If one of the most pronounced cultural trends of the 2000s was the absorption of indie rock music into the mainstream, then nowhere is the transition more pronounced than in the presence of Death Cab For Cutie.

From their beginnings as a classic indie band, they’re now owners of the lead single for the soundtrack to New Moon, the second movie in the all-conquering cultural phenomenon that is the Twilight series.

For drummer Jason McGerr, the group’s steady progress from a cultish act to a group capable of packing theatres and shifting a million copies of breakthrough record Plans is symptomatic of genre borders being redrawn, and indie rock getting its time in the sun in a cyclical industry.

“Indie rock used to mean you did everything independently,” he explains. “You made your own T-shirts, you put out your own records, painted your own guitar. Indie rock is not as independent as it used to be, but the label stays the same.”

While seemingly tailor-made for the blockbuster, Meet Me On The Equinox was in fact written before the band were approached to contribute a new song to the soundtrack. Realising that Equinox, then a very rough demo, “seemed to have a real similar theme to the movie and the series and specifically where Twilight left off”, the band set about reworking the song to push for its inclusion on the soundtrack.

“We went into the studio for three days and specifically tailored the song, in terms of production, and tempo and overall feel and mood and colour to make it work for the film,” he says. Within days, they were informed the song would not only be on the soundtrack, but be the lead track. Avowed fans of the first film, the group were then whisked to Vancouver to shoot a video, a process that was both new and exciting to the enthusiastic McGerr.

The song is nestled alongside Death Cab For Cutie favourites Grizzly Bear (who team up with Beach House’s Victoria Legrand), Bon Iver and Thom Yorke on the soundtrack, giving the collection a distinctly alt-rock feel. McGerr sees the company they’re keeping as an honour (“I would share a soundtrack with those guys any day”) and an exciting diversion from the process of writing for their next record. It’s also a possible signpost to future directions for the band.

With singer Ben Gibbard having already drifted towards soundtrack work, McGerr believes it’s “probably just a matter of time” before they commit to writing a full soundtrack as a band. Despite their busy schedules, with Chris Walla’s production work and Gibbard’s other recording projects, it is something that holds great appeal for the group.

First appearing on a Death Cab for Cutie record back in 2003,when their classic Transatlanticism LP won hearts and minds, McGerr rates the shuffle on Grapevine Fires as his favourite musical moment with the group.

But the opening track to Transatlanticism, The New Year, also holds a special place: “That was a good one, absolutely, because that was the very first song on the record when I joined the band…As a statement as a musician, and as a band, to start out a record like that was kind of like saying: ‘Hey everybody, this is the new Death Cab. Check it out’. It was a pretty exciting thing for the band at that time And every time we play, it’s so fresh, I never get bored of it.”

While still vital as ever, the band are now very much elder statesmen of the scene. McGerr is keen to play a mentoring role to the next generation of artists, particularly those in the Seattle area. Returning to teaching drumming in rare moments of downtime, McGerr has also leant a guiding hand to teen sensations Smoosh. “I think when you’ve been given a gift, you should give something back,” he says.

“People always took the time to sit down with me. I’ll never forget the first time I went out to lunch with Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam…The fact that that man, as busy as he is, took time to sit down with a kid, was amazing.”

So what advice did Gossard give his fellow Seattleite? “I’ll always remember he said, ‘You know what? There’s no formula. You’ve just got to communicate, communicate, communicate.’” The venues may have got bigger and the scrutiny more intense, but all these years later, Death Cab for Cutie are doing just that.

The New Moon soundtrack is out today, featuring songs from Death Cab For Cutie, Muse, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Lykke Li and many more.

quote:

Originally posted by Crookedrain:
While seemingly tailor-made for the blockbuster, Meet Me On The Equinox was in fact written before the band were approached to contribute a new song to the soundtrack. Realising that Equinox, then a very rough demo, “seemed to have a real similar theme to the movie and the series and specifically where Twilight left off”, the band set about reworking the song to push for its inclusion on the soundtrack.

So that garbage was already being written before the soundtrack. Great. Can't wait for the next album.

quote:

So that garbage was already being written before the soundtrack. Great. Can't wait for the next album.

I remember intimating that they could just have reworked an old song or one that was in early stage production.

I smugly draw everyone's attention to my previous topis - Bad News Alert.

And how does that information change anything??? Because the logic here is that anything tailor-made for Twilight is automatically rubbish so it couldn't have been written before?

I don't follow you here Kasper. Are you referring to my post or the one containing the transcript of the interview?

Actually, having listened to the song quite a bit, it's definitely a grower. Some of the other stuff on the soundtrack is quite good.

And thinking about it, I recall the soundtracks to Shrek 1 and 2 being especially good also.

Well of course if you choose to see it as "it was an old throwaway song we polished up" i get where you're coming from... didn't think of it that way.

As far as my "Bad News Alert" topic was concerned, I was merely playing on the fears of some people who were expressing concerns that the song represented the current direction. And in fact I was intimating that the song could have been written, or part written, at any time in the past so could be equally representative or unrepresentative.

Would be interesting to find out when the song first took shape, with a view to finding out if it is pre or post Narrow Stairs. I mean, Ben recently stated in an interview that the idea of slot machines being robot amputees had been around in his head for years, but he didn't actually give the idea any form until Little Bribes appeared.

I have to say, that whatever your feelings about the song, it has certainly generated alot of discussion.

As it turns out, the song could have been no more than the DCFC response to "Shit!. We have to offer a song for recording and inclusion on a movie soundtrack. And we really want to do it, so what have we got that's already started?"

Either way, nobody's gonna know whether it represents any change in direction until we have new material to compare it to.

Personally, I don't think it will.

I think the music resembles Plans the most. It's a bit monotonous, not as melodic as Narrow Stairs or The Photo Album, and too loud to be Transatlanticism. But the lyrics are definitely Narrow Stairs-ish.

quote:

Originally posted by na1577:
I think the music resembles Plans the most. It's a bit monotonous, not as melodic as Narrow Stairs or The Photo Album, and too loud to be Transatlanticism. But the lyrics are definitely Narrow Stairs-ish.

Funny you should say that. I also got a Plans feel from the song but didn't want to appear blasphemous.

I agree. "Plans'y" sound without the heart and the indescribable warmth and with a lazied-down arrangement/production.

In one Kasper.