| Dig your teeth into DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Wednesday, 02 July 2008 00:00 |
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The indie tour de force that is DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, presents their heart-possessing new album 'Narrow Stairs'. Calling from Cleveland, Ohio, "in as they would say; America's heartland", humble as plaid-pie guitarist/keyboardist and album producer, CHRIS WALLA, drawls mile a minute creative wisdom and lets slip a secret or two... "... when something is quite perfect, then there is no reason to go back to it. There's nothing to discover."
COUP DE MAIN: How would you sum up your new album 'Narrow Stairs'? DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE- CHRIS WALLA: I think that 'Narrow Stairs' is represented perfectly by the cover. It was actually a pretty spectacular accident that, that ended up being the cover of the record. She [EE Storey] had submitted a whole spool of stuff to us. I had gotten to know her pretty well through Tegan and Sara and she just started, not having heard any music... just talking about descriptions and [we] started trying to give her visual cues. From the music, she started submitting stuff. That was one of, maybe a hundred images that she sent through? I think that she had originally intended for that one to be somewhere in the middle of the record. But as soon as I saw it, I really reacted to it. And then I showed it to Nick [Harmer] and everyone just had the same reaction to it. It was just really magnetic and really, really pleasing to look at. So, there was nothing really specific or planned to it I guess. CDM: How did it feel to have 'Narrow Stairs' chart at #1 in the States? DCFC: It feels great. I mean, I feel really disconnected from that... WHOAH. I mean, remember... Number One records? It's something like, when we were growing up... Pearl Jam has number one records. We? Do not have Number One records! It's not something that... I dunno. It's really weird. I don't really feel at all that connected to it. It's really strange. CDM: Why did you decide to keep 'mistakes' made during the recording of 'Narrow Stairs' (recorded entirely on two-inch tape), such as 'Pity & Fear' abruptly ending due to the tape breaking and the tripping over and subsequent unplugging of Nick Harmer's bass cable during 'I Will Possess Your Heart'? DCFC: It's a hard call sometimes. Sometimes it's hard to know what's a mistake and what's a... it's hard to know when it's a mistake and when it's BAD. Or when it's actually something that's serving the song. You can just never [know]... we laboured over a lot of those decisions. There's a bunch of stuff in 'I Will Possess Your Heart', some might say that the whole song is a series of accidents. The version of that song that's on the record we were just honestly, learning how to play it! But we played it another dozen times after that and none of them felt nearly as good and compelling as that one. That one tells the story and the takes on either side of it, really don't. For me, that's my benchmark. Is the song, is it compelling? Do you keep wanting to rewind it? Does it give you something to go back to? So many times, when something is quite perfect then there is no reason to go back to it. There's nothing to discover. There's no reason to continue to come back and learn more about the record and dive into this thing that you love. There's no way to learn to love it, I guess. It's really funny. It's a funny thing. It's entirely a case by case basis. Like I have to be really sure that the thing we call, that we're thinking is a mistake - if we fix it does the whole song fall apart? Maybe it's the keystone for the whole song. You just never know until you go with it. And two, because we were recording on tape, we didn't make this record on Protools on a computer, so when you record over something there's no un-do. It's done! You have to commit to it. So, it's a nerve-wracking process. But I think we trust one another as musicians and as... I've been rambling now for a while so I'll stop... <laughs> CDM: There's a lot of extended instrumentation on 'Narrow Stairs'. Do you think there's pressure on modern artists to fill songs with lyrics, sometimes causing them to over-state and say less, than maybe saying nothing ever could? DCFC: I think that sometimes happens. I feel like Ben [Gibbard] is really good at keeping his lyrics... they're literal. But they aren't literal and plain either. I like that he's really good at taking tiny, tiny moments, you know the sorts of things that you would pass over, the sorts of things that unfold completely in two or three seconds... and that he's able to explode those into a three or four minute long cohesive story. I think that's a pretty remarkable skill and I don't think a lot of people are able to do that really all that well. There are all sorts of pressures on writers and bands to do different things and not do different things... and I for one feel like we have done ourselves the greater service just by making music for ourselves. And just trying to keep what we're doing insular and clear. And sort of, in the family. Just making sure that we're making music that we love. And I think that when you do that, the rest of it sort of follows.
