Ben Gibbard's Wife Rachel Demy Might Be the Reason Chris Walla Quit the Band, a Reddit Post Suggests
After Chris Walla's announced to leave his band Death Cab For Cutie in 2014, fans have been wanting to know the motive behind his decision. Although the guitarist laid out a simple incentive for his choice, a Reddit post from a year ago claims that the reason for the guitarist to quit the band was his past romantic relationship with the girlfriend of vocalist Ben Gibbard, Racheal Demy.
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After Chris Walla's announced to leave from his band Death Cab For Cutie in 2014, fans wanted to know the motive behind his decision. Although the guitarist laid out a simple incentive for his choice, a Reddit post from a year ago claims that the guitarist's reason to quit the band was his past romantic relationship with the wife of vocalist Ben Gibbard, Racheal Demy.
Calling it Quits
The co-founder and long-time guitarist of Death Cab For Cutie went public with the news of dropping out from the band in the August of 2014.
A Picture Of Death Cab For Cutie Before Walla's Decision To Quit (Source: Pitchfork)
Walla first announced his decision to leave the band in a letter on The Stranger.
The letter addressed the reasons for him calling it quits. The guitarist expressed that it was as simple as wanting to step out of his comfort zone. Walla wrote, “I think I long for the unknown. It might be that simple.”
Walla confessed that he was indeed sad to be leaving his bandmates but was excited to move forward and do experiments on his own. Walla explained;
“Deciding to leave the band was not, and is not, easy. It’s really, really sad. I love my bandmates, and I’m proud of what we’ve done... Moving forward, my plans are to continue making music, producing records, and erring on the side of benevolence and beauty whenever possible.”
Nevertheless, his explanations did not suffice for his fans.
New Speculation Angle Arises
After playing with DDFC for seventeen long years, Walla’s sudden departure provoked many DDFC fans’ questions. Following the fall out of the band, the fans started speculating the reason behind his exit.
A year ago, new speculations started surfacing when a post on Reddit claimed that the guitarist had a past love affair with Racheal Demy, who is currently the band’s vocalist Ben Gibbard’s wife.
According to the Reddit post, this information source was someone close to the band at one point.
The Reddit post mentioned that in his past romantic relationship with Demy, some drama/awkwardness was created between Walla and Gibbard, leading to the fallout.
The author also accommodates the allegation that Wallas might have known Demy before Gibbard as she appeared in his music video for his 2008 single “Sing Again.” The author used this fact to shed light on why Demy has been in the DCFC circle long before her relationship with Ben.
As a point of reference, the author of the post relies on Walla’s 20 questions with Christopher Walla’s interview from 2000 for The Online Music Source.
In the 9th question, when the interviewer asked Walla what would be the one thing he would save if his house were on fire, he replied by saying he would save a framed photograph of him and his girlfriend, Racheal. Walla said;
“There’s a framed photograph of my girlfriend, Rachel, and myself that I’d save if the house were on fire.”