Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar Channel Kerouac for Documentary Soundtrack

Posted on Aug 13th 2009 2:50PM by Benjy Eisen
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When Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard was invited to join Son Volt's Jay Farrar for soundtrack work, originally he was just going to be a guest vocalist on a couple tunes. But the two artists, who had never met before, found an immediate spark and continued to work on the project over the next year and a half, when their individual schedules allowed for it. The resulting CD, 'One Fast Move or I'm Gone,' is based entirely on Jack Kerouac's novel 'Big Sur' and will accompany a documentary of the same name and subject matter.

The songwriting process was notably different than anything either artist ever worked on before. Farrar wrote 11 of the 12 tunes, with Gibbard contributing vocals, guitar and -- drum roll please -- drums. Gibbard is no stranger to two-man side-projects. In 2003, he famously formed Postal Service with Jimmy Tamborello. For both that project and his day job in Death Cab for Cutie, Gibbard is the principle lyricist. But for this one, Farrar gets that credit. The truth however, is that Kerouac himself actually penned the content.

"All of the words from the songs Jay wrote are based within the prose from 'Big Sur,'" Gibbard tells Spinner. "And the song that I wrote is about a part of the story of the book."

Farrar elaborates: "I started out with the 'Sea' poem at the end of the novel and gradually worked my way into the text of the novel itself, using Jack's thoughts and phrases, just kind of picking threads from throughout the book and making songs along the way," he says. "It ultimately wound up being about 90 percent direct links to Jack's poems and phrases." The remaining 10 percent, he explains, he added for structural reasons within the lyrical framework.

From Gibbard's perspective, it was an ideal situation. "It couldn't have been any more perfect," he says. "My favorite book by my favorite writer, and with a brilliant songwriter working on these musical reinterpretations -- I was really excited to be a part of it."

'One Fast Move or I'm Gone' -- both the DVD documentary and the CD soundtrack -- will be released on Oct. 20 in various packaging configurations. This fall, Gibbard and Farrar will honor Kerouac in another way when the pair take these songs "on the road."