A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
Hrishikesh Hirway, host and producer of the podcast Song Exploder, recently sat down with Ben Gibbard, lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Death Cab for Cutie. The episode focuses on the song "El Dorado," which was released on the band's eighth studio album, "Kintsugi," earlier this year in March.
Gibbard received a lot of attention in the wake of his divorce from actress Zooey Deschanel. He says he found a way to unload the emotions from his separation in songwriting.
"This is maybe a very predictable chapter in my life story," Gibbard said. "Going from indie rocker to married to a famous person, to divorced, and then writing a divorce record."
"El Dorado" was born using a Fender Mustang guitar and rhythm master drum machine that Gibbard purchased in a guitar shop in Tacoma, Washington. Parting with the original version of the song, Gibbard said, was not an easy task until drummer Jason McGerr created the energetic beat heard in the final version.
The simplistic lyrics compare El Dorado, the city of gold, to a studio lot in Culver City where according to Gibbard, a lot of people find their promise.
You can hear the full version of the Gibbard session at songexploder.net.