Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard has spoken to NME about the meaning and origin of their seminal single ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’.

Watch our ‘Song Stories’ video with Gibbard above.

While the song from their acclaimed cult classic album ‘Plans’ in 2005 would become a landmark moment for the band, Gibbard told NME that the song was ‘beamed down to him’ and written in about 15-20 minutes.

“I think what it is about ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark that connects to people is the fact that we are all going to lose everyone in our lives,” Gibbard told NME of the song’s meaning and inspiration. “Everyone in our lives is going to die. We too will die someday, and people will mourn us.

“In the same breath that one gains wisdom and experience with age, there is a period of your life in which it feels like you’re going to weddings every weekend and there’s a period in your life when it feels like you’re going to funerals every weekend. I think it’s very important in our relative age group that we recognise that we’re living in a very special time in our lives where we’re going to far more weddings than funerals.”

Gibbard continued: “Death is an ever-present fear. If not a fear, then an impending reality in our lives. We like to think that when people leave this life, we will see them again some day. Writing a love song that deals specifically with the inevitable death of one’s partner and that you will follow that person into whatever the afterlife is or is not, that’s something that people can relate to.”

Speaking of the track’s title and video, Gibbard added: “For me when I was visioning the song, the movie of it was forming in my mind. The afterlife is literally just a dark room. I can only interpret the afterlife, if is there such a thing, as the absence of light.

“I don’t personally believe in heaven or hell and have no way of knowing if there is something after this life, I’d like to hope that there is, but until I do then it’s a dark room because I don’t know what’s in it.”

Watch our ‘Song Stories’ video with Gibbard above.

Death Cab release their new album ‘Thank You For Today’ on August 19.

Death Cab For Cutie tour dates and tickets

The band’s upcoming UK and Ireland tour dates are below. Tickets are available here.

January

24 Dublin Olympia Theatre

25 Manchester Albert Hall

26 Glasgow O2 Academy

28 Nottingham Rock City

29 Leeds O2 Academy

30 Bristol O2 Academy

February

1 London Eventim Apollo