Songfacts®:

• Ben Gibbard opens his solo debut album Former Lives with this barbershop-style a cappella tune that consists entirely of the Death Cab For Cutie frontman overdubbing his voice into his iPhone. He explained to Consequence of Sound: "We were on tour, and I was playing in Shepherd's Bush. I found myself taking advantage of the technology in my pocket. It's like a song-oid; it's a ditty or a sketch; it's a sketch of a song. I just thought it would be a hoot to start the record out with. I think it's kind of playful and not very in-keeping with what people know or think about when they think about the kind of records I'm tied to. Necessity is probably a little extreme but certainly out of intent. That was the version I recorded in Shepherd's Bush, so that's the version on the record. There's really no reason going back to it and trying to make it something more than what it is."
• Shepherd's Bush is an area of west London, which is best known for its Westfield shopping centre, the largest urban shopping centre in Europe. Gibbard most likely recorded the song around the time of Death Cab For Cutie's gig at Hammersmith Apollo on November 16, 2011. Hammersmith is about a mile south of Shepherd's Bush.