BEN GIBBARD launches Casey Dienel

Did you ever feel that some of your more... for lack of a better word, popular songs would have such an emotive effect on people that, you know, when you were writing, maybe let me rephrase that.

So when you write songs, do you have this moment in songwriting where you just kind of know that song is done and it did, like, does it move you as much as you hope it will move others when you kind of like get to that place with a song? Like, what is your...

process around songwriting and knowing when it's done and whether do you have an opinion on whether an audience will connect to it at that time or is it very personal to you?

It's certainly more the latter.

It's far more personal and I write a lot.

I like to say that I write more to get less back the older I get.

I've never written anything and thought this is going to have an impact on people.

That seems like that would be an incredibly self-centered way to think about one's own work, to make something and then immediately envision it in the world, quote-unquote, helping people or something.

It's just kind of a cringey idea that somebody would have that thought, to me at least.

But...

You know, I've been doing this long enough and written enough songs to have thought that certain songs I'd written were going to, people were going to like them more than maybe they did and vice versa.

So there's songs I've written, I've thought, wow, I'm really proud of that song.

I think people are really going to like it.

And then no one ever requests it.

So I don't think I'm really in the best position to, you know, let's put it this way.

It's, you know, I guess this applies across the entertainment industry.

You know, if, uh, if people could pick hit movies, there would only be hit movies that people could write hit songs, had the ability to just recall that there would be nothing but hit songs.

There'd be nothing but hit TV shows.

And I think having something that resonates with people, whether or not you want to call it a hit or whatever, um, is oftentimes a very organic moment.

It's very difficult to manufacture that kind of thing across any industry, right? And that's why the person who discovered fill-in-the-blank pop star 20 years ago still has a job,

you know,

because they fell into it once and there are people who will continue throwing money at them thinking they're going to do it again, right? Or a music or a film executive who's been at the helm for years and hasn't had a hit forever, but they...

there's just thought that, well, he just, he discovered so-and-so or he made this film, so he's probably going to do it again or she for that matter.

Um, so yeah, I, I just kind of, I, I like to write and write and write.

And I, I kind of, I, uh, I feel with every record that we're making, certain themes start to continue to bubble up within the context of a group of songs.

Did you ever feel that some of your more... for lack of a better word, popular songs would have such an emotive effect on people that, you know, when you were writing, maybe let me rephrase that.

So when you write songs, do you have this moment in songwriting where you just kind of know that song is done and it did, like, does it move you as much as you hope it will move others when you kind of like get to that place with a song? Like, what is your...

process around songwriting and knowing when it's done and whether do you have an opinion on whether an audience will connect to it at that time or is it very personal to you?

It's certainly more the latter.

It's far more personal and I write a lot.

I like to say that I write more to get less back the older I get.

I've never written anything and thought this is going to have an impact on people.

That seems like that would be an incredibly self-centered way to think about one's own work, to make something and then immediately envision it in the world, quote-unquote, helping people or something.

It's just kind of a cringey idea that somebody would have that thought, to me at least.

But...

You know, I've been doing this long enough and written enough songs to have thought that certain songs I'd written were going to, people were going to like them more than maybe they did and vice versa.

So there's songs I've written, I've thought, wow, I'm really proud of that song.

I think people are really going to like it.

And then no one ever requests it.

So I don't think I'm really in the best position to, you know, let's put it this way.

It's, you know, I guess this applies across the entertainment industry.

You know, if, uh, if people could pick hit movies, there would only be hit movies that people could write hit songs, had the ability to just recall that there would be nothing but hit songs.

There'd be nothing but hit TV shows.

And I think having something that resonates with people, whether or not you want to call it a hit or whatever, um, is oftentimes a very organic moment.

It's very difficult to manufacture that kind of thing across any industry, right? And that's why the person who discovered fill-in-the-blank pop star 20 years ago still has a job,

you know,

because they fell into it once and there are people who will continue throwing money at them thinking they're going to do it again, right? Or a music or a film executive who's been at the helm for years and hasn't had a hit forever, but they...

there's just thought that, well, he just, he discovered so-and-so or he made this film, so he's probably going to do it again or she for that matter.

Um, so yeah, I, I just kind of, I, I like to write and write and write.

And I, I kind of, I, uh, I feel with every record that we're making, certain themes start to continue to bubble up within the context of a group of songs.