Ask the drummer: Jason McGerr

Death Cab for Cutie epitomized an indie band Cinderella story when, after toiling in obscurity for a few years, they hit it big in 2003 with their solemn and beautiful record "Transatlanticism," which had songs picked up for movie and TV soundtracks and landed them a deal with Atlantic Records.

The Bellingham, Wash., quartet has released three more records – including the platinum-selling "Narrow Stairs," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 2008 – and will kick off a much-anticipated U.S. fall tour at Riverbend on Friday in support of its latest record, the jovial "Codes and Keys."

Drummer Jason McGerr joined the group in 2003, playing on that break-through album. On his final days of vacation, we caught up McGerr where he reminisced about DCFC’s unexpected success and his bittersweet life on the road. 

You’ve had about a month off between tours, so what have you been up to?
I've got a couple of kids and I tend to check my sticks at the door. When I get home it’s funny – you think that being on tour, when you come home you want to stay home and sleep in your own bed. We generally take off and go on vacation and go places and challenge ourselves in a way that Chevy Chase would with his family and make lots of blunders and mistakes but have fun and adventure doing it. 

I’ve been traveling around and just forgetting that I play music, which I think helps me when I then return to tour. I really appreciate the tour. We just finished a five week tour. We certainly know how to play music in this band. We don’t need to rehearse. So I’d rather come back with a whole bunch of stories and memories and photos then just go home and do yard work.

Do you still like to tour or do you ever get sick of it?
This tour more than any other we have really found a way to make it fun throughout. Sure there are hard days, but I think in the past we’ve toured too much where we’ve gone off for three months straight with maybe a couple of days off in the middle between continents just for travel. We’ve learned working that hard definitely pays off but it taxes you more than you know. We seem to have the magic number of days to be on the road each tour and the number of days to play during the week and that varies from continent to continent.

And I think, too, we’re learning this album cycle is more of an experiment of how long that we want to stay on the road for each record. So all in all things have been really, really, really good. I can’t tell you about massive fallouts or bumps in the road other than our stage collapsing in Ottawa. That was during a one-off so it really didn’t affect us too badly. It affected our crew more because they had to dig all of our stuff out of the rain a week later. All in all things have been good and I can’t complain at all about what I get to do for a living.

You joined the band right on the cusp of the band becoming really popular. You’re playing stadium shows and selling millions of records. What have the past few years been like for you?
I can’t even tell you what that feels like because as I’m sitting here in the parking lot of a restaurant here in the town where I grew up, where I met the band, where the band started, the view from where I sit is exactly the same as it was nine years ago, even before then when Nick [Harmer] and I played in a band before Death Cab ever started [Eureka Farm]. So what’s funny is so much around me is exactly the same and so much around me has changed more than I have ever imagined it could possibly change.

But somehow I know that I got here and I’m talking to you and you’re not here in my hometown writing for a local paper. It’s been a hell of a rollercoaster but somehow you get buckled in and you make it through and you get off the ride and you go back out again if you want to and I feel like we’ve earned a reputation and the right to continue to get on the rollercoaster. Maybe it’ll be 15 years from now, maybe it’ll be 20 years from now. Like I’ve said a lot has changed and really nothing has changed.

Our general outlook, we still need to do the right things on tour, we still need to make records with music that resonates with people. We can’t ever just rest on our laurels and think that the rest of the world is going to take care of us. We always have to work hard.

What’s the secret to Death Cab’s longevity?
Communication. Saying yes to the right things and no to the wrong things. It sounds like a broken record, right? Like some philosophy thing, but you’ve got to get back up when you fall.

Thankfully, we started as a band at a time the internet didn’t make or break you as a band. It wasn’t about getting 30 million hits or no hits. It wasn’t about any sort of online credential. It was about getting in a van, doing three international tours every year, that allowed us to become a good band live and a good band in a studio by having to record all of our own records.

Kind of like the house you build with a solid foundation that you know isn’t going to fall over, Death Cab was allowed as a band to build their own house and surround the band with people that we trust. Our booking agent is the same booking agent we started with 13 years ago. So, I think that all of those things make for a successful franchise. 

What’s the best and worst part of being in Death Cab for Cutie?
The best thing is being able to play music with a group of people that I consider all my best friends, so therefore it doesn’t feel like a job ever. It just feels like we’re getting away with murder. Getting to be four guys just hanging out. C’mon, I get to hit things with sticks for a living! It’s awesome and I get to travel and see the world.

The worst thing is that it’s difficult to be away from family, especially young kids, because they change so much, so fast. It’s a blessing and a curse to be able to get to see the world and spend so much time as an individual out there, but like I said, it’s difficult to come home and see your kid like three inches taller and saying words you’ve never heard before.

Being away from family and friends and not having as many everyday experiences in common is the difficult part, but I wouldn’t change what I do for anything and I want my children especially to see that anything is possible and that you don’t just need to wear a suit and tie and go to the same office every day.

Since the band’s already accomplished so much, are there any other goals?
At this point I just want to see how long we can stick around and stay relevant and make records. As long as we’re getting played on the radio and we’re able to go out and sell thousands of tickets for a show and we’re having fun through it all and we’re getting to still go to new places in the world.

Every year we still pull back the curtain on a part of the world that we haven’t been before. Whether it’s Southeast Asia or South America, wherever, there’s all these opportunities that we have yet to really take advantage of or that we’re more and more beginning to take advantage of outside the U.S. That’s exciting. That’s something I’d like to accomplish, like I said, just continue to go to new places and do something different even if it feels like taking a step backwards and downsizing. Like say we go and play a 500 capacity club in Manila, that still sounds exciting to me just because we’ve never been there. Same thing with South America.

And as long as it makes sense, as long as we can stay out and make records and tour and have fun doing it, I see no reason to stop.