No gift articles left<\/p>\n
You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n
Close<\/p>\n
AAA<\/p>\n
Ben Gibbard isn\u2019t famous. At least, that\u2019s what he tells me on a call from his home in Seattle, at the tail end of a weeks-long media circuit, during which he\u2019s hardly had a chance to catch his breath. But even if you haven\u2019t heard of him, there\u2019s a good chance you know Death Cab for Cutie, the band he\u2019s fronted for close to three decades.<\/p>\n
When we speak, Gibbard, who turned 50 in August, has been promoting Death Cab\u2019s much-anticipated 11th album, I Built You a Tower. Releasing a record is tough, but Gibbard isn\u2019t complaining. The positive reception to his latest work has been, he says, a pleasant reminder that the band\u2019s egos have not degraded their taste.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were quietly confident when we were making it [the album] but there\u2019s always that moment where you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my god, did we actually make something good or are we just completely deluding ourselves?\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gibbard, and bass guitarist Nicholas Harmer, are the two remaining original members of Death Cab, which formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997 and became renowned for injecting heartfelt emotion into \u201900s indie rock. I Built You a Tower \u2013 recorded in just three weeks and released in early June \u2013 marked the band\u2019s return to an indie label, ANTI Records, after 20 years with Atlantic Records.<\/p>\n
For the past four years, the band\u2019s back catalogue has been getting a workout \u2013 not just on the playlists of decades-long fans, but on stages at sold-out shows around the world \u2013 as Gibbard celebrated 20 years of Transatlanticism and The Postal Service\u2019s Give Up, the sole album borne out of a side project in which he and producer Jimmy Tamborello collaborated long-distance, mailing each other demos on CD. In 2025, the band also completed a small North American tour revisiting their 2005 Grammy-nominated album Plans.<\/p>\n
![\"Zac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dbf6dd539bbebabc498eaea42f7a0c508025d5dd.jpeg\")
Zac Rae, Nicholas Harmer, Ben Gibbard, Dave Depper and Jason McGerr (left to right) are the current members of Death Cab for Cutie.Shervin Lainez <\/p>\n
While onstage Gibbard was steeped in the nostalgia of his own music, his personal life was collapsing in the background. In 2023, Gibbard and his wife \u2013 photographer Rachel Demy, who he married in 2016 \u2013 separated; the pair\u2019s divorce was finalised in 2024. It was during this period that I Built You a Tower came to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a record about the compartmentalisation of grief, how we compartmentalise grief to get through our days,\u201d says Gibbard. \u201cIn the story of my actual life, the precipitous moment was a divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gibbard says that, with this album, he didn\u2019t want to write a book report about the dissolution of a marriage. \u201cIt\u2019s not a blow-by-blow account, it\u2019s not a tell-all \u2013 it\u2019s an investigation of the internal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The divorce was Gibbard\u2019s second. In 2015, following his split from New Girl actor and musician Zooey Deschanel, Death Cab released Kintsugi, an album well-known to be about their breakup.<\/p>\n
Compared to I Built You a Tower, Kintsugi was scathing. The album\u2019s opening track, No Room In Frame, is thought to be about the couple\u2019s move to Los Angeles and Deschanel\u2019s rising television success. Gibbard doesn\u2019t mince words in the song\u2019s chorus, asking: \u201cWas I in your way? When the cameras turned to face you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t change anything about that record \u2013 it was the record I felt I needed to write at the time,\u201d says Gibbard. \u201cWhen I was younger, I\u2019d write songs that had a lot of finger-pointing or bitterness or anger. And I\u2019m just not interested in writing from that place any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the new album\u2019s title track, Gibbard describes building a metaphorical tower in his mind, to keep someone locked away out of his thoughts, only for it to spectacularly fail. On Pep Talk, he describes waking up at sunrise, needing to convince himself he can survive the day ahead.<\/p>\n
What else has the man known for writing about lost loves learnt about relationships following his second divorce? \u201cPeople make mistakes. People hurt each other. But at the end of the day, this relationship was eight great years and two kind of bad ones,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think I would change anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/82c4b28e30a5c09bfe12462aa44ee97ede20701a.jpeg\")
The band\u2019s new album I Built You a Tower is \u201can investigation of the internal\u201d, says Gibbard.Ryan Russell<\/p>\n
I Built You a Tower has earned critical raves. Pitchfork said the album showcases Gibbard\u2019s \u201cbest musical impulses in a decade\u201d and suggested it \u201cevokes the band\u2019s golden era\u201d, rare acclaim for any band entering their third decade.<\/p>\n