You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This is maybe a very predictable chapter in my life story,
going from indie rocker to married to a famous person to divorced and then writing a divorce record.
Death Cab for Cutie released their eighth album in March 2015.
The song El Dorado was written in the wake of a breakup between lead singer Ben Gibbard and actress Zooey Deschanel.
In this episode,
Ben talks about the metaphor of the city of El Dorado and how it fit the story he wanted to tell.
Plus, he talks about how a few pieces of equipment ended up shaping the creative process.
My name is Ben Gibbard.
I'm the singer and guitar player in the band Death Cab for Cutie.
I found myself a couple years ago trading a number of instruments into this guitar shop in Tacoma that a friend of mine works at.
So I ended up picking up a Fender Mustang guitar,
and then they kind of threw in this Rhythm Master drum machine with it,
which is one of those little wood panel drum machines that has seven presets on it,
a tempo, and a volume.
That was it.
And I was like, okay, well, I guess... I guess I'll take that drum machine too.
And then I ended up writing the majority of the songs on the record with this particular Mustang guitar and this Rhythm Master drum machine.