"I am thinking it's a sign / that the freckles in our eyes / are mirror images / and when we kiss / they're perfectly aligned," Ben Gibbard sings on the Postal Service's 2003 classic "Such Great Heights." If you consumed American media in the early aughts, those memorable lyrics may well be committed to your memory, as it saw placement on "The O.C.," "Grey's Anatomy," "Veronica Mars," Garden State and an assortment of commercials.
This was the band's biggest song from their only studio album, Give Up, released on Sub Pop on Feb. 18, 2003, and it almost didn't happen. Producer Jimmy Tamborello tells us it was originally going to be a cover of an '80s deep cut, but it just didn't click. When they decided to nix that idea, Tamborello used a similar sonic palette for what became "Such Great Heights."
Yet the song — and the Postal Service side project itself — came from a very DIY and creative space. It all began sometime in 2001, when left-field electronic producer Tamborello, a.k.a. Dntel, reached out to Death Cab For Cutie's Gibbard to sing on a track on his debut full-length, Life Is Full Of Possibilities. The collab session at Tamborello's L.A. home studio went so well that Gibbard suggested they make more music, and Tony Kiewel at Sub Pop urged them to make an album versus an EP to make more of an impact with reviews and sales.
They had no idea the project would resonate as widely as it did, let alone that we'd still be talking about it 20 years later. And the staying power is real — to this day, it’s the second-best selling album on Sub Pop, second only to Nirvana's debut Bleach. In 2012, just shy of its 10th anniversary reissue and much-anticipated tour, Give Up reached platinum status.
2003 was an important year for everyone involved with the Postal Service. Death Cab For Cutie released their critically acclaimed fourth album, Transatlanticism in October, which caught the attention of Atlantic Records (who signed them in 2004). Jenny Lewis — who sang backing vocals on Give Up and has been a part of their live band since their humble first tour in 2003 — also struck gold with her band Rilo Kiley's 2002 album, The Execution Of All Thing.
The Postal Service toured Give Up for a few weeks; the gigs were small, but the album’s popularity grew as they made stops in North America and Europe. When the group's members went back to their main projects, the Postal Service was set aside for a decade. Yet the album continued to make waves. There were never plans for a second album or tour, but Gibbard was regularly asked by interviewers about new Postal Service music.
Gibbard and Tamborello attempted further collaboration which resulted in a few singles (including the perfect Phil Collins cover for the 2004 Josh Hartnett film Wicker Park). The pressure for new Postal Service music was very real, but as their careers had taken off, space for collaboration had narrowed.
Twenty years later, Gibbard will lead the Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie on their first-ever joint tour playing both 20-year-old albums in full. The tour kicks off on Sept. 5 in Washington D.C. and wraps on Oct. 17 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
To celebrate what is sure to be a memorable, tear-jerking run of concerts, GRAMMY.com recently caught up with Tamborello and Lewis to revisit the beloved side project that continues to take on a life of its own.
Back in 2002 when you were working on Give Up, did you have any idea that we would still be talking about it today?
Jimmy Tamborello: No, not at all. It really felt like a side project when we did it — just something that was fun to do. I couldn't really even figure out what the audience for it would be when we finished it.
Jenny Lewis: I just was happy to be there for the two days I laid down my vocals. I didn't really think much about it.
In our world, side projects are pretty common. Over the years, I've done five or six side projects. It's really just a creative outlet; a way to try something new with low stakes. I always do best under low stakes.
Do you think the lack of pressure or expectation — and the earlier points in your careers — made Give Up a special, inimitable project?
Tamborello: That was during the time I was the least aware of how other people were hearing what I was doing, so it was a little freer.
Lewis: Yeah, it was very free. I think the burden of knowing too much can creep its way in and then you can't help but kind of get jaded with your own music after putting out 10 or 15 records.
There's something so precious about Give Up because it's this time capsule. It's frozen in amber. And although we revisit it, it's still this very special, pure thing that's untainted by time or pressure to do it again.
Tamborello: I bet I worried about it more than I remember now. I was still pretty neurotic, so I was probably stressed out about it back then.
Lewis: But the expectation was low. When we were on the road touring it, things started happening. We booked these tiny little places. We had a show booked in this really small spot in Barcelona, and they moved us to the big room, which had never happened in my career before. To feel that kind of momentum while we were out touring was really unique. And then we stopped touring it for 10 years.
Tamborello: I'm surprised we even put a tour together in the first place. I don't know if Sub Pop wanted us to do it or we just thought it would be fun, but we could have easily just never toured it. Even though we only did a month of touring, I think that did solidify us as a band and probably somehow gave us more lasting power.
What did it feel like on that first tour to see the success of the album happening in real time?
Tamborello: They were pretty humble successes when we were on tour. It was little steps up — we were still playing 200-person clubs, besides maybe L.A., which felt extra-big.
