Ben Gibbard has been in Death Cab for Cutie long enough to have a running theory about the used bin. “It’s not a mark of shame,” he says. “Sometimes people just break up with a band. You walk in, see five Wonder Stuff records, and think, ‘What happened here?’” Death Cab, mercifully, hasn’t suffered that fate—ten albums in, no consensus “worst” record, and now Asphalt Meadows, a pandemic-born set written in what Gibbard calls a “songwriting chain letter.”
The concept was simple and merciless: five band members, five days, one song. Each person got 24 hours to add their part, with complete editorial control to delete anything they didn’t like from the day before. “If Zach sends in a piano part with a key change for the chorus, I’m reacting to that instead of my own guitar habits,” Gibbard says. “It’s not about asserting yourself—it’s about reacting.”
Asphalt Meadows opens with a wallop—no gentle reentry after lockdown. “I wanted it to punch you in the face,” Gibbard says of “I Don’t Know How I Survive,” a song about middle-of-the-night panic during a global pandemic. “Sometimes just getting through the night is the achievement.”
Gibbard admits some songs gaze backward (“Rand McNally” as a torch song for former bandmates) but insists he’s writing for the present: “You can’t spend the whole record looking back. But you need perspective to know where you are now.” Longtime fans will catch familiar imagery—maps, asphalt—woven back into the fabric. “Songwriting’s a vocabulary,” he says. “Some words just sing better. ‘Asphalt Meadows’ wouldn’t feel the same if it was ‘Concrete Meadows.’”
And while Asphalt Meadows is the new chapter, 2023 will see Gibbard run an indie rock ultramarathon: performing both Transatlanticism and The Postal Service’s Give Up in full every night. For most frontmen, that might sound like a self-inflicted punishment. For Gibbard, an actual ultrarunner, it’s “just another day.” He points out the math: Transatlanticism is 11 songs, Give Up is 10—roughly the same runtime as a typical Death Cab show. “Endurance is not a problem,” he says. “I’m more concerned with making sure the shows feel like an event, not a nostalgia cash grab.”
To understand why the pairing matters, you have to go back to 2003. “It was without a doubt the most creatively prolific period of my career,” he says. Death Cab was hitting its stride, indie rock was swelling into the mainstream, and a side project with Jimmy Tamborello—meant to be a one-off electronic experiment—suddenly became a generational touchstone. Transatlanticism was the slow-burn epic, sprawling and romantic; Give Up was the jittery, synth-pop counterpoint that somehow sold more than anyone expected without much touring or promotion.
Gibbard compares Give Up’s staying power to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea: part of the reason it’s still discussed in reverent tones is that it never got a follow-up. “Sometimes the best thing you can do for a record is leave it where it is,” he says. “Do you really think, after 20 years, we could make something that would match what you’ve imagined in your head? Technology’s changed. We’ve changed. It wouldn’t be the same—and it would be a disappointment even if we tried.”
The mystique has only grown. “It’s kind of fun to be on the other side of that,” he admits. “Somebody hears that Jimmy and I got coffee and they start thinking, ‘Oh, maybe…’ But no. We tried once. It wasn’t that much fun. Why do it again?”
The decision to have The Postal Service close the night wasn’t about seniority—more about mood. “Give Up is more of a dance record, or at least parts of it are. Ending with Transatlanticism would feel anticlimactic. You want to send people home moving, not slowly swaying with tears in their eyes.”
Until then, there’s plenty to unpack in Asphalt Meadows—from the Slint-indebted “Foxglove” (“How could we not play it in Louisville?”) to songs that make aging and anxiety sound strangely reassuring. “It’s easy to be detached and ironic,” Gibbard says. “It’s a lot harder—and a lot riskier—to be earnest.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
