Death Cab For Cutie Launch Anti Auto-Tune Campaign

BY Dave SynyardPublished Feb 11, 2009

For those of you who aren't aware of "Auto-Tuning," it's a vocal disguise used by singers to sound pitch-perfect. Of late, it's been abused by the likes of Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Bon Iver and the biggest culprit of all, T-Pain. Well, Death Cab For Cutie have decided to raise awareness, start up a movement and hopefully bring an end to this horrible trend.

The Seattle soft rockers wore blue ribbon badges on their suits at the Grammy Awards Sunday (February 8), which they said is their way of raising awareness, in a breast cancer-ish manor. "Autotuning is a digital manipulation, a correction of a singer's voice that is affecting literally thousands of singers today and thousands of records that are coming out," explained vocalist Ben Gibbard in a discussion with MSN.com.

"We just want to raise awareness while we're here and try to bring back the blue note... The note that's not so perfectly in pitch and just gives the recording some soul and some kind of real character. It's how people really sing, " continued Gibbard. "A little use is okay but there is a difference between 'use' and 'abuse.'"

Added bassist Nick Harmer, "Otherwise, musicians of tomorrow will never practice. They will never try to be good, because yeah, you can do it just on the computer."

Death Cab hitting those "blue notes" in the Hall of Justice

Tour Dates

Latest Coverage