Death Cab Join the Dark Side With New Album

(andPOP) - Death Cab for Cutie's bassist doesn't hesitate when asked about the race to the White House.

"We're Obama fans through and through," says Nick Harmer. "We try to pay attention to American politics right now."

And they will continue to follow the McCain vs. Obama battle despite being on a tour that will take them across North America, Europe and Australia this summer.

The 33-year-old Harmer along with Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla and Jason McGerr make up Death Cab for Cutie, a staple in every college student's music collection. The band, which began as a solo project by Gibbard in 1997, released their sixth studio album, Narrow Stairs, on May 13. It's the band's first album to make it to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and it debuted at the top spot in both the U.S. and Canada.

After enjoying the huge success of their last album, Plans, which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album, the band is looking to take their music in a different direction.

"It'd be really easy for us to remake Plans," says Harmer. "We wanted to keep things fresh. There's a tendency for artists in other fields, if they have some level of success, to try and repeat that. I think it's more interesting and more satisfying to break from what we've done and look for other ways to express ourselves musically as a band."

The new direction Death Cab took with their latest album one that is darker. Rolling Stone called Narrow Stairs "a dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group's bright melancholy for something nearer to despair." The band's new sound, sonically and lyrically, is made clear with their first single "I Will Possess Your Heart," which is 8 minutes in length (the radio version was cut to four minutes) and features a repetitive, driving bass line courtesy of Harmer.

"All of us were really drawn to the idea of this dark, obsessive, creepy stalker quality," says Harmer. "The song isn't about a stalker but I think everyone at a certain point, if you have a really [intense] love with someone, some of the thought patterns and behaviours you go through, boys and girls, some qualities can get a bit obsessive."

The album's title also helps to set the tone for Death Cab's latest.

"We were drawn to the symbolic nature of narrow stairs. As you move through life, there are points when things are very easy going and the path is wide and there are times where you have to walk your footsteps a little bit closer because things are little more precarious," says Harmer. "It's also a play on words. For someone who is critical of you or always watching you or judging you, they're giving you a narrow stare out of their eyes."

Death Cab is no stranger to criticism. The band has endured flack from some fans for switching from an independent record label to a major, Atlantic Records, in 2004. However, the band has maintained a close relationship with fans by never becoming manufactured in their sound and they detail their lives in online journal entries. One blog post by Harmer details his trip to a post-Katrina New Orleans.

Harmer stumbles over his words when the subject comes up before being able to speak.

"I don't even know where to start," he says. "It highlights a lot of the problems that I find with the leadership of our country currently. I can live in the supposed most wealthy and prominent country in the world and go to a city like New Orleans and think why is it like this here? It shouldn't be like that. In all the sadness and pain, there's all this banding together and people trying to rebuild their lives there. It's inspiring."

And some of the haunting tones heard on the album were influenced by Harmer's experience in New Orleans.

"I think that in some indirect way, it did [make an impact on the music]. One of things we tried to do after Plans was to all go off into our own worlds and explore, think, read, see and experience," Harmer says. "All of that stuff absorbs into you and it affects you on a deeper level."

Death Cab for Cutie recently played at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, an open air amphitheatre surrounded by Colorado boulders, which has seen the likes of Grateful Dead, U2 and Dave Matthews Band grace its stage. "It was a really cool benchmark in touring to be able to play Red Rocks and have a good show," says Harmer. "It's a phenomenal validation in some way."

The band has been on tour since April in promotion of their new record and will be touring all summer long, ending in Australia on August 22. Their next Canadian stop will be at the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia on July 27.