It’s a beautiful collaboration…Tycho and Benjamin Gibbard combine on new single ‘Only Love’.
Tycho was drawn into Death Cab For Cutie’s orbit in 2016, completing a remix of their song ‘The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive’.
The producer was enraptured by the stems, and the opportunity to make creative decisions with Gibbard’s voice.
He comments: “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.”
The two kept in touch, with Tycho sending some sketches over to the American songwriter during lockdown. Benjamin Gibbard was drawn towards ecological themes, in particular a book by the author Naomi Klein.
He says: “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.”
The finished results speak for themselves – two artists working in sync, Tycho’s impressionistic synths align perfectly with Benjamin Gibbard’s endlessly evocative vocals.
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Andrew Paynter
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