Tycho And Death Cab For Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard Share Only Love Collaboration
Tuesday, 13 July 2021
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Andrew Paynter
Tycho has combined with Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard for a new single.
Cast across the San Francisco producer's woozy synth-based backdrop and guided by the instantly recognisable vocals of Gibbard, Only Love marks the latter's first electronic collaboration since his work in The Postal Service over 10 years ago. Talking about how the team up came about, Tycho, aka Scott Hansen, said:
"I had been a fan of Ben's work for a long time when, in 2016, I had the chance to do a remix for Death Cab for Cutie's track The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive. Ben’s voice was a very inspiring element to work with from a production standpoint, I felt it really meshed well with the kinds of sounds and instrumentation I gravitate towards.
"Only Love started life as an instrumental, but something was missing. I sent a rough demo to Ben and he recorded some vocals over it. The first time I heard the rough vocals the whole song suddenly made sense and the arrangement flowed out of that. After my early experimentations with vocals on Weather this felt like a great opportunity to put everything I had learned during that process into practice. It was certainly an honor to be able to work with such an iconic voice.
Gibbard added: "In 2014 while reading This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein, I came across a quote from Montanan goat rancher and environmentalist Alexis Bonogofsky that moved me immensely. Speaking about the fight to protect public lands in southeastern Montana from the mining company Arch Coal, she said: '(The) connection to this place and the love people have for it, that’s what Arch Coal doesn’t get. They underestimate that. They don’t understand it so they disregard it. And that’s what in the end will save that place. It's not the hatred for the coal companies, or anger, but love will save this place.'
"When Scott sent me the music for Only Love, it seemed perfect for this statement. Since reading Alexis’s words I’ve carried them as a universal truth; that the only way we preserve the people, places or things we care for is with love, not hatred. This is often easier said than done, of course. But I find myself coming back to her statement as if it were a mantra."
Tycho recently unveiled details of his inaugural ISO50 branded event at Brooklyn's NY's Brooklyn Mirage on July 23. Head here for details.
Gibbard also has a run of US dates in the diary for September. More on that here.
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