How Death Cab for Cutie’s First Album in 4 Years“ ”Helped Ben Gibbard Process Grief and Find Acceptance (Exclusive)

Ilana KaplanMon, June 8, 2026 at 2:44 PM UTC

0

Death Cab for CutieCredit: Ryan Russell -

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard opens up about the grief and loss that inspired the band's new album I Built You a Tower

"The hope is that I'm writing from a position of elevated emotional intelligence and experience both as a human being and as a songwriter," the frontman tells PEOPLE

I Built You a Tower is out now

After nearly 30 years and 10 albums, Death Cab for Cutie found itself at a crossroads. The band had been signed to Atlantic Records since 2004 and had been poised to make one more under longtime chairman and chief operating officer Julie Greenwald, who had been there throughout their tenure.

"We were like, 'Well, sign for one more record as long as Julie's there," Gibbard, 49, recalls, lounging with guitarist and keyboardist Dave Depper on a rust-colored chaise in the lobby of the Bowery Hotel. Within a week, Greenwald was out, and the band saw a "Succession"-like scenario taking place as Elliot Grainge took over the label. "I don't care if it sounds mean. I took one look at this f—ing guy, and I was like, "This isn't the guy,'" he recalled. But luck was on their side: Greenwald saved the day and helped the band exit their record deal.

While being on a major label was largely a fruitful experience for them, Death Cab recognized that times had changed. "Major labels are not where they were in 2004, and there's no point in signing a major label," said Gibbard. So they were thrilled when indie label Anti- came into the picture.

Death Cab for CutieCredit: Shervin Lainez

Their first album in two decades, I Built You a Tower, in some ways brought them back to their beginnings as independent artists. Yet the 11-track album showcases the craftsmanship that stems from decades of collaboration, lineup changes and experimentation.

The title of the album is somewhat of a red herring. While it inherently evokes the image of a romantic gesture, it was instead inspired by Gibbard ruminating on how we compartmentalize moments in our lives.

"I started to have this vision of my life as a skyline and that all these buildings on the skyline exist in different varying levels of size in relation to the significance of those moments in my life, and the memories of that time where those people exist in those buildings," he recalls. "You can go and interface with them when you want [but] you have to enter that space to do it because if those edifices didn't exist, you would just be overwhelmed with memories and the past and joy and pain and everything. It would just feel like this cascade of emotional triggers all the time."

The making of I Built You a Tower began in early 2023, but most of the songs that ended up on the record were written the following two years. However, during that time, Gibbard found he was spending a lot of time with his "26-year-old self" doing anniversary tours for Transatlanticism and The Postal Service's Give Up — and, more recently, Plans. "It's this time machine like the phone booth in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," Gibbard laughs. "I'm just zipping around different times in my life."

For Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism was a "watershed record." "It was the first [album] that a lot of people heard from us," he recalls. "When Plans came out, I just remember so much vitriol for that record from a lot of people who loved Transatlanticism."

As a music fan, Gibbard genuinely gets it — he recalls how betrayed he felt by Jawbreaker releasing Dear You after his favorite record, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy. "I just had this experience of feeling betrayed. Newsflash, 10 years later, I'm like, "Dear You is the greatest record," he laughs.

But Gibbard appreciates how fans have reassessed Plans similarly years later. "I just think it's really funny how time works, how time softens the hot takes of the moment. And some records, later they become classics, and other records that people love," he smiles.

Existing in Death Cab's past made him return to the band before it became more "digital," particularly the band's first three records, which used to start with Gibbard's drum parts. For I Built You a Tower, there was comfort for Gibbard in starting with those drum riffs but elevating the sound in a way that reflects years of growth.

"The hope is that I'm writing from a position of elevated emotional intelligence and experience both as a human being and as a songwriter," he says. "So even if I wanted to recreate those old songs, I wouldn't be able to do it."

And there is an emotional heft to I Built You a Tower, which moves through grief, loss, heartbreak, healing and acceptance. During the making of the record, Gibbard was going through a massive personal shift. He and his wife, Rachel Demy, whom he married in 2016, separated and divorced between 2023 and 2025. "This is a reflection of a time in my life that is now three years in my rearview," he says. "When you go through these painful moments, you're going to be dealing with it in some form or fashion for the rest of your life because that's just how pain works."

