I'm a war of head versus heart, it's always this way. My head is weak, my heart always speaks, before I know what it will say.
Ben GibbardI kind of dropped a lot of bad habits about three years ago and became kind of accidentally straight-edge. I don't have Xs on my hands, but I guess if I wanted to go back to calling myself straight-edge, I could. Around that same time I started running. I never saw myself as the kind of person who would become a runner. It seemed unfathomable to me that I would ever run three miles, let alone 26.2.
Ben GibbardI feel that we are currently living in a world that is similar to late '50s, early '60s kind of world.
Ben GibbardMore times than not, it's a failed endeavor. You will fail more times than you succeed. But I think you need those failed endeavors.
Ben GibbardIf there is one thing I think I have accomplished, it's that I always thought of myself as a very literal songwriter, and as I look at some of those older records, I don't hear it now the way I did when I was 20. I think it is undeniable that the songs have become more instantaneously descriptive and literal. I'd like the songs to be more storytelling, but also have the turns of phrase within them that would hopefully distance my writing from the pack. I feel like on those older records there are a lot of attempts at clever turns of phrase.
Ben Gibbard