Ben Gibbard Discusses His Former Drug Problem

"The elegantly wasted musician is played out and I'm not interested in being that anymore."

Ben recently sat down with Spinner for an interview that centered around his past problems with alcohol. Ben has in no way been shy about his former addictions, but he has rarely been as candid as he is here, railing against the music industry in general as a place where one can easily pass of their substance abuse problem.

And so what is Ben’s secret to keeping sober and fit? He says that a recent affinity for running has been instrumental to his recovery over the past couple years. All I can say is good for you, Ben. I’m sure I can speak for Death Cab fans everywhere when I say that it’s really great to hear that he’s in such a good place in his life. Let’s hope he can make it last.

Read a few choice excerpts below, and check out the whole thing here.

“Alcohol and drugs [are] such a large part of the experience of being a musician. It’s always around and it’s always easy to look at somebody who is more f——ed up than you and be like, ‘Well, I may have a problem but I’m not as bad as that dude,’” he says. “There’s no better industry to pass off your own substance abuse problems on the overindulgence of others. [You can] look at someone who is falling off the stage drunk and say, ‘At least I’m not that f——ed up’…”

“In my own life, the elegantly wasted musician is played out and I’m not interested in being that anymore. I’m not interested in the storyline of the tragic figure anymore. I wish I could help people who can’t get it together but the reality is that you have to wake up one morning and realize, ‘I’m just not going to do this anymore.’ That’s what I did. I certainly don’t think I had as much of a problem as some other some other people do. But in my own way, I did and I woke up and realized I didn’t want to feel this way anymore…”

Read Full Post »

Ben Gibbard’s 10 Favorite Hall & Oates Songs

To commemorate their 15th anniversary, Pitchfork Media has been publishing some pretty cool, surprisingly not-douchey retrospective features all week. Today they re-posted an article from 2003, in which Ben Gibbard reflected on his 10 favorite songs by 80’s hit-makers, Hall & Oates. It’s definitely worth checking out, even if you’re not a fan of dated pop-R&B duos. In the article, Ben says:

I’ve been thinking about my REAL influences lately, and I’ve realized that the question should really go a little further back, a little deeper. Probably back to a time before I knew who Fugazi and Pavement were. For me, that time was the 80s, and it was in the music of Hall & Oates.

Read the whole article here (no “Maneater” Ben? Come on) and watch a classic Hall & Oates video below.

Read Full Post »

Happy 35th Birthday Ben Gibbard!

They grow up so fast

Today, August 11th, is the 35th birthday of Death Cab for Cutie frontman and songwriter, Benjamin Gibbard! No celebrating for Ben though, as DCFC are smack in the middle of a long summer tour which stops tonight in Georgia.

As a nice treat, here’s a video of Ben teaching us how to cook and sharing some of his culinary philosophies. That Zooey Deschanel sure is one lucky gal.

Happy Birthday Ben!!!

Read Full Post »

Watch: Ben Gibbard Talks Mariners with ‘The Score’

Disappointing fans since 1977...

It’s pretty well known that Ben is a pretty huge fan of the Seattle Mariners, but it’s rare we get a glimpse of his baseball fanatic side outside of his Twitter. That’s why this interview with sports blog The Score is so cool. In it, the Death Cab frontman laments about his lifelong passion for a truly horrible baseball team (in case you don’t agree with me, click here).

Watch the whole interview here.

Read Full Post »

Read: 5 Questions With Ben Gibbard

Before Death Cab played last night at Detroit’s Fox Theater, Ben sat down with the Detroit Free Press to answer a few questions (five, to be exact). The interview is short, but actually very interesting. Ben gives us more insight into what happened last week when the stage collapsed at the Ottawa Bluesfest, he says:

Everybody’s fine. We were in the backstage area 20 yards away from the stage when it collapsed. The touch-and-go moment was when the stage collapsed and we asked, “Where the (profanity) is Trevor, where’s Lucas?,” our crew people who might have been on the stage.

Then we saw all our people and (Cheap Trick band member) Robin Zander offstage and they were OK. It was still very terrifying. A couple of people got hurt, but it’s an absolute miracle that no one got killed.

Read the whole interview here.

Read Full Post »

Read Two New Interviews With Ben Gibbard

After the scary incident at the Ottawa Bluesfest last week put a halt to the start of Death Cab’s North American tour, they’re surely eager to finally play their first show in Ohio tonight. In the meantime, Ben Gibbard sat down to talk with UK based online music magazine, Gigwise and Canadian newspaper, National Post.

The Gigwise interview, which you can find here, is worth the read at the very least to make fun of the completely aloof interviewer. This music scholar stupidly asks Ben about the “emo movement,” to which he politely replies “I’m not really the best one to know how it’s changed or evolved because it’s not something I’ve really paid attention to.” Next time try doing more than reading a Wikipedia page before you interview someone.

The National Post interview is a little more heavy, and touches on Ben’s recent sobriety. You can read that one here.

Finally, good luck to the guys tonight in Ohio! I hope this show is free from flash hurricanes and collapsing stages.

Read Full Post »

Ben Gibbard Chats With The Huffington Post

Thankfully, here’s something that’s on a much lighter note than most of the recent news i’ve posted. Earlier today Ben sat down and gave an interview with the folks over at The Huffington Post. In the interview he discusses his personal favorite track off Codes and Keys (btw, what’s your favorite track?), and also advice for up-and-coming bands. Ben spills to us what he told a “new band” that Death Cab are on tour with (presumably Frightened Rabbit) when they came asking him for advice. He says:

“I was like, “Listen. You’re a great songwriter. You’re going to be a great songwriter if you can make your rent playing music. It’s not going to go away because you no longer have to work minimum wage jobs so that you buy guitar strings. It’s not going to go away.” I think that we’ve bought into this myth about the “starving artist” to such an extent that people question their own creativity at times. That’s just kind of unfortunate.”

Well said, Ben. Read the whole thing here.

Read Full Post »