Summer camp is over for Ohio’s most celebrated purveyors of solemn, suited-up gloom, The National.
Since wrapping up touring in support of 2013’s acclaimed Trouble Will Find Me, which took them around the better part of the world and saw them perform some of the biggest headlining shows of their career, The National’s five members have busied themselves with family life and a handful of musical projects.
Guitarist Aaron Dessner, for instance, focused on production work for artists such as Frightened Rabbit and Little May, while his twin brother Bryce curated a music festival and honed in on his noted work as a composer. Elsewhