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Death Cab for Cutie has traveled a bit of a bumpy road over the past few months. In August, founding member Chris Walla (one of three, including frontman Ben Gibbard and bassist Nick Harmer) publicly announced he was leaving. The split, though amicable, left the newly minted trio no choice but to move into unknown territory during a particularly exciting time. The band will be dropping its eighth studio album, Kintsugi, the creation of which Walla was integral to, on March 31. Although Walla plays guitar on this album, he opted not to produce it — a Death Cab first. In his place, the band brought on producer Rich Costey, known for his work with Muse, Foster the People and more. The plot thickens: Although Walla had told the band privately that he was moving on early in the recording process, the band chose to keep his decision from Costey until the mixes were set.

Now, a founding member down, an external producer in the mix and with two additions to their live show — Dave Depper (Menomena, Fruit Bats, Corin Tucker, Ray Lamontagne) and Zac Rae (My Brightest Diamond, Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, Gnarls Barkley) — Death Cab sits about a month away from the big release date. Juxtapose the new with nearly two-decades of history, an extensive, much-beloved back-catalog and an army of devoted fans (if social media is at all telling, we’re talking over 2.5 million on Facebook alone), and things get very interesting.

As snow temporarily muffled the cacophony that is New York City, Mashable caught up with Death Cab’s Nick Harmer. From the symbolic nature of the album title to what it’s like to face this new frontier, especially given a fan base so strongly connected to "old-school Death Cab," Harmer sheds light on the band's status quo.

Q&A with Death Cab for Cutie

What does the title of the new album mean to you as a band?

I think initially it was something I kind of stumbled across on the Internet; I don't know how and when I came across it — I think it was a blog post on an art site. I was really initially just struck by the imagery of the gold mixed with resin used to repair the ceramics. It was visually really stunning in an understated way. And then as I started reading about the technique, I really liked the philosophical component as well — just making the breakage and repair part of the history of an object and not going out of your way to make those cracks invisible.

So that was sort of going on in the background of my life, and then we made the record. Usually, in the past, we listen really hard to the songs and figure out which ones are working and which ones aren't, and once everything is in place, we begin discussing potential album titles. We were all kind of kicking around ideas, and I brought Kintsugi to the table. I said, "Hey, this is a concept that I like visually and philosophically." And there’s connection to the material on the record as well — it makes sense. Everyone else thought it was a great idea and really went for it and got super excited about it. They were all very quickly able to see the depth and connection to the material, and find that it encapsulated a lot of what we were all going through professionally and personally. It worked as a name.

When it comes to actually creating the new material and growing as a band, do you find the change comes naturally, or is it something you have to consciously break yourself out of? I know there was a lot going on during the recording of this album — a change in producers and Chris [Walla] left the band. Does change have to be a conscious effort, or does it come naturally?

I think it’s a little bit of both. We initially had started this album with Chris at the helm as producer, as he’s produced every album up until this point. We got about a week into the process with him, and he quickly said to us, "Hey, I don't feel like I’m the right dude to make this record." There was nothing negative, no animosity, no tension in our work or anything — it wasn’t like he was quitting. He said, "I really want to work with someone else. I feel like someone else might be able to help us dig a little deeper and find some places musically that, since we've gotten into the habit of working together, I might not be able to do."

Ton of respect for Chris. I had a lot of respect for that instinct — for him to be able to see that. So, we kind of pressed pause and made a little bit of a list. We were interviewing people and came across Rich — actually, it was a very short list of people in the world that have made records that we all had a lot of mutual respect for. Then, it was kind of a "see if the personality fits" process. Once we met Rich, and we clicked with him and realized that he understood who we are as a band and what we were attempting to try and go for, that’s when we gave ourselves over to change. We were really conscious of the fact that we were going to go into the studio with someone brand new, who we were going to trust with having the final say on the material that we’re working on. We’re really going to have to give ourselves over and let him sculpt that process, and in some ways, change a lot of the ways we’ve been working up until that point. There were lots of moments when it was really exciting and great, and there were lots of moments, as you’d expect, that were nerve-wracking and unfamiliar and made us uncomfortable, but I think we all had to put all of the history aside while we were there and just give it up to the process of making something.

When in the process did Chris announce he was leaving the band?

Once we had started that process, we were maybe recording about a month or so, Chris pulled the three of us aside and said, "Hey, I think this is going to be my last record with the band." Again, there was no animosity, there wasn’t a lot of fighting or drama or anything happening that drove him out of the band, or something weird like that, but since the beginning of this band he’s had two things in his life that have been pushing and pulling: One of them is his production career, and one is his career as a guitar player in this band. We’ve been at the benefit of both of those talents for years, but we always knew along the way that he was struggling with what his true calling was. And, I think, he just got to the point in his life when, I can’t speak for him, but I certainly know that it was time for him to make that decision where producing and following his instinct as a creative person was something that he needed to do. And that meant he needed to stop working with us to do that. You know, our schedule and our goals and the things we want to do are not going to slow down and wait for him — continuing forward and making music. We’re not going to hamper our progress as a band.

