Death Cab for Cutie Lead L.A. Celebrity Tour in ‘The Ghosts of Beverly Drive’ Video
Death Cab for Cutie leader Ben Gibbard has made it obvious that the band’s latest album, Kintsugi, addresses the strange and surreal existence that is living in Hollywood. So far, music videos emerging from the LP -- which arrived back in March -- also tackle those themes, including the newly minted clip for “The Ghosts of Beverly Drive.” Watch it above.
In the Robert Hales-directed video, Gibbard and his bandmates Jason McGerr and Nick Harmer lead a celebrity bus tour through the streets of L.A. The clip depicts scenes typically found on such tours, including sightseers climbing fences to take pictures of famed homes and security guards of said estates showering trespassers with hoses.
“That was staged, but it came about as a result of an actual celebrity tour that Robert took while doing some research for the video,” Harmer told Rolling Stone. “He said that the bus he was riding on was actually sprayed a few times by local residents, and it happens quite often.”
Harmer adds that the video -- which also features nods to Kintsugi songs “Black Sun” and “Little Wanderer” -- is meant to embody the tours’ empty attempts at connection to an unreachable celebrity culture.
“For every great thing about the city and the experience of living there, there is an offsetting negative that, for me, makes my feelings about L.A. a net zero in terms of personal connection,” he said. “The culture of celebrity tours feeds into this… it leaves me feeling cold and indifferent, and we wanted to make a video that cpatures that feeling of detachments.”
Previously, Gibbard has said that Kintsugi addresses “an amalgamation of people I came across living in Los Angeles.”