Lewis: Although these little things were happening, we were caught up in the logistics of being on tour; carrying our gear, loading in and out and driving ourselves around.
Tamborello: There were a lot of people in the van. [Chuckles.]
Lewis: We shared one room. Jimmy and I shared a bed. Nick [Harmer] — from Death Cab was our tour manager — and Ben shared a bed. That's how we did it back then. So you're in the weeds getting to the shows and making them happen. And then these little fun things happen where you're like, "Oh my goodness, people are kind of dancing in the crowd. Whoa." They don't dance as much at emo shows.
Tamborello: I'd only done a couple tours with a band before that. They were really small, like, two people at a house. So it was crazy even just to sell out one show on a tour. I think the most my band got paid on the tour before that was $100 and pizza or something. Ben and Jenny had more experience with that level of touring.
Lewis: [Rilo Kiley] had just put out The Execution Of All Things on Saddle Creek. I think we had put out a record and an EP and toured for a couple of years.
We made the [Postal Service] record and then I just went on doing my band. You guys sent me a copy of it on a CD-R. I was on tour with Rilo Kiley and Desaparecitos, and we were all in our 15-passenger van. I was like, "Oh, I got this Postal Service record. You guys want to listen to it?" Everyone in my band freaked out, especially Denver [Dalley of Desaparecitos]. He was like, "Whoa dude, this is gonna be huge." I was like, "What?!" It hadn't even occurred to me, but when I played it for my peers, they were like, "Wow, this is next level."
I think my band was worried, like, "Oh my gosh, are you gonna leave us?" There were all these mixed emotions. We listened to the record and then everyone was like, "Can we listen to that again?"
Tamborello: I remember a lot of memories of listening to Execution Of All Things and [Death Cab For Cutie's] Transatlanticism [after] getting copies from you guys, and loving those albums.
Lewis: Yeah, all three of those records came out [one after another]. Execution changed my band's trajectory. The Postal Service was happening simultaneously and Transatlanticism. It was a lot. But it was small back then. It was pretty DIY.
In what ways did you feel Give Up sonically impacted indie rock at that time? And how did it impact your work going forward?
Tamborello: I think we were already at the beginning of the wave of electronics getting really deep into indie rock.
Lewis: I think when you're in it, you don't really notice it, because you're just doing it. Jimmy and I collaborated after that for Dntel and Jimmy produced a Rilo Kiley song. I think we just kept going, and this was now part of the palette. Having Jimmy as a producer and a resource is a whole new world of sounds. It was very exciting for my band.
I think it took a couple of years for it to kind of infiltrate television and scoring, as a part of this wave of electronic music becoming more mainstream in the indie world. There was a mainstream band that put out a song that kind of sounded a little bit like the Postal Service, but we weren't active. The record was just doing its thing, but we had done our tour and we had gone back to our regular lives.
Give Up was a mostly remote collaboration, hence the name the Postal Service. Jimmy, were you sending demo CD-Rs to Ben via USPS or was it a different mailing service?
Tamborello: I think it was USPS. I have the envelopes and there's stamps on them and stuff. I still have a stack.
Lewis: That was pretty unprecedented to not be in the room with someone. There's something to figuring out your parts and writing in that kind of space, and then sharing it. When you're in the studio, you're playing a character version of yourself because everyone's watching you. But to have that [privacy], makes it really real.
Jimmy, how did you meet Ben?
Tamborello: It was through my roommate Pedro. He was in a band that toured with Death Cab, so they were friends. I was working on the Dntel album and asked Pedro if I could send Ben some music. And then Ben came to stay with us to hang out. That's where we recorded ["(This Is) The Dream Of Evan and Chan"] and got to know each other.
Lewis: And when did you guys say, "Hey, let's make a whole record of this stuff?"
Tamborello: That trip, when we recorded that Dntel song. I think Ben brought up doing more stuff, I don't think I would have. I remember being on the phone with Tony [Kiewel] at Sub Pop that weekend, talking to him about it, and he said we should do a whole album. And that was the beginning of a year of making it.
Lewis: That's an example of a good A&R person. Non-intrusive but like, "Hey, this is cool, you guys should make a whole record." Maybe you wouldn't have done it if it wasn't suggested.
Tamborello: We would've done an EP or something, and he pushed us into a full album.
"(This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan" sounds like it could've been on Give Up. What was the creative process like when you made that song together and how did that inform the process of Give Up?
Tamborello: That process was really easy. I was pretty far into making that album and I wanted a more upbeat song. I made the instrumental; I don't think I made it with Ben in mind. Once I thought of him as an option for a singer, I sent him that song and he wrote [lyrics] to it. Then he came to visit and we recorded it in an afternoon. I didn't have to change anything he did.
