Chris Walla

Christopher Walla built a reputation as a skilled producer, multi-instrumentalist, and one-time DJ, earning widest recognition for his long partnership with Ben Gibbard inside Death Cab for Cutie. Born in 1975 and raised in Seattle’s suburbs, he absorbed the city’s thriving music community and turned toward production work. At a local show he crossed paths with Gibbard, then handling guitar duties for the power pop outfit Pinwheel, and the two connected through a mutual admiration for Teenage Fanclub. When Gibbard sought temporary relief from Pinwheel commitments, he recruited Walla to shape an eight-song cassette titled You Can Play These Songs with Chords. The tape gained unexpected traction and required a full band for live support, prompting Walla to join forces with bassist Nick Harmer, Gibbard’s roommate, and interim drummer Nathan Good, thereby establishing Death Cab for Cutie.

In 1999 Walla placed a self-titled cassette on Washington’s Elsinor Records under the name Martin Youth Auxiliary and followed it with occasional solo performances. Yet the band’s growing visibility soon overshadowed these side projects, and Walla concentrated on Death Cab for Cutie’s recordings. Although Gibbard wrote most of the songs, Walla’s production choices and instrumental input helped define the group’s sonic identity. The 2003 album Transatlanticism marked their breakthrough, selling 225,000 copies in its debut year and drawing interest from Atlantic Records. Death Cab for Cutie departed Barsuk Records, signed with Atlantic in 2004, and issued the Grammy-nominated Plans the next year.

As his contributions earned Billboard-certified success, outside demand for Walla’s production and engineering increased. He created an online presence for his Hall of Justice studio and began handling projects for Tegan and Sara, Nada Surf—whose earlier albums Let Go and The Weight Is a Gift he had also produced—the Decemberists, Camden, and assorted film soundtracks and compilations. Walla simultaneously revisited solo work, completing Field Manual and returning to the Barsuk roster for its January 2008 release. After further sessions with Telekinesis, the Lonely Forest, Ra Ra Riot, and additional artists, he exited Death Cab for Cutie following a final performance in September 2014. His first post-band solo effort, Tape Loops, emerged on Los Angeles-based Trans Records in 2015 as an unexpected collection of Eno-like ambience. Around the same time he started scoring the film North, scheduled for a 2016 premiere.