Postal Service on reuniting for arena tour on 10th anniversary of ‘Give Up’

By Nick Patch, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – A decade ago, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and electronic producer Jimmy Tamborello teamed as the Postal Service and ascended to unlikely heights with their lone album “Give Up.”

The record went platinum in the U.S. and gold in Canada to become Sub Pop’s biggest album since Nirvana’s “Bleach,” while sad synth-pop highlight “Such Great Heights” was a non-traditional hit, finding prominent placement in episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Veronica Mars” and the trailer for “Garden State” while also being used in TV commercials for Ask.com, Target, UPS and M&Ms.

“Give Up” is being reissued with a deluxe 10th anniversary edition Tuesday, the same day the pair launches a reunion tour that will wind through Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on June 11 and Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on July 16.

The soft-spoken Tamborello, best-known for recording solo under the Dntel moniker, recently talked to The Canadian Press about the initial collaboration, performing in arenas and the reasons the Postal Service never released a follow-up.

CP: Originally, this partnership between you and Ben came about pretty organically, didn’t it?

JT: Yeah, definitely. There was never like a deadline or anything unfun about the process. It was all real relaxed. Getting to know somebody while making a poppy record.

CP: What did you like about working with Ben?

JT: The fact that we were doing it through the mail made it different than most collaborations, because we just weren’t around each other. And we didn’t know each other super well when we started, so maybe in the beginning it was a little bit more reserved. Like, I didn’t want to say: “Oh, I don’t like that.” And I think he was the same way. (But) I think we liked what each other was doing.

CP: Did you suspect early on that it would be such a phenomenon? If not, when did you start to think that way?

JT: No, I think both of us didn’t really know how people would take it. It’s totally surprising how many people got into it.

First thing, we did a tour in the U.S. right when the album came out, and in the beginning of the tour, the shows were pretty small. And as we travelled, the shows ahead of us kept getting moved to bigger venues and most of the shows were selling out.

CP: Why do you think “Give Up” connected to the extent that it did?

JT: I feel like I try to answer that one a lot and I never have a really good answer for it. I think it has this intimate quality just because of the way we made it and the fact that it was made in our bedrooms and mixed by us. The fact that it’s such a small production makes the melancholy emotional part of it seem more real or genuine.

But also, just kind of accidentally, the music came out poppier than I think we even meant it to. So I think that helped too.

CP: The album was an entry-point into electronic music for many. But some electronic fans have dismissed the album for being too poppy. Did you feel that there was a backlash against the record?

JT: I mean, not really. I’ve never felt super comfortable in any real electronic scene. I’ve never been super technologically advanced or super skilled as an engineer or producer. I’ve always been more lo-fi and more interested in the pop elements of electronic music, maybe?

And so I’ve never felt like I was really part of the more IDM community. So maybe I never felt that backlash. Maybe in my head, I probably figured that people were thinking that way about it. I think of this record as way more of a techno-pop record. I don’t really put it into the more experimental electronic world. And also, I think a lot of stuff came out after that’s maybe given it a bad name in a way.

CP: Some of your songs, “Such Great Heights” especially, were used extensively in advertising, back when it wasn’t as common for indie musicians to license their tunes. Were you concerned you’d be criticized for that at the time?

JT: I think I had a little bit of doubt. I’d grown up knowing about the idea of being a sellout in music — just being in college radio and indie rock and the punk scene and all that stuff, it got talked about a lot back then.

(But) this was always just be supposed to be this fun side project thing. And we decided really early on that we weren’t going to be precious about it, and if opportunities like that came up we would do them. I mean, we passed on things if something was a bad product or like an offensive advertisement or something like that, but in general we never really freaked out about it too much.

And it has become one of the main ways you can actually make any sort of money off music these days. I mean, we got lucky. I feel like we were at the very end of where you could still sell records too. I think if the record had come out a couple years later, we wouldn’t have had that.

CP: Why didn’t the Postal Service ever release a second album?

JT: We started a few times to make new music. And each time it just kind of fizzled out. I think we just were never in the same mindset and schedule situation. It was always like, I’d be into doing it and Ben wouldn’t be or the other way around. Or Ben would be in a Death Cab for Cutie tour cycle. It just never quite worked out.

I feel like this tour feels like a really good sendoff for the project. I mean, we’re not going to sit down and sign a piece of paper that says we will never do anything (new) again, but I feel like I’d be pretty shocked if something happened after this.

CP: You’re playing some cavernous venues on this tour, including two arenas in Canada. It’s the first time in your career playing venues this large. How do you feel about that?

JT: I’m definitely excited about it. I think this is my one opportunity to have this kind of experience. And I’m really scared of it too. The last time we did a tour we were playing real small venues and our band was pretty lo-fi. And it’s a little scary to try to translate that to a big place, especially since we haven’t played together since then.

But we haven’t made any drastic changes to the songs. We’re working more with lights to make it translate in a bigger place. And hopefully the sound will be better and bigger than before.

So I think hopefully it’ll end up filling up these bigger venues.

___

Answers have been edited and condensed.

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