Inside Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service’s anniversary tour: “It’s been more informative than nostalgic”

nme.com:

Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard has spoken to NME about the joint 20th anniversary celebrations for ‘Transatlanticism’ and ‘Give Up’ – which hit UK shores this week – as well as the future of both bands.Playing both seminal albums in full across back-to-back sets, Death Cab and The Postal Service will headline London’s All Points East Festival on Sunday (August 25), alongside dates in Cardiff, Glasgow and mainland Europe.

After extensive celebrations across the US, these gigs will mark the conclusion of the highly-anticipated anniversary tour, and the second reunion of The Postal Service, who haven’t released any music since 2003’s ‘Give Up.’“Once we got going, it was like riding a bike”, exclaimed Gibbard, who told NME how old Postal Service keyboard sounds had to be rebuilt from scratch. “Death Cab being an active band, all that material from ‘Transatlanticism’ has been peppered through our sets for 20 years, but getting the Postal Service machine up and running took a fair amount of work in the front end.”“I’ve never really had a gauge on what ‘Give Up’ and ‘Transatlanticism’ mean to the greater public, specifically in the UK”, he explained, with All Points East set to mark either band’s biggest ever UK show.“In 2003, you guys [were] freaking out about The Strokes, The White Stripes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – fucking great bands, right?

If you’ve heard [Death Cab’s] music, you know we don’t really slot in with that. We never really found a cultural lane in the UK until the last five to 10 years.”Read our full interview below, where Gibbard also spoke to NME about the anniversary celebrations, plans for Death Cab’s 11th album and if the tour has changed his stance on a second album.