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A different Empire

Music Features

Happy accidents

You’ve had time to adjust to each new level of success.
We’ve been fortunate in that we’ve been as comfortable as a band can be in making the kind of decisions we’ve had to make, from the “Should we go on this tour and maybe make $50 a day even if I have to quit my job?” all the way to signing a major-label deal. And going through all the phases of taking time off from work to go on tour and then eventually getting that first big royalty check that allows you to quit your job to the point where we are now, I think it’s allowed us to be responsible not only in our personal finances but also in how we go about doing the ugly part of the job, which is the business of being a band.

In a way you’re lucky that your closest brush with sudden pop stardom came with the Postal Service and not with Death Cab.
I know exactly what you mean. That record has probably fallen into the hands of a lot of people who don’t know anything about indie rock. And that’s fine for me. I think one of the most ridiculous questions I ever get asked is, “Were you surprised by the success of the Postal Service?” I mean, abso-fucking-lutely. There’s no way that anyone could have ever predicted that. And Jimmy and I are slowly working on new stuff. It’s a slow, slow process. We know there’s no way to live up to that first record. It’s been too long and, well, it’s not a matter of not being able to make a good record. I’m convinced we’ll make a great Postal Service record. But I don’t expect it to repeat the success of the first one.

That hasn’t been a problem with Death Cab until now. Do you find that there are a lot of fans who just want to hear Transatlanticism?
Well, it’s my theory that whatever anybody’s first exposure to a band or an artist is, that will always be the best thing that the band or the artist does in the mind of that person. I mean, most people came across this band with Transatlanticism, and for probably a couple hundred thousand people that album will always be the best album we ever made. But for another set of fans, it was the second album, and for another set of fans it was the first album. So I just take that in stride. I mean, not every record can be the best record that you’ve ever made, and not every record can be everybody’s favorite. The thing that I like about this band is that because it’s grown at the gradual rate that it has, people have had five periods of its existence to get into it and figure out what they like about it.

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