As his reality shifted and he began writing for the album, Gibbard found inspiration and catharsis in Italian new wave realism, specifically the Michelangelo Antonioni film La Notte, which chronicles the end of an arc of a marriage. "The conclusion is just so fucking devastating. And the way it presents itself, it's just like Antonioni just throws up one of those Italian fin at the end, like F-I-N, the movie's done, and you're like, 'F---ing hell,'" he exclaims. Over the past three years, he's seen it 10 times. "I kept coming back to it and wanting to see it again," he says. "It's beautiful."

I Built You a Tower really tackles an array of grief and pain — and how we face it after we're challenged.

Over rowdy guitars, Gibbard uses a story of a toddler punching flowers for a metaphor about being confined by the known on the fatalist "Punching the Flowers." It always seemed he was punching the flowers / Taking for granted the sweetness til it soured," he sings on the song.

Advertisement

Gibbard doesn't shy away from grappling with mental health on the record.

On the deceivingly sunny "Pep Talk," Gibbard tackles the arresting feeling of intrusive thoughts. The sentiment, he says, is similar to what John Lennon was referring to in "Help!" "You have to wonder sometimes if there's a level of disillusionment as [John] moved later in the career of the Beatles is that no one was listening to him. He was literally telling…this was obviously overwhelming, and people just didn't listen," says Gibbard.

Growing up with military fathers, he and bandmate Nick Harmer, admittedly, were conditioned to "suck up" their feelings. He's not sure how much of it has to do with that or being a part of Gen X. "I think it's awesome that young people are starting to have those conversations," says Gibbard.

The propulsive, almost jarring, "How Heavenly a State" reflects on dreams Gibbard has had about a close friend who died by suicide years ago. "This person [who is] entering my subconscious feels as if it's indicative of an existence of some cosmic plane, some spiritual plane that this person is trying to tell me something," he says, tears welling in his eyes. It's a song Gibbard struggles to discuss.

On the poignant "Stone Over Water," Gibbard admits he's "trying to hold it together" before "Riptides" reveals that he can no longer do it. On the latter, he also references a lyric from his 2015 track "You've Haunted Me All My Life:" "There's a flaw in my heart's design."

"I've always been looking for opportunities for callbacks because I feel like this body of work that I've amassed over my career is like each album is a chapter in this larger story," says Gibbard. He liked the idea of building off the lyric for "Riptides" with "There's a fatal flaw in my heart's design." "It is no longer something that's sort of f—ed up. It's like, no, this is a defeat device built into it and almost upping the ante, raising the stakes, so to speak, of that metaphor now 10 years later," he explains.

Gibbard ultimately found healing in talk therapy, movement therapy, spending time in the mountains and in ultra running. Of course, also, having an outlet as a writer helped him through the process. "I'm able to write about it, hopefully, eloquently, effectively and relatably while being very transparent and honest but not laying anybody else's bulls— out there. It wasn't my desire to use this as a score-settling opportunity," says Gibbard, who is protective of the privacy of his ex.

Depper also notes that as a listener, a "vindictive approach" is unsatisfying. "It's much more compelling to hear your internal experience, and for the listener to empathize with those feelings too, because anger fades," he says.

Death Cab for CutieCredit: Shervin Lainez

In hindsight, Gibbard admits he could have approached things differently as he reflects on his split from Zooey Deschanel, whom he was married to from 2009 to 2012. "It's like when you have a publicist crafting a message of, 'It's an amicable split.' F--- that s---. I was like, "I have to f---ing say what I got to say.'"

But Gibbard has since grown as a person and done a lot of internal work. He's hopeful, but has also reached a place of radical acceptance.

"I still very much believe in love. I believe in marriage, I believe in all these things, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. You can either choose to feel embittered by that and feel as if you've been cheated of something or that you have failed at something, or you can just accept that this is how life works sometimes," he says.

"It's almost like someone once said, 'The way to make God laugh is to make a plan,'" Depper teases.

Instead, Gibbard has chosen to embrace uncertainty.

"Sometimes [life] doesn't work out the way you think it's going to work out," says Gibbard, "and how you react to loss or failure is a moment of real personal growth."

I Built You a Tower is out now.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”