TRANSATLANTICISM by DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE. Rumination by Michael Leach.

Dja Dja Wurrung Land (Bendigo), 30-31 October 2026

It’s still my 43^rd birthday and I’m here—at my childhood home, at Dad’s house—dwelling on distance. I’m not contemplating how many kilometres I’ve covered since my day of birth, nor the number of steps I’ve taken over time. I’m not weighing up the distance to the bakehouse to pick up my own birthday cake, nor the distances to not-too-distant suburbs to catch up with my siblings and their toddlers. I’ve stopped assessing intrastate distances to Melbourne in my makeshift home office. I’m now lying here in lamplight on Dad’s couch—my crude bed—dwelling on the great distance between Dja Dja Wurrung Land and Awabakal Land, between Greater Bendigo and Greater Newcastle, between my old home and my love’s home. I’m dwelling on every one of those one-thousand kilometres. I’m dwelling on dwellings. Though the distance from B to A is mostly dry, right now it might as well be transoceanic. Right now, I want all the time in the world and none of the distance. But right now, time ticks out while distance remains. Right now, my wristwatch ticks, ticks, ticks over to twelve, to midnight, to Halloween. I start to drift. I start to drift from this time and this place. I start to drift on course. I drift into dreamland with my headphones still on, hearing ‘Transatlanticism’ on repeat.

Stereo Story 905

Michael will be seeing Death Cab for Cutie at Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on 12 November 2026.