Gentle Brashness: Death Cab for Cutie

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE'S new album, "Narrow Stairs," debuted as Billboard's No. 1, an honor the effort fully deserved: There's not a weak song on the record, which is full of the group' melodic pop beauty, lyrical skill, winning experimentation and stylistic and emotional shifts.

And since Death Cab for Cutie now releases its CDs via Atlantic Records, it renders the tag "indie rock" obsolete in a literal if not stylistic sense. Music journalists ought to come up with a more apt genre description for the gentle band with the grisly name because "smart pop," "college rock" and "the prettiest brainy band since Simon and Garfunkel" all seem inadequate. (The comments section is open. First prize for the winning entry: your own Wikipedia page for coining a new genre. Immortality has never been so easy.)

Express spoke with Death Cab for Cutie's bassist, Nick Harmer, about his role in the 11-year-old band — which also includes singer Ben Gibbard, guitarist and producer Chris Walla and drummer Jason McGerr — as well as "Narrow Stairs" and recycling. (No, really: recycling.)

Death Cab headlines at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Monday.

» EXPRESS: This new record has been called a curveball. Do you see it that way?
» HARMER: I don't necessarily think it's much of a curveball. It might be for people who were only were familiar with our last album ["Plans"]. For fans of our band who have been listening from the early records and have heard our evolution over time, I think they'll recognize a lot of the musical themes and ideas. They might appreciate the newer takes and spins on them. I hope they do. I hope they see how we pushed and stretched in some areas. Maybe I'd call it a knuckleball [laughs]. It has a different hang to it. I think that makes more sense than describing it as a curveball.

» EXPRESS: Is the difference between this and the last record just that "Plans" was much quieter and more spare?
» HARMER: That's one difference. There's a multitude of differences, but that's one, for sure. Some of that is due to the material, some the differences are in our approach to recording. Overall, while "Plans" is more of a quiet, introspective, intimate affair, "Narrow Stairs" is a little more outspoken and maybe even brash at times.

» EXPRESS: My favorite song on the new record is "Cath..." Is it about an ex of Ben's who gets married?
» HARMER: It isn't necessarily. I think it's sort of a fictitious story about someone getting married who maybe shouldn't be — who's in a relationship that's not necessarily a very healthy one and they sort of give up, for various reasons, instead of hanging on for the right one. But I really don't know. Most of Ben's songs are fictionally based, but they do come from some connection that he has to a person or an event or something that he's heard about or seen — something like that. It's always one foot in reality, one foot that he takes some fictional liberty with — and ultimately makes a fictional narrative. Beyond that, I can't really comment on where the songs are coming from exactly. But I think Ben is a very open and receptive person and he's always listening and watching what's going on around him and letting those things absorb in — and those are the things and the topics that he chooses to write about.

» EXPRESS: It seems to me that Ben brings in pretty fully realized ideas for your songs and the rest of the band flushes them out, but is there a song that you played a greater part in writing?
» HARMER: I think that I have a little bit of a hand in most of the songs on this album. I feel like on "I Will Posses Your Heart" I had a bigger part than most, because the song hangs on bass line that I ended up writing. I think that's a pretty strong backbone for that song. I add my two cents when needed, when I feel I've got a good idea, but, for the most part, it's Ben and Chris' show, for sure. I play more of a support role.

» EXPRESS: So, is Death Cab a democracy?
» HARMER: Yeah, I'd say it's a democracy — definitely. Like I said, for the most part, Ben and Chris run the country and the Jason and I are the checks and balances. But it's a democracy at its heart.

» EXPRESS: They're the executive branch and you're the Supreme Court?
» HARMER: Yeah, exactly — that's a good way of looking at it.

» EXPRESS: "Soul Meets Body" is a remarkably beautiful song. Was it fully realized when Ben brought it to the rest of the band? And did your jaws drop when you heard it?
» HARMER: Yeah, Ben brought in the demo and we right away knew that it was going to be a single and were really excited about it — right away. It didn't need much changing. For the most part, it sounds like it did when he first played us the demo for it.

» EXPRESS: Obviously Ben is a very strong lyricist. What are your favorite lyrics on the new album?
» HARMER: I really like the lyrics to "Grapevine Fires." I really connect to the imagery of the young child playing in the cemetery and not really understanding the significance of a cemetery and having a fun time frolicking amongst all the tombstones. And all around this little happy moment there's this looming sense of despair and destruction approaching. I feel it's such an appropriate metaphor for our time. There's such a feeling I get when I read the news — a feeling of looming darkness around us all the time. Even though it's a very dark time, we find the time to play and try to experience some level of innocence. ... There's an overall sadness. Hopefully our government will turn itself around.

» EXPRESS: I was going to wait to ask you about this, but it applies to what we're talking about. I know that you worked for the city of Tacoma, Washington's recycling program, picking up recyclables and composting. I was happy to read about what you did, because you often hear "recyclables just end up in the trash anyway" and I'd never met anyone who actually worked in a recycling plant.
» HARMER: Yeah, yeah. I did — and I'm telling you, man, we didn't throw anything away. It was recycled all down the line and it saved the city a lot of money and saved a lot of space in the landfill.

» EXPRESS: That's awesome that a city would do composting, too. I'd never heard of that before.
» HARMER: Yeah, they do it in Seattle and in Tacoma they've done it for a while.

» EXPRESS: Do you have any particular tips for people who are interested in recycling?
» HARMER: There are right and wrong ways to recycling in the sense that you have to do a little bit of work — flatten your boxes, make sure that the metal lids are off of your glass jars, stuff like that. But I'd rather say that there is no wrong way to recycle, that if you have any interest in it at all, it's better to do something than nothing. And it's better to take something to the curb than to keep throwing everything into one big bin in your house. I'm constantly surprised at how much of my trash in a given week is actually recyclable. I think most people would realize that most of the things they throw away are recyclable, like boxes, plastic, junk mail, printer paper. It's pretty illuminating, actually, when you get into it. And when you start realizing that, as a consumer in the grocery store buying stuff, it makes you more package-conscious about things that are recyclable. And that's another helpful step once you get past the initial phase of [recycling].

» Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia; with Rogue Wave, Mon., 6 p.m., $25-$40; 410-715-5550.

Written by Express contributor Tim Follos

Top photo by Autumn de Wilde; second photo courtesy Atlantic Records