The Setonian had the opportunity to speak to Chris Walla, producer and guitarist of Death Cab for Cutie, before he performed Death Cab's new song, "Meet Me at the Equinox," live at the MTV Woodies.
When asked about the band's motivation to write a song specifically tailored for the "Twilight" soundtrack, Walla admitted to being a fan of the series and said the recording process was "unlike anything we've ever done. It was the first time that we put a song together with something really specific in mind."
Outside of vampires and werewolves, Walla acknowledged the recent success of Death Cab's latest record, "Narrow Stairs," discussing the band's emergence into the mainstream world. Not feeling the pressure to maintain mainstream standards, Walla said, "I don't think that anybody really gets anywhere by sort of specifically tailoring their music to fit what a particular audience wants to hear."
"I think that I think we're just going to keep doing what we've always done, which is just trying to make records that we like and that we would listen to if we were buying them," Walla said.
For all the fans yearning for the lo-fi albums from the "Something About Airplanes" heyday, Walla will not make any promises.
"You're really in a dangerous place if you are trying to make decisions, musical and creative decisions specifically, to please some subset of your fans," he said.
There are no new plans for a Death Cab album just yet, though Walla acknowledged that the new record will "probably be a little bit more accessible than ‘Narrow Stairs' was." For now, Walla fans can listen to his studio mastery on the albums he is currently producing from groups like Tegan and Sara, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and The Thermals.
Kevin Stevens can be reached at kevin.stevens@student.shu.edu.
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