Ben Gibbard's 2nd Act
I've never met Ben Gibbard. While I had the chance to interview guitarist, Chris Walla, bassist, Nick Harmer, and drummer (at the time), Michael Schorr, in 2002, Ben was under the weather so he didn't participate in the interview. He performed with the band later that night, but he was definitely fighting a cold during the show. Unfortunately, no other opportunities to interview Ben presented themselves, and Ben Gibbard would soon become a legitimate rock star.
The one-two punch of Transatlanticism and The Postal Service's Give Up, launched Gibbard to rock star status in the early aughts, with both "The Sound of Settling" and "Such Great Heights" breaking through to mainstream rock radio. Death Cab for Cutie would become Seth Cohen's favorite band, on The O.C., their major label debut, Plans, would go Platinum. Gibbard would marry indie "it girl" Zoey Deschanel, and Gibbard would cap off an impressive 5 year run by snagging the lead single spot for Death Cab for Cutie on the blockbuster soundtrack for Twilight: New Moon.
Since that 5 year run, things haven't been as rosy for Gibbard. Long time guitarist/producer, Chris Walla left the band, Gibbard's marriage to Deschanel also dissolved. Gibbard admitted that he was suffering from alcoholism, which contributed to his divorce to Deschanel. Death Cab for Cutie was still popular but they were no longer being courted by the likes of the Twilight franchise, and like many other rock bands that started in the 90s/early aughts, Ben started the 2nd act of his career as an influential legacy artist.
In 2016, an up and coming artist named Julien Baker recorded a beautiful cover of the Death Cab for Cutie song, "Photobooth". During the following year, Ben joined Julien to perform the song live, endorsing her cover and her talent. Julien would later team up with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus to become BoyGenius, a band that has won more Grammys (1) than Ben Gibbard has won (0). Ben has also covered Phoebe Bridgers during a series of livestreams that he recorded during the pandemic. I believe Phoebe's reaction was something to the extent of "Tween me is screaming right now!"
In 2017, it was announced that after 3 wildly successful "mixtapes", including his Grammy winning Coloring Book, Chance the Rapper announced his first official album, The Big Day. The first single announced from it was a song called "Do You Remember" featuring Death Cab for Cutie. The song features original vocals from Ben Gibbard, and while the album was critically panned, "Do You Remember" is not part of the album's problem, in fact, it's probably one of the only good songs from this disaster of an album.
In 2020, Gibbard started collaborating with his hometown baseball team, The Seattle Mariners. Since fans weren't allowed to attend games in 2020, The Mariners put together this video of Ben Gibbard covering John Fogerty's "Centerfield" solo with an acoustic guitar inside of the stadium and being introduced via voice over from none other than hall of famer, Ken Griffey Jr. Gibbard would return in 2024 to sing the national anthem on opening day.
In 2022, Ben Gibbard was offered to write the theme song for the Apple TV+ series, Shrinking, which stars Jason Segal and Harrison Ford. While writing a theme song for a TV show is not a sign of being a legacy artist, (See: They Might Be Giants - Malcolm in the Middle) the idea of Ben Gibbard writing something for a project involving Harrison Ford was not on my Ben Gibbard bingo card.
Recently, Gibbard popped up at a Dua Lipa show in Seattle. They sang Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" as a duet. Dua Lipa has been and still is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. She didn't need to pander to the Seattle crowd by bringing out one of their own but she did anyways.
While I understand that "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is the most popular Death Cab for Cutie song, or at least it's the only one that you can pick at a Karaoke spot, I did not expect to see Ben Gibbard singing it with Dua Lipa at her most recent stop in Seattle. I know that Taylor Swift used to bring out Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World to sing "The Middle" at her concerts in Phoenix, but "The Middle" is a better sing along at a pop show than "I Will Follow You Into the Dark". Clearly Dua Lipa doesn't mind.
It's fascinating to see where Ben Gibbard has popped up in this 2nd act of his career so far. He seems to have handled becoming an elder statesman with grace. Even though he's definitely startled to capitalize on his legacy with the Transatlanticism/Give Up 20th Anniversary Tour and the recent Plans 20th Anniversary Tour, he's still putting out new music. Compared to many of his peers, he's been able to stay interesting going into his 3rd decade of being a musician, and honestly, that's kept me following his career up to this point. Even though he seems kind of corny and vanilla, I'm still writing about his career 23 years after I missed the opportunity to speak with him. Maybe that day will finally come.
