-off-the-floor feel and you said that you "wanted to make this record about us playing together live." Do you think you achieved that goal?
I think so. I really feel that, early on, it was important for us to capture the energy and the magic that happens when we're playing live together in the same room. I think [recording in the same room] is something we'll continue to incorporate.

Narrow Stairs was recorded on two-inch tape, which limited how much overdubbing you could do. How did that impact the album?
That's exactly right. We did have to impose some limitations. We recorded the last record in the digital medium, and when you have the ability to make things perfect, I think the human tendency is to try and make it perfect.

We got to the point when we started to think we were losing some of the little moments that make records great. You know, those little imperfections that give records humanity.

That must be liberating, to let go of that perfectionism.
Absolutely. It's very liberating. I find I do my best creative work when I have some limitations and some guidelines.

"Mature" is a word that's being used by many critics to describe this effort. Do you agree with that assessment?
I think certainly lyrically there is [maturity]. I've always respected how Ben really keeps what he's singing about up to date. I think it would be a bit weird for us to be in our early thirties and still be singing about being stood up at the prom.

I want to shift gears a bit and talk politics. In 2004, during the last U.S. presidential election campaign, you guys teamed up with Pearl Jam as part of the Vote For Change tour. And this year, Death Cab were high-profile guests at the 2008 Democratic National Committee Convention and have been pretty vocal about voting initiatives. Why is that important to you as a band?
For us, it's about mobilizing people to vote and encouraging people to participate in democracy as opposed to campaigning for a certain candidate. I happen to think that Barack Obama is the best candidate, but I can live with John McCain winning the election if everyone who can is exercising their power to vote.

What I can't live with is John McCain winning the election if not everyone participates in the democratic process. Who people vote for is important to me on a personal level. But as a band, we're more interested in getting people voting, period.