![]() They also utilized the studio’s Hammond organ and a harmonium for the stark, lonely sound on “Fragments From the Decade,” and recruited Seattle string player Abby Gundersen to embellish some special parts. I played a high-strung, Nashville-tuned acoustic that’s basically just all the high strings from a 12-string guitar, but none of the low ones.” Nick used an acoustic bass with rubbery nylon strings that had this weird but beautiful sound, like the upright bass. One early rule was that Jason could not play a drum kit he’d play percussion, whack on metal boxes, cardboard boxes. “We didn’t want MTV Unplugged,” Depper says. However, one thing the quintet did not want to do is simply strip Asphalt Meadows down to its core. “We basically did two or three songs a day and arranged them right then and there. “We challenged ourselves to radically reinterpret the songs as they came,” Depper adds. We could play them as if we were playing them for the first time together.” ![]() They didn’t need much adornment or reinterpretation. To pat ourselves on the back, we were really confident in the songs. We initiated a ‘first-thought, best-thought’ mentality for the arrangements so we could get them to a good place. And then we’d come off of six, seven weeks of touring the album so we knew the songs frontward and backward when we went in to make the acoustic album. “Unlike some records in the past, where we’ve gone into the studio and figured it out once we got there, we came into Asphalt Meadows knowing how to present the majority of the songs in the studio when we recorded them the first time. “We all had faith in the arrangements,” Gibbard says. In addition to variations on the record’s 10 tracks, they also whipped out a bonus take on Low’s “The Plan” in honor of the influential group’s drummer Mimi Parker, who passed away in November following a battle with cancer. Park, known for his work with Pedro the Lion, Joseph and Noah Gundersen, the members of Death Cab arrived with few preconceived notions of what the sessions should sound like, besides a new arrangement for “Roman Candles.” Yet, once the group-which also includes founding bassist Nick Harmer, longtime drummer Jason McGerr and keyboardist/ guitarist Zac Rae, who also signed on in 2016-convened in December 2022, the idea quickly ballooned and the members of Death Cab decided to knock out an acoustic version of their new LP in just four days. ![]() Setting up shop at Seattle’s Avast! Recording Co. But when we started doing promo, we started playing an acoustic version of that song and it really brought out the depth of the songwriting, beneath the production.” People loved it or hated it, but it definitely got them paying attention to the record. “That song was intentionally picked as the most extreme sonic example of what we were doing with the new record to throw people for a loop and get them to pay attention. “The seeds of the album were first planted around when the first single from the record, ‘Roman Candles,’ came out,” Death Cab guitarist/ keyboardist Dave Depper-who joined the group in 2016-adds, while checking in from his home in Portland, Ore. Death Cab recently wrapped up a series of winter dates in support of the John Congleton-produced Asphalt Meadows, which spawned several Adult Alternative Airplay singles and earned the group critical praise, thanks to the tunes’ more experimental tendencies. So to have acoustic versions of these songs helps place the music in some playlists that they would not necessarily qualify for in their original form.”Īs he walks through the unexpected twists that led to Asphalt Meadows (Acoustic), the Seattle-based Gibbard is driving through Tacoma, Wash., to see his friend Steve Fisk, with whom he created an original score for a 2008 film, Kurt Cobain: About a Son. In 2023, the music industry is partially about ‘gaming’ algorithms on streaming platforms. “We were asked by our label to record acoustic versions of some of Asphalt Meadows’ singles. “The project started from a slight position of obligation,” admits frontman Ben Gibbard. But then, what could have easily been a forgotten press exercise turned into much more-a completely rerecorded, acoustic version of Asphalt Meadows that serves as its own entry in the emo-tinged indie-rock group’s already rich catalog. Death Cab for Cutie were gearing up to release Asphalt Meadows, their 10th full-length studio album, and were tasked with reworking some of their highly produced, electric new music for a stripped-down setting. At first, it seemed like any other slightly mundane promo opportunity.
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