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I caught up with Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and producer Chris Walla the other day while he was in New York City. We spoke about his new solo album, Field Manual; a bit about the upcoming Death Cab album, Narrow Stairs, which arrives in the spring; and about why Houston is such a weird city to play a show.
What did you take away the most from doing this solo album?
I think it was really good for me to work with a different producer. I've never sung behind a microphone before for anyone. Like, if I'm singing, I'm singing for something I'm producing or I'm singing for myself. I guess I've done it like one other time, but it was just harmonies—I sang a little bit on [the Decemberists'] The Crane Wife. Like in the super rock part of "The Island," there's some way-up-there, kinda-like-Queensryche harmonies, and the band was way into it but it's waaay at the top of my range. But that's the only other time I've had much feedback from anyone else. And it's like, in a situation like that, I'm not delivering the story. I'm not selling it. It's my job description in that situation to match the guy who's selling it. So getting to a point where I'm singing and having to sell whatever story is happening and really just getting that across, and getting the tone and mood of the thing right, was really fascinating for me.
Sounds like the whole process was a lot more educational than maybe you thought it would be going into it....
Yeah, and as a "record producer type," I figured out during that process that I do some shit to singers that is really annoying. And I'm not doing it anymore. I learned so much just about ... [producer] Warne [Livesey] was really nice to record with, but he did one thing repeatedly that I do a lot.
What's that?
Well, there's a particular kind of commentary.... I try to keep it positive, like, "Cool, that's totally working, let's do it again, let's do another one ..., " and if there's the slightest bit of insecurity on the singer's part about anything, there's a particular way you can phrase that that's not confidence inspiring! And when I push the talkback button and I say "It's workin'," it has to be workin' and I hafta sell that so they can sell the song to me. It's all just tone and delivery kinda thing, and it's also a matter of ... the one other thing that Warne did off and on, he really sat way back for the most part with feedback, but there were a couple of situations where he would give me specific feedback about a line, or if something was coming back consistently flat or like something like that, which was really helpful, and then there were a couple of times where I didn't need to hear that right at that moment in time! And like, the whole mind-reader aspect of being a record producer really came to the front of my brain, like particularly with singing, it's such a mindfuck, it's such a weird thing.
It seems like such a thin line to dance along, when you're trying to get the best out of somebody.
Right—everybody has an ego to some degree. I the record producer do, I the singer do, you the singer do, you the drummer do. And with singers and drummers, it's way, way more touchy than with anything else because they're up against physical limitations. It's not like that so much with a bass player, guitar player, or keyboard player. It's way more brain and way less body and if ... as long as the musician isn't freaked out ... but with singers you can run a singer into the ground , and you can get to about take six with a drummer and it's over and you don't get anything else until after lunch, or maybe tomorrow. If you don't get it when it's happening, and you're not inspiring confidence all the way through the process, then maybe you don't get what you're after, and I'm like, I dunno.... I learned a lot from Warne just about energy and flow and when to keep things moving and when to shut things down.
Here's a bit from a Field Manual review I found online: "His solo debut is all about finding the right mood, feel and studio angle for his spacious indie pop—and doing it in a way that avoids sounding like a producer using every trick in his arsenal to polish up his shaky songs."
Wow, I really hope that's true; that's really excellent for me to hear, actually. I dunno, I just wanted to write good songs and I really wanted that to be ... I don't think it's any mystery that I can produce a particular brand of mid-fi indie-rock record, like, really well, like I can do that until the edge of time, I don't have anything to prove in that department [laughs]. I love performances more than sounds, and I love it being right more than a lot of other things. I wanted that for my songs because the songs are the showcase piece, and as a producer, that's what I value. If a song needs a particular thing, like if it needs me to build the house that the song lives in, then I'll totally do it, and that's fun, construction-project kinda shit, and I love doing it. But if there's a simple arrangement and a simple sort of presentation that makes the thing real, that makes the thing come alive, then that's what I wanna do.
