"If I could sum up my process, it would be this: finish everything," says Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. "I finish every song I start even if I know in the first verse that it’s a complete pile of shit. I finish it because there might be a lyrical idea or a theme in the third verse or the chorus or the bridge that I can use somewhere else."

Unsurprisingly, Gibbard calls himself a "completionist." He finishes every song he starts writing, every book he begins reading. It's no mystery why he's so prolific, of course, but Gibbard's productivity is due to his efficiency: there's a purpose to everything he does in his creative process. He knows what works, and he knows what doesn't.

Death Cab for Cutie's latest album is I Built You a Tower.