ALTHOUGH they’ve signed with a major label, received a Grammy nod and been exposed to the masses thanks to copious shout-outs on “The O.C.,” Death Cab for Cutie remained decidedly indie when making their new music DVD, “Directions,” out yesterday.
Instead of turning to a conceptual clip-maker like Michel Gondry, the Seattle-based rock heroes used friends and an open call to create 11 short films inspired by the songs on their gold record “Plans.”
Bassist and project producer Nick Harmer explains, “As you make videos, travel around and meet people, you end up making connections and going, ‘Gosh, I wish I could do something with this person.’ ”
The result of the collaborations isn’t a collection of run-of-the-mill, glossy videos or even a concert film (been there, done that, anyway, with “Drive Well, Sleep Carefully”).
In fact, Death Cab only appears in one film, and that’s only because “[director] Lance Bangs shot it at a show in Portland, right on our way home.”
“When I was growing up, bands were doing all kinds of crazy things with videos because it was a new format,” Harmer says. “There weren’t any rules about what was acceptable or what was or wasn’t a video. Now, videos have become more standardized – they seem to follow a pattern and hidden rules.”
That’s certainly not the case for the three-minute films on “Directions,” a truly eclectic series of “drawless animation,” grainy home video and ethereal montages.
Initially posted individually on Death Cab’s Web site in late January – just to see what would happen – the videos took on a life of their own after fans wrote in about how much they liked them and wanted to own high-resolution versions.
“It had this really nice organic build for it,” Harmer says. “The DVD was sort of an afterthought. It’s certainly not a way to make money – DVDs never make money for a band.”
Swatting rumors that they’ve got untold cash to burn now that they’ve signed to Atlantic Records, Harmer says, “I’ve heard grumblings like, ‘Death Cab is on a major label – now they have tons of money so that’s why they can make a video for every song on the record.’ Out of respect for the directors, we’re not going to disclose how much each video was made for, but the budget was peanuts.”
Don’t expect to see much evidence of major-label bucks during Death Cab’s sold-out shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom with Scottish dance rockers Franz Ferdinand tomorrow and Friday.
While there will be more production – lights- and fog-wise – than the last time they were in town, it’s not the label’s doing.
“The label wants nothing to do with our tours,” Harmer jokes.
“That’s actually where ‘we’re just touring with Franz’ comes in. Franz likes to put on a show, and we couldn’t necessarily be the sort of scrappy band that we normally are, so we stepped it up a bit.
“You don’t want to keep delivering the same show because no one will come back. We like to throw a little bit of an element of danger into it – you’re not exactly sure what you’re going to get,” he says.
Does that mean an energetically remixed version of Death Cab hit “Soul Meets Body” or a dreamily sedate cover of Franz’s “Take Me Out” is on tap?
“We’ve talked about some stuff,” Harmer says. “There’s always the ‘Keep on rockin’ in the free world’ moment in any joint tour. Maybe we’ll get together and do some kind of Donna Summer cover, you never know.”
maxine.shen@nypost.com
