Death Cab For Cutie Fight Auto-Tune Abuse
Ha. Right after I posted the story on Auto-Tune coming to the iPhone, Kyle Starr shot me an email about Deathcab fighting the noblest of musical battles:
From MTV.com:
Death Cab For Cutie Raise Awareness About Auto-Tune Abuse
‘Enough is enough,’ frontman Ben Gibbard says of the digital voice manipulation.
Death Cab for Cutie at the 2009 Grammy Awards in L.A. Sunday Photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage
They might have looked slightly out of place on the red carpet at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, but it turns out that the guys in Death Cab for Cutie are old pros when it comes to one aspect of the step-and-repeat: the wearing of nebulous and indecipherable awareness ribbons.
As they tromped the carpet, they wore baby-blue ribbons pinned to their lapels, which — after a quick search — seemed to indicate their support of Canada’s anti-tobacco, anti-second-hand-smoke campaign, or perhaps International No Diet Day. Neither of those things made much sense, so when we caught up with them, we decided to ask about the ribbons.
And, as it turns out, they symbolize a much nobler cause.
“We’re here to raise awareness about Auto-Tuner abuse,” DCFC frontman Ben Gibbard laughed. “I think over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of good musicians being affected by this newfound digital manipulation of the human voice, and we feel enough is enough.
“Let’s raise awareness,” he continued. “Let’s stop this, let’s bring back the blue note, and let’s really try to get music back to its roots of [having] actual people singing and sounding like human beings.”
Kanye, T-Pain: He’s talking to you. And while Gibbard didn’t offer up any sort of plan to end Auto-Tune abuse, or mention any Web site where concerned music fans can go for more information (which sort of defeats the whole “raise awareness” bit), he and his bandmates are hoping that their baby-blue ribbons will help inspire all the A-T fiends out there to kick their habit. If not for them, well, then for the kids.
“Otherwise, musicians of tomorrow will never practice,” Death Cab bassist Nick Harmer said. “They will never try to be good, because yeah, you can do it just on the computer.”
“A little use is OK, but there is a difference between ‘use’ and ‘abuse,’ ” Gibbard said. “And I feel we’re getting to a point of abuse at this point.”
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2 Responses to “Death Cab For Cutie Fight Auto-Tune Abuse”
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so so so so true… great cause :) great article :). I often find myself fighting the urge to make perfection, when I know in my heart that art is not quantized and autotuned.
Totally. When I was in college, a really brilliant musician, Steve Schick, told me that audiences either want to be wowed and awestruck, or they want to feel like part of the performance on an intimate level. So think of the juxtaposition of an artist like U2 with somebody like Bob Dylan.
U2 wows the audience with an epic sound, crazy light shows on monstrous stages. The audience spectates in awe of what they could never do. Like it or not, I will never play like the Edge and I will never sing like Bono. But I still buy their albums and go to their concerts to appreciate what they do.
Bob Dylan, on the other hand, is an artist who plays songs that you feel like you could get up on stage and play. He doesn’t have the greatest singing voice. He doesn’t process his instrument to find the "perfect tone." But he creates an intimate setting, and is personable. I fell like I COULD do what he does, sing like he sings, play like he plays; therefore he’s appreciated and I go to his concerts and buy his albums.
There’s no right way to it. Both artists are massively successful, but for different reasons. All that to say, don’t feel like you have to use AutoTune to "perfect" your performance. Often times, it’s not the perfection that draws people. It’s not the perfection that people listen for. It’s the lack there of.