Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, the worrywart, brings Postal Service to the Gorge
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Respect? He's the founder and leader of not one but two acclaimed music acts: Death Cab for Cutie, the highly regarded indie rock band (Spin magazine: "Death Cab for Cutie cutie Ben Gibbard is the poet laureate of the young and hopeful"); and the Postal Service, an electronic-pop duo that arrived on the scene last year and was freshly minted as the-next-cool-thing (Rolling Stone: "charmingly modest — until you find yourself humming them everywhere"; Splendid zine: "an amazingly versatile recording, suitable for the highest highs and the lowest lows").
Cool bookings? Death Cab has upcoming festival dates in the Bay Area in June (with the Strokes and Bad Religion), New York in July (with TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead) and Bend, Ore., in September (with the Pixies). And the Postal Service is one of the headliners at the "Sasquatch!" Festival, which kicks off the Gorge season at 11 a.m. tomorrow ($49.95, 206-628-0888, www.ticketmaster.com or www.hob.com).
Sales? As Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus might say, My oh my ... Death Cab for Cutie's "Transatlanticism" is approaching the 150,000 sales mark, and is No. 17 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. The Postal Service's "Give Up," ranking No. 2 on the Billboard Electronic Album chart, has passed the 250,000 sales figure, and is Sub Pop's second-highest-selling record of all time — behind "Bleach," Nirvana's first album and only Sub Pop album. It's not your double- or triple-platinum, à la Norah Jones or Blink-182, but these are huge indie albums, certainly by post-grunge Seattle standards.
So why is Gibbard so jumpy, as he fidgets around the Capitol Hill apartment he shares with Joan Hiller, his live-in girlfriend?
Partly because he's had too much coffee, he says. And it's also probably that he's just a worrier by nature. When Postal Service sales took off, he worried fans at Death Cab shows would yell out requests for Postal songs (they didn't). He goes on long tours, and worries that he's not really able to write on the road. He takes notebooks with him and jots down ideas and lyrics, then worries that they're too poetic.
He comes home, and worries that he's not writing enough, not working hard enough.
He's about the most modest almost-famous guy you can imagine. He'd just as soon gloat over a used-record-store find (by Hiller) of obscure Portland band Sand than talk about his own personal success. And, when you talk about the Postal Service's extraordinary story, he just shrugs his broad shoulders, smiles from behind glasses and says he can't really understand it — it was just a lark that went nuts, sales-wise.
"Not to take anything away from the success of 'Transatlanticism,' but the Postal Service is becoming this crazy thing no one expected."
While Death Cab has been steadily growing since the band formed in Bellingham seven years ago, the Postal Service is an underground phenomenon. It started with a song he collaborated on with Jimmy Tamborello on a Dntel album, then Gibbard and Tamborello decided to try doing an entire album.
"The Postal Service I think for me is far more instantaneously accessible than Death Cab ... Jimmy and I, when we were writing, our goal was to kind of write electronic dance hits," Gibbard says with a laugh.
Sales of the Postal Service album have indeed been driven by a hit of sorts, the single "Such Great Heights" that has received heavy airplay at influential L.A. station KROQ (which, by the way, is also playing Modest Mouse's "Float On"); a clever video for the song has also been played on MTV2. "I recorded the guitar, drums and vocals right up there," Gibbard says, pointing up the steps of his dual-level apartment toward his bedroom, where he has some low-budget recording equipment.
The name of the duo came from Gibbard and Tamborello mailing music back and forth from Seattle to Los Angeles. "It was easy, very much detached from a band, where you have four people in a room — (the Postal Service) was kind of a fresh way to work, a nice contrast to being in a band.
"It's been a really crazy year and a half. Death Cab just got off a four-month tour — I'm home between now and October, which is really comforting."
He says the worst part of touring was "not being able to work on new material — I kind of judge my merit on what I have on the stove right now."
While one of his favorite books is Kerouac's "On the Road," Gibbard struggles with writing on the road. "I can't do it. I've always told myself I can't do it — I'm the kind of person who likes to be home writing with the shades down and the lights out — well, maybe not the lights out, but being alone."
He does keep a notebook that he jots ideas and/or lines in. "Then I look at them and they don't make sense or they're overly poetic ... bordering on pretentious as far as the level of profundity."
Back home, he has a few weeks to relax and write, although there are some big shows coming up. Gibbard has been very selective about Postal Service shows, and has turned down a couple other big festivals. But when the chance to play "Sasquatch!" came to him, "I thought, 'What a cool way to give it back to the Northwest' — what better way to do it, appear and then disappear."
Being the worrying sort, Gibbard is already starting to sweat about what he will do next: "I'm feeling the pressure of having two records (doing well) and wanting to live up to it."
Gibbard plans to start recording new material with Tamborello later this year, and release a second Postal Service record in early 2006.
Good news for Death Cab fans: Gibbard plans to continue with his main job. "I've known the guys in Death Cab for 10 years — some of them.
"It's like being in a marriage with three other people, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But when there's this other project and you don't have to see each other all the time ... "
Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com
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