I've been a Death Cab fan since my first listen to Tranatlanticism in '03. Great poetry with a band like this - and for me, that's saying something. I'm an instrumental guy (my brain focuses on the instrumentation WAY BEFORE it ever hears a word or phrase). And this is a bit weird, because I love writing...Nonetheless, with Death Cab, I immediately heard the lyrics.
So Ben Gibbard is the frontman of the band. He's the primary songwriter and I read a couple articles in PASTE magazine this past week interviewing him. Interesting to discover his passion for Kerouac and nature, but as I continued reading, the article saddened me more and more. He talks about what inspires him to write in length. He talks about early criticisms of the band. He talks about their success in spite of the internet wave. And the entire time you can just tell it in his voice that he's not satisfied, not happy, not content in life.
He admits he should be...he does what he loves for a living. Then he says the cause of his "unforseen" misery. Ben says, "I would rather make great records than make great relationships."
That's it. He will sacrifice all else for this art that kills him bit by bit. And he wonders why he's not content...at the end of the day he has masterfully crafted notes and poetry mass duplicated on small plastic discs covered with a picture on one side, set inside another piece of plastic, and eventually wrapped in so much plastic it leave the 'openee' complaining that "you can never open these damn things!"
Anyway, a life spent in community is a life. A life spent alone is wandering, searching, discontentment, and half lived. Its empty.
I believe we were created for community. We were created for community because when we live lives together we sharpen, we love, we cry, we do the mundane together.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
-Ross
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