Tycho's Scott Hansen and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard have come together on a new collaborative track, "Only Love." Out today via Mom + Pop/Ninja Tune, the song arrives with its own Hansen-designed visualizer, which you can find below.
The pair teamed up on the track after Hansen became introduced to Gibbard's voice through remixing one of his songs back in 2016. "Ben's voice was a very inspiring element to work with from a production standpoint," he explained in a statement.
Hansen added:
"Only Love" started life as an instrumental, but something was missing. I sent a rough demo to Ben and he recorded some vocals over it. The first time I heard the rough vocals the whole song suddenly made sense and the arrangement flowed out of that. After my early experimentations with vocals on Weather this felt like a great opportunity to put everything I had learned during that process into practice. It was certainly an honour to be able to work with such an iconic voice.
According to Gibbard, the song's lyrics were inspired by a quote from Montanan goat rancher and environmentalist Alexis Bonogofsky, which he read in Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.
It reads:
The connection to this place and the love people have for it, that's what Arch Coal doesn't get. They underestimate that. They don't understand it so they disregard it. And that's what in the end will save that place. It's not the hatred for the coal companies or anger, but love will save this place.
Gibbard explained: "When Scott sent me the music for 'Only Love,' it seemed perfect for this statement. Since reading Alexis' words, I've carried them as a universal truth; that the only way we preserve the people, places or things we care for is with love, not hatred. This is often easier said than done, of course. But I find myself coming back to her statement as if it were a mantra."
Listen to their new song below.
The pair teamed up on the track after Hansen became introduced to Gibbard's voice through remixing one of his songs back in 2016. "Ben's voice was a very inspiring element to work with from a production standpoint," he explained in a statement.
Hansen added:
"Only Love" started life as an instrumental, but something was missing. I sent a rough demo to Ben and he recorded some vocals over it. The first time I heard the rough vocals the whole song suddenly made sense and the arrangement flowed out of that. After my early experimentations with vocals on Weather this felt like a great opportunity to put everything I had learned during that process into practice. It was certainly an honour to be able to work with such an iconic voice.
According to Gibbard, the song's lyrics were inspired by a quote from Montanan goat rancher and environmentalist Alexis Bonogofsky, which he read in Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.
It reads:
The connection to this place and the love people have for it, that's what Arch Coal doesn't get. They underestimate that. They don't understand it so they disregard it. And that's what in the end will save that place. It's not the hatred for the coal companies or anger, but love will save this place.
Gibbard explained: "When Scott sent me the music for 'Only Love,' it seemed perfect for this statement. Since reading Alexis' words, I've carried them as a universal truth; that the only way we preserve the people, places or things we care for is with love, not hatred. This is often easier said than done, of course. But I find myself coming back to her statement as if it were a mantra."
Listen to their new song below.
