Touching a Tender Place

An Interview with Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla

by Sarah Hammill

There are few taboos in rock ’n’ roll.
It is, of course, a movement based on the power to do and say
whatever the fuck you want, yet there are some tender topics out
there. I touched on one inadvertently during my interview with one
of the members of the wildly popular, melancholic alternative rock
band Death Cab for Cutie.

I had originally emailed Death Cab’s publicist in October,
requesting an interview with band frontman Ben Gibbard in order to
preview the band’s December 6 show at the Arlington Theatre. I’m a
huge fan of Death Cab, and the band comes as a musical highlight in
the city’s post-summer off-season when the Bowl is out of
commission. I waited patiently for the publicist to arrange an
interview. Weeks wore on and deadlines loomed before she came
through with an early morning phone interview with one hitch:
Gibbard couldn’t do it, so Death Cab guitarist, organist, and
producer Chris Walla would be stepping in. As a diehard music lover
and equally devoted Death Cab fan, my head told me to seize the
chance to speak with Walla and hear from an oft overlooked
behind-the-frontman perspective. But — I’d be lying if I didn’t
admit it — my heart said an interview with Walla just wasn’t the
same, and the view I wanted into the soul of the band could only
come from its lead singer.