Two middle-aged guys walk into the room. One is thinning on top and has glasses, and the other carries a spare tyre around his middle. They’re both bouncing with enthusiasm and have spent the day talking to Australian’s music media about being rock stars.
Nick and Jason are Death Cab for Cutie’s bass player and drummer. Three days ago they were playing at Splendour in the Grass, before that they were playing to sold out audiences around Australia, and before that they were touring Europe. They’re relieved to be back in Australia.
“Even though we’re on the other side of the world, in the Southern Hemisphere, we’re very comfortable here. We don’t come as often as we should,” said Jason.
“I think I can remember us saying the last time we were here that we had to get back here for a vacation,” said Nick.
“I remember talking about the same thing, almost three years to the day, how we were really looking forward to coming back, and how fast three years came around. It won’t be that long next time.”
This year they were invited to play Splendour in the Grass, and they played under the big top to a captive audience.
Nick said, “Yeah, Splendour was fantastic. We saw a lot of great music that day. Probably the smallest festival we’ve played though … wait Accelerator (in Sweden), about 3 000 people. We really haven’t done that much festival touring. Except for this year. In other words I think we’ve done more festivals this tour than the band has always done in past years. What’s really fun is that it ends up being summer camp. You’re seeing the same bands and you’re all away from home and at the same time you’re there to have a good party and enjoy a good time. It’s really fun to bump into these people at all different points across the world. It makes it a whole lot of fun.”
Jason described Death Cab’s Splendour show as one of his most moving moments in recent memory, “because it was a marker. We finished another tour and every tour has its ups and its downs. . The last run has been really great, especially finishing in Australia …the last show was Splendour in the Grass and it felt really good to end in a beautiful place, Byron Bay. Every time we have that last show of a tour, it’s a moving experience.”
Death Cab for Cutie’s music is filled with personal themes about isolation and sadness. Its great music to listen to alone in your room, and many people were introduced to it from the OC’s resident music nerd, Seth Cohen. It’s hard to imagine a tune like ‘Soul Meets Body’ filling a tent or stadium, but due to the thick and rich arrangements of the songs the sound completely blocked out any residual doof doof spilling over from the Mix Up Tent.
Jason was flattered when told that the live versions of their songs reproduced the recorded versions very well. He mentioned that at festivals the band make a few changes to the song to capture the essence of the sound and put on an entertaining show.
“I think in the past there have been some songs that haven’t worked as well live. Ben didn’t feel as good performing them live as it was in the studio. With Plans we play everything on the record and it feels good, even if having it feel good is a slightly different arrangement, we add an extra bar or two here. Learn to take a few chances and feel that we’re not abandoning the core of the song or what people are coming to see. We also separate the studio and live performance, we think of those as two separate things. But, you’re always going to have your sound, and you’re going to play the way you play, so it’s good to hear you say that the songs are true to the experience,” said Jason.
Cheeky Nick says that the only difference between playing their own show and a festival show is “the lasers and explosions”.
The Death Cab guys have been playing to successively bigger audience over the ten years of their careers, and can now be considered professional musicians. Occasionally they have to escape the whole music thing and have some time off, away from their instruments. The last time Nick was truly moved was when he recently watched the season finale of Six Feet Under’s fifth series. ‘I was just a big pile of goo’, he said with a grin on his face.
In 2004 Death Cab joined the Rock the Vote tour in the US to encourage young people to vote against George W Bush. The end was disappointing for the band, but they’re still happy that they got involved.
Nick said “Well, we won didn’t we … oh no we didn’t. It was a learning experience for all of us. I’m very proud that we decided to get together as a band and do it. To be involved at that level, and do all the press and everything around it, it was a lot of work at the same time we’re ultimately disappointed in the turnout but it charged the band to do things that would have an impact. So a lot of our energy now is focused on local politics just in the Seattle area alone and we do a lot of stuff to work with a lot of non-profit organisations.”
Bush is out of the White House next term, but Jason is still cynical about his successor. ‘He’s out for sure next term, but trust me he’s got a cloned successor waiting in the wings. Got to be aware of their (the American Republican party’s) ability to pick out the bad chips and put them in someone else’s brain. It’s kinda amazing’ he says with a wry smile.
The band is planning to tour until December this year, have a break for the first half of 07 and write for the rest of the year. They are very keen to get back to Australia and join the Big Day Out tour.
‘Is it Ken West, the guy that started the Big Day Out?’ said Jason. ‘Just from what I’ve read, he was well aware of how things were run in the US and the UK, the big ones, Reading and Leeds. He did some research about what makes a great festival great. He pretty much plugged that into his equation; with the Big Day Out having days off rather than go go go. From a backstage perspective…It seems that a lot of that has been considered with the Big Day Out. It seems like it’s a perfect festival, I can’t wait, if we have an opportunity to do that.”
