Death Cab For Cutie Gives ‘Pep Talk’ Acoustic Makeover

Death Cab for Cutie shared a video featuring a stripped-down performance of “Pep Talk.” The song appears on DCFC’s new album, I Built You A Tower.

The new record arrived on June 5 through ANTI- Records, their first LP on the label following 20 years on Atlantic. Produced by John Congleton, I Built You A Tower marks Death Cab For Cutie’s 11th studio album and first album of new material since 2022’s Asphalt Meadows.

I Built You A Tower spun three advance singles, “Riptides,” “Punching the Flowers,” and “Stone Over Water.” The subject of the new acoustic video, “Pep Talk,” is the album’s third track. In an interview with The New Yorker, Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard noted how he wondered about the lyrics of the song, but was convinced to keep it by DCFC bassist Nick Harmer.

“Nick Harmer has been my editor for almost thirty years, and he’s focussed on stuff like that. That second verse, for example, in ‘Pep Talk,’ I wrote in the studio. I was, like, Yeah, but I’m probably going to rewrite that. He’s, like, No, no, keep that. Like, I was, like, Really? You understand what I’m saying? He’s, like, No, I one-hundred-per-cent understand what you’re saying. And I’m not sure if he did, but he was, like, I just really liked how it sounds. It’s very evocative, and it’s very poetic, and I think you should keep it, cause it’s not the kind of thing that you would normally write.”

In the new acoustic video for “Pep Talk,” Nick and Ben are joined by multi-instrumentalist Zac Rae on piano. Watch below: