Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard To Release New Solo Album

Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard will release a solo album later on this year called Former Lives. The album will have 12 songs that have been written and performed over his career, but were previously unreleased. There will be a number of guest contributions, including Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, Son Volt’s Mark Spencer, and singer-songwriter Aimee Mann.

Recorded at Aaron Espinoza’s (Earlimart) studio, The Ship, Gibbard explains the need to do something separate from his normal DCFC duties. “It wasn’t a goal and it certainly wasn’t a reaction to any sort of dissatisfaction to recording with Death Cab or anything like that,” Gibbard told Stereogum, adding: “In the past whenever I’ve put out any solo recordings it’s just been of a function of the time in which I was in. I’m a songwriter and that’s my job, and with every record that we’ve made there would always be a couple of tunes that just didn’t seem to fit in with the band.”

A tracklisting for the release should be coming soon. Tour dates are also expected, but you’d likely think that Australia won’t be so lucky to experience his intimate shows. But then again you never know: Death Cab have always had a certain fondness for us, and if enough demand was shown, we might see him out here soon enough.

Former Lives is expected to be released on 15th October in the UK through City Slang.

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