Ben Gibbard Turns To Kerouac As Inspiration For New Death Cab for Cutie Album

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard is following in Jack Kerouac's footsteps in search of inspiration for his band's next record. But fans expecting a rollicking ode to debauched living will be disappointed: It's not the beat poet's classic tale of youth and abandon On the Road that's on Gibbard's mind -- he's digging Kerouac's dark exploration of the perils of addiction and arrested development, Big Sur. "I don't want to be overdramatic about it, but I'm starting to see a lot of my bad habits get the best of me," Gibbard told the San Francisco Weekly. "Living this life in the same sorta way that Kerouac lived ... you get to hang out at shows and drink and you're able to not really face reality and adulthood the way most of my friends are."

Gibbard worked with Kerouac's nephew on a documentary about Big Sur that also includes contributions from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Tom Waits and Jay Farrar. Then the singer-guitarist found himself planning a two-week songwriting retreat at the Big Sur cabin where Kerouac wrote the 1962 novel; he plans to hole up and sort through ideas for the next Death Cab record there.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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