All you ever want for the people in your life and your friends are for them to be doing what they want to do. In that sense, when he told us he was leaving, on one hand it was sad and we’ve enjoyed being in a band with him for a lot of time, but there’s definitely opportunity— a new chapter for him to look forward to, and a new version of what we’re doing with fresh expectations and some new goals and new horizons. So that’s also really exciting. It’s kind of a shot in the arm for us on that level. We decided we weren’t going to tell Rich or anyone in the studio that this was going on. We were like, "You know what? If this is your final album with us, then let’s make it positive, let’s make it a celebration of all of the work we’ve done together until this point."

He was very committed to finishing the album. He played on everything — all the way through the mixes. It’s not like he left us in the middle of the album and just checked out of the recording process, or any of that stuff. He was really committed to seeing this thing through because he is really proud of what everything we’ve accomplished as a band up until this point. We realized that in order for him to continue to grow as a person, he needed to go in another direction, and we respect that.

There was a lot of upheaval. In hindsight when I look back, there was a lot of upheaval and a lot of crazy stuff going on, but at the same time it made a lot of sense and it felt OK. It didn’t slow down the actual process of making this album really at all. In fact, it kind of galvanized us to accept the change and boldly go though it. I think that the music kind of reflects that in a really positive way — at least I hope so anyway.

And you didn’t say anything about this to Rich until the very end of the recording process?

We’d finished the mixes, finished the album completely, and we called Rich and told him this was happening the whole time we were there. I think he was pretty bummed that we weren’t open with him.

Was Rich shocked?

Definitely. Because he didn’t see any of this going on. But then I think he really realized the benefit of us not saying anything and was actually thankful that we hadn’t. We didn’t want Chris’s departure from the band to impact Rich’s decision-making process as a producer, and the way that he would challenge us and lean on us and push us to try new things — we felt like if he knew that Chris wasn’t going to be here in the end, maybe decisions would slide slightly towards the three of us, knowing that Chris wasn’t going to be around, or he would be harder on Chris … or whatever it could have been. We wanted to eliminate this variable from impacting his creative process because we have a lot of respect for the way that he works and what he does as a producer. Like I said, I think he was a little bit bummed that we didn’t share that, but at the end once he realized what that could have done to the whole process had he known along the way, I think he was thankful that he didn’t know. I think he actually had a lot of respect for us for not saying so [laughs].

That must have been a tough secret to keep.

It was a little tough. Making an album is a long road trip when you’re stuck in the same car with the same people for a long stretch of time. It was pretty much like Chris saying, "I don’t want to be in this car any longer," but us having to finish after months of being trapped in the same car together. It was pretty tough to keep that to ourselves, but that also speaks to the fact that we weren’t fighting and there wasn’t this negative, dark cloud stuff happening that he could really pick up on. We conducted ourselves like friends.

Your first show sans Chris was on Death Cab home turf: Seattle’s The Crocodile. What was that like?

It felt oddly perfect. It felt necessary to start where we started.

Like resetting, almost? Yes, exactly. Like a new version of us. It just seemed right somehow to do that; it seemed necessary. The show was really fun. The fans over there had a really good time. It felt exciting to be on stage again and play old material and new material and realize that we sound awesome! [laughs] It was a really encouraging show for us, and you always want to do the best that you can do. In our practice space when we were rehearsing with these guys, it’s one thing to really believe it amongst the five of us, like, this is the best our band has sounded live. It’s another thing to go in front of a bunch of people and have them feel the same way. It was a really good moment of validation for us and a boost in confidence and encouragement.

This is going to be a really fun tour cycle coming up, and we’ve got a really good album and a lot of really positive energy putting all of this together, and I think — and I know — that it will really translate into the show. I’m just excited to be out on the road with these new guys and sharing music with them.



Yeah it is a little nerve-wracking I suppose. It doesn’t really get to us that much because I don’t know what exactly we would do to counter that. Any band in my life that I love, I have my favorite albums of theirs, but with the bands that I’m a fan of, I don’t want them to remake the same album over and over again because that’s boring.



Everyone has their favorite album that they’ve liked over the years, and I think there’s some pressure on us to be that version of the band that they first listened to and got excited about. We don’t know how to do anything other than continue to move forward and make records, to make the music that we want to make. Hopefully, people will be able to hear the version of the band in that that they still enjoy and are connected to emotionally. And if they’re not, then they’re not. It’s a strange thing, continuing to make music together and push into unknown territory. We still have a lot of music left to make together. Hopefully, people will be able to hear this album for what it is and where it’s at.







If there’s one thing that I’ve always been really proud of for Ben [Gibbard], is that I feel like every album has always been an extension of his life, and he’s been very open and authentic about writing about the things that are going on in his life and around his life in each different point. He’s never shied away or tried to write a record or lyrics about something because someone has an expectation to do that, and I think sometimes that level of honesty and transparency and a little bit of fearlessness, that this kind of intensity is intimidating to some people. They don’t really know what to do with it, like, "Wow, I don’t know how to criticize this because it’s kind of uncommon." There are lots of great lyricists in the world, but I certainly think that as I continue to grow and connect with music that’s being made, the ones that matter to me the most are when I feel that someone’s kind of putting themselves on the line. Those that are kind of exposing themselves, opening themselves up to a real emotional connection. I think Ben continues to push himself as a writer to do that, and whether or not that connects with the same people who enjoyed our earlier work or now, that’s really not for us to say. We kind of just have to keep moving in the direction that we’re moving in and hopefully make musical decisions that are compelling.