CDM: Is it difficult to produce Death Cab For Cutie albums? DCFC: I don't know... I don't think it's any more difficult than producing records for any other bands that I work with. It's all about communication and intent. Those are the two big things. Just making sure that you know when to make - for me it's knowing when I need to make suggestions and when I need to just sit back and let something happen. It's about making sure that there is some focus and some intent to whatever's happening. Like really making sure that everything has some focus and that there's a reason for doing whatever we're doing. And that it feels like it's focused and real. It's a little less satiric I guess. I think communication is really the most important thing. CDM: How do you KNOW when an album is finished? DCFC: Oh god... You sort of just have to set a cut-off point for it at some point. With my solo record that I made late last year, I could have worked on it for another ten years... [but] you just have to decide that it's done at some point. You have to accept that it is. The things that you get hung up on? The things that you think are mistakes? Like you just have to accept that they're not going to get any better at some point. But they are fixed and cemented and that you are through with it. It's a really tricky, bizarre process. You just KNOW! CDM: What was it like releasing your debut solo album 'Field Manual'? DCFC: It was just such a miserable process to make it and get it done that by the time it came out, I had this feeling of like: "Thank God that's done!" So, I don't know that I got to enjoy it in any like, really significant way. I'm proud of it. I like the songs. Some of the presentation I feel like, is really weird and I don't particularly enjoy. I think if there were some take-backs and do-overs, I would definitely take them. But I learnt so much. I think I learnt more about being a producer making that record, than I did actually being a solo artist. Just being under the microscope and working with another producer, particularly one that I really admire, Warne, was so good for me. Like it made me realise that I do tons of things to the bands that I work with, that are completely annoying! And that I'm going to stop doing. It was sort of a bitter sweet experience. It makes me really excited to make another solo record. I learnt so much that I feel like I have something to work towards in the future. CDM: Explain what happened when your data hard drive containing your solo album files was confiscated by U.S. Customs? DCFC: Oh yeah... Oh that. Because this is an international call, my country is probably listening to me... so hello! ...whoever is listening via satellite... I recorded most of the record in Canada, with a producer called Warne Livesey. We did a lot of it at his house, we did a lot of it at a studio in Vancouver and at the end of the record I had to go back to Seattle. Warne mixed the record in Vancouver. After I started getting mixes, I started to decided that I wanted to re-mix some stuff. So we had a guy courier it back down from the studio back to Seattle, about a three hour drive from Vancouver. And the guy who brought it over, didn't have the right paperwork and he went to the wrong crossing and he was generally sort of flustered and out of sorts when he got to the border. He was the intern at the studio Warne was working at. They seized it at the border because he didn't have the right commercial crossing paperwork. Though, we didn't know that. 'Cuz he freaked out and failed to tell us any of the details and what was actually going on with the crossing. So it turned into this big story because all I knew was that I didn't have a drive and we couldn't get anyone on the phone at the Department of Homeland Security and so it ended up going to the press before we could get any answers. That's actually how DHS figured out that there was a problem. And then they contacted us directly and we got it all sorted out! So, it worked out fine... FINALLY. It took a while, but we got there. CDM: What was it like working with Tegan and Sara on their last album 'The Con'? DCFC: Amazing! They are my favourite people on the planet. I miss them. I miss them dearly. I feel like they're some of my best friends now. They're such amazing, inspiring, wonderful people. Everybody around them as well. Their whole team is really incredible. Tegan and Sara are really funny because they're twin sisters. They're one another's biggest fans and they're one another's biggest supporters... they're also really competitive with one another and they really challenge one another. And it's really incredible to watch them work. They are mostly really diplomatic and really good to one another but when something goes awry... they're not afraid to clout one another. Which is really interesting. I think that you have to be a twin, for that to be alright. But that didn't really happen at all that often. More often than not, they come to one another's defence. Like if one of them is feeling not super confident about something, the other one will definitely weigh in and go: "No no no! This is really a great idea. This is totally working. You just need to get in there and do it." And conversely like: "You're right. This really isn't working. Let's switch gears." They're really good. They operate together really well. I just had such an amazing time with them and I'm so excited to work on the next record.
CDM: Songs such as 'Grapevine Fires' (from 'Narrow Stairs'), seem to be especially relevant in light of the Florida Fires... Death Cab For Cutie albums seem to broach timeless themes, is this something you work towards in recording? DCFC: My hope is that everything that we do... I'm really trying to make records that are... as a producer and I think that us too as a band I think that... we're just trying to make records that are going to have some longevity to them. Records that aren't going to burn so hot and burn so fast that there's nothing left six months or a year from now. The hope is that, people can come to these records for years and years and that there really is like a timeless quality about them. I don't know, whether we're actually doing that or not. It's kind of impossible to tell. CDM: What are your thoughts on Death Cab For Cutie songs being placed in teenage dramas like 'The OC' and 'Gossip Girl'? DCFC: I have really mixed feelings about it. I don't even have a TV! So, it's hard for me to really judge. It's hard for me to have any context to how those things actually play out. I mean, it's great to sell records... I guess. And I think, I guess that having songs in TV shows helps that happen? I don't know. It's just really hard for me to make much sense of. So I sort of, stay out of it. We try and make sure we have some sense of how the song is going to be used and what's going on with whatever scene it gets used in, but aside from that it's sort of hard to tell. CDM: What keeps Death Cab For Cutie continuing, a decade on? DCFC: I think it's the fact that we SO like one another. That we still like making music together. As soon as that stops, then I think we'll probably quit making music. It's pretty simple. CDM: When are we going to finally get a New Zealand Death Cab For Cutie show?!! DCFC: I don't know! We've been a band for eleven years now and we haven't been to New Zealand! It's kind of criminal! My hope is that in the beginning of 2009, we'll be able to do it. That's my sincere hope, the beginning of next year, yes. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE’s album ‘Narrow Stairs’ & CHRIS WALLA’s solo debut album ‘Field Manual’, are both in-stores now. |
