The Postal Service is a long-distance collaboration between Death Cab For Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard (b. Seattle, Washington, USA) and Strictly Ballroom, Figurine and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello (b. Silverlake, California, USA). As the duo's moniker suggests, they work via mail, sending discs of semi-completed recordings via the US postal service between Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. The project was initiated after Tamborello invited Gibbard to record the vocal for "The Dream Of Evan And Chan" on Dntel's album, Life Is Full Of Possibilities.
The duo initially planned only an EP's worth of recordings but this soon mutated into an album, Give Up. Tamborello began mailing his collaborator CD-Rs of electronic music, which Gibbard would manipulate via his computer and add guitar, drums, keyboards, and vocals before returning the track to Tamborello for approval and/or further tinkering. Inspired by 80s synth pop and new wave as well as more contemporary electronica, the resultant album was frequently lovely if occasionally saccharine. The duo have admitted that "Nothing Better", a duet with Jen Wood, was overtly inspired by the Human League's "Don't You Want Me". Gibbard has said that, for the most part, the Postal Service's songs eschew autobiography in favour of "just kind of daydreaming" and coming up with songs that are not based in reality. On "Sleeping In", Gibbard imagines a world in which "there was never any mystery about who shot JF Kennedy" and that the climate change from global warming is actually just a reward for small acts of goodness such as obeying stop signs and writing the sender address on the back of envelopes. Tamborello and Gibbard have both said they perceive the Postal Service as an ongoing project easily included alongside their usual bands.
