Ben Gibbard on Leaving Atlantic After 20 Years: Why Death Cab for Cutie Signed With ANTI-

After two decades on Atlantic, Death Cab for Cutie have quietly returned to indie territory. The band signed with ANTI- to release their 11th album, I Built You a Tower, due in June, closing a chapter that began after the breakout success of 2003’s Transatlanticism.

Gibbard traces the move back to the moment when the band first considered a major-label deal. With Transatlanticism selling hundreds of thousands of copies, the timing felt right in 2004: the cultural conversation around indie rock was amplifying, and a major’s radio push could have helped them level up without changing who they were.

When we were opening ourselves up to that possibility [of signing with a major], we had seen some bands that we admired in the years prior wait [roughly] an album too late to sign to a major. We fell into a really great situation with Transatlanticism hitting the way it did and selling hundreds of thousands of copies. We felt that that was the moment to strike. The cultural conversation around indie rock was starting to get louder and louder, and it felt like we were 100% in the right place at the right time. Our goal wasn’t to become Coldplay or anything like that — no disrespect to Coldplay — but it was like, if we could have a major-label radio department pushing this music at what was then alternative radio, we might be able to level up a bit.

Those early expectations, Gibbard says, mostly checked out. Their Atlantic tenure did not follow the horror-story script that dogged many bands who left indie labels for majors. Arriving with substantial sales and momentum helped; for a long time the relationship delivered on what they wanted. But toward the end, the label simply ran out of ideas about how to market a middle-aged indie-rock band.

Our experience at Atlantic was the exact opposite of most people’s experiences at a major label — certainly we did not experience any of the major-label horror stories. I think that was due in large part to the fact that we arrived at Atlantic having sold a considerable number of records and had a lot of heat behind us. The last couple of records, toward the end of that relationship, Atlantic [was] running out of ideas as to how to market us, how to present us. In hindsight, I get it: Middle-aged indie-rock bands are not really the purview of most major labels. But through that entire 20 years, there wasn’t a single moment where anybody told us what to do or had any kind of negative outside influence on the music we were making. I think that we collectively felt that the relationship we had with Atlantic accomplished pretty much everything we wanted to accomplish.

The concrete catalyst to exit came after they signed on for one more record following 2022’s Asphalt Meadows. Within a week of that contract, Atlantic co-chair/COO Julie Greenwald was let go, and the band decided they did not want to stay under new leadership. Some maneuvering got them out of the deal, and they resolved not to pursue another major-label home.

The switch to ANTI- has a social logic as much as a business one. Gibbard described a conversation at a wedding in fall 2024 that shifted the needle: sitting next to Mike Krol, long associated with Merge Records, and Allison Crutchfield, who at the time was doing A&R at ANTI-, he realized how comfortable the roster and the people running the label felt.

At a wedding [in fall 2024], I found myself sitting next to Mike Krol, who has been on Merge Records for a long time, and his wife, Allison Crutchfield, who at the time was doing A&R at ANTI-, and we got talking about music and labels. I was like, “Oh, yeah, Slow Pulp are on ANTI-.” We were touring with them, we love them. “Oh, our friends The Beths just signed to ANTI-. Fleet Foxes are on ANTI-; we’ve known those guys for a long time. And I’m friends with Neko; Neko Case is on ANTI-. Holy s–t!” I was realizing what a great roster this was.

Meeting ANTI- founder Andy Kaulkin and Epitaph founder Brett Gurewitz also mattered. For Death Cab, it was important to be working with people who had been musicians and understood the creative process from the inside. That shorthand made conversations about the next chapter of the band feel easier and more honest than the ones they were having at a major.

Being in a room with [ANTI- founder] Andy Kaulkin and Brett Gurewitz [of Bad Religion and founder of ANTI- parent Epitaph] and Allison, it just felt more comfortable. It had been a long time since we’d been on a record label run by people who were first and foremost musicians and had been in bands — or were in bands. The conversation about the creative process, about records, about what we wanted to do next, the kind of band we wanted to be in this next chapter of our story just felt a lot easier to have at ANTI- than it had been when we had it at Atlantic.

There are practicalities, too. Gibbard points out that Epitaph’s independence goes back decades and that the company has built considerable resources since the 1990s. That has, in his view, translated to budgets for recording, videos, and marketing that feel similar to what they had at Atlantic.

One of the things that we really like about ANTI- and by extension Epitaph is that Epitaph has been thoroughly independent from the jump. Epitaph also has sold a lot of f–king records. They clearly have built a pretty large coffer of resources from the ’90s on and have been really successful. So for us, so far, the recording budget, video budgets, marketing budgets, all this stuff has been pretty similar [to Atlantic], by my estimation.

And then there is the blunt assessment of the music business today. What felt strategically sensible in 2004 — a major pushing guitar music to radio — no longer registers as useful in 2026, Gibbard says. For a band still rooted in rock and guitar, being on a major offers less upside than it did two decades ago.

If you’re making rock’n’roll-based music, like guitar music, in 2026, I don’t see in what world being on a major label is more helpful. I just don’t. It was in 2004. It certainly isn’t now.

So Death Cab have chosen a familiar-sounding future: an indie label run by musicians with an indie roster they respect, resources they can work with, and, crucially, the kind of creative conversations they wanted to keep having. I Built You a Tower arrives in June to mark the start of this new-old era.

—As told to Eric Renner Brown