When it comes to rock-n-roll excess, Death Cab for Cutie probably isn’t the first band that jumps to mind. Especially back in their mid-aughts heyday, when they were Soundtracking shows like O.C And Posing with bleeding hearts on the cover of rotate, the beloved Seattle indie rockers—and their frontman Ben Gabbard, in particular—were the poster children for a sweeter, more sensitive, less chaotic brand of guitar gods. But the temptations that come with life on the road eventually caught up with Gabbard as well.
“We were never the kind of band that was just messing around all the time,” Gibbard says now. “But being a musician, it’s one of the only jobs in the world where you’re encouraged to drink at work. You show up at a venue and they’re like, ‘Hey, I just did this. Want to make sure you guys have enough wine for work.’ It became a slippery slope and eventually I lost control of it. I had to cut it off.”
After Gabbard got sober in 2008, he replaced his drinking habit with an obsession with running. He started with a few regular marathons before finding his true love in ultras—trail races that span 100 miles (or more) over rugged terrain, sometimes taking several days to complete. Days are required. “It’s a callback to the things I loved as a kid, living in the woods and mountains here in the Northwest,” he says. “It helps me achieve the kind of meditative thinking that I wasn’t able to do with anything else.”
When I reach Gabbard via Zoom at home in Seattle, he’s days away from a 100-kilometer trip through the Columbia River Gorge and the second leg of a massive world tour with his two bands—Death Cab and the Postal Service. Preparing for Currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of his seminal albums. Transatlanticism And to leave. We caught up with him about his training regimen on the road, how it feels to see his 26-year-old self again on stage every night, and why podcasts are better than music when you’re out for a 13-hour run. There are.
of the real life food, GQ Talks with athletes, celebrities, and other top performers about their diets, exercise routines, and fitness pursuits. Keep in mind that what works for them may not necessarily be healthy for you.
Ben Gibbard: Oh, my exercise routine was non-existent and my eating habits were kind of – I didn’t really hold back on anything. I think when people are in their twenties their metabolism can handle a lot. Death Cab was playing pretty long sets, but I was drinking, I smoked a little during that time, and I was just a teenager who wasn’t really thinking about any of that stuff.
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