When we started making Give Up, I figured that song was going to be the launching point, the sound blueprint. I was figuring it would get kind of weirder, more experimental from there. I like the idea of his really pretty voice on top of more messed up music. I don't know what happened; immediately everything I was making came out more pop-y. And once he started singing on that stuff, it just snowballed from there. I'm so relieved we didn't make a super experimental album.
Were there any unreleased or unfinished tracks from that original Give Up-period? Or did everything fall together and go on the album?
Tamborello: Everything went on the album. There's a song called "There's Never Enough Time" that ended up being the B-side for one of the singles. Basically, the first 10 songs we made were the album.
We attempted a cover for a second that I don't even think Ben ever sang on and then scrapped it. We used the same kind of palette — not the same music or the same sounds — and changed it into "Such Great Heights." That was lucky. Our lives — or mine — would have been so different if we'd had an obscure '80s band cover song on that album instead.
Lewis: But that's the freedom within collaboration [outside of your main project]. When you're in a rock band and you're like, "Let's make a hit song," it feels contrived. It feels lame. But the freedom to not have the pressure to do one thing or the other, to just make music with this very honest collaboration is so cool. You weren't trying to make a hit song.
Tamborello: It hadn't really happened yet that indie rock was becoming a viable way to have a hit. That kind of happened as we were making it, so that possibility wasn't on our radar.
Lewis: For me, every step of the way, it's been so surprising that it's endured. When it comes around every 10 years, it's like "Oh my goodness, we're gonna do this again? People still want to come and see this? This is incredible."
"Such Great Heights" really did take on a life of its own. It got played on alt-rock radio. It was in the Garden State trailer and on "Grey's Anatomy" and "The O.C." Why do you think about that song resonated so widely at the time?
Tamborello: I don't know. I mean, it has a repeating chorus and a sweet, clear message.
Lewis: Yeah, it's interesting that other artists at that time and filmmakers gravitated towards that song and it just fit.
Tamborello: It's a really fast song too. It's weird for a song to be successful when it's 170 BPM.
It's fast even for a dance record. [Note: Billboard Hot 100 hits in the 2000s averaged around 100 BPM.]
Tamborello: It's faster than a techno song.
I don't think any of those shows existed yet when you were making the song, but if you were tasked with making the theme song for "Grey's Anatomy," it would probably end up being very different.
Lewis: Yeah. And they wouldn't have done that. It became that, but I feel like at that moment, we didn't do stuff like that. The Shins had their song in a McDonald's commercial [in 2002]. There were these sea change moments where things that you weren't supposed to do before — coming from the punk or Pavement ethos — you could kind of do them. My band had a real powwow about licensing songs at first. Like, "Is this cool? Is this the right thing to do?" And now all bets are off.
What did it feel like revisiting the album on the 2013 tour?
Jenny Lewis: Well, we sort of had a template because we had done it 10 years prior with just the three of us. We had this foundational thing where Ben and I were doing the vocals and playing guitars and keyboards and hit pads and the music really was coming from Jimmy. So we had a rough template and expanded it with the tech and we added another member to have more live stuff and vocals. Every 10 years, we have a place to build from and we have become a real live band.
I think you could just go out there and press play and it would have a similar impact because the songs are so good and it feels so good to hear those songs. As a fan of the record, when "The District Sleeps Alone" starts, I'm just full body chills because I love it so much. Whatever accoutrement is there I don't think necessarily matters because the songs and vibe are there.
Tamborello: For the 2013 tour, I hadn't kept my files in order at all, so I had to rebuild a lot of the songs which was stressful. I managed to save all those files on a hard drive and keep them all these years even though I didn't think we'd ever be doing it again. But yeah, the 2013 one was a little bit crazy, trying to find pieces of the songs and put them back together.
I think each time we do it, it sounds better. It gets adjusted and the tracks get better and the tech gets better. The sound people that we have on tour are really good and have done a lot to make the songs sound as good as possible. They're pretty lo-fi songs, so in 2013 it was scary thinking about how they're going to translate into these big venues on big speakers. [Before, we were] a band playing in small venues with no sound guy. They weren't very powerful sounding I don't think. [Chuckles.]
Lewis: But they sounded better than any other tour I'd been on then.
What are you most looking forward to as you revisit the album again on the upcoming tour?
Tamborello: I mean, every part of it is exciting. There's still so much up in the air about what it's going to be like once we start. But being back rehearsing for it has me excited about being back traveling with Ben and Jenny.
Lewis: When you tour all the time, you don't really get to spend a lot of time with your friends unless you're out on the road [together]. I'm so excited about the shows but, really, I'm excited about hanging out with Jimmy and Ben and getting to experience this again together. A decade is a fair amount of time to have everything come together or fall apart in your life. [I appreciate] the consistency of this band being able to dip in every 10 years and be like, "We're still friends. This record still exists. My life has changed." We get to catch up over a couple months. I think that'll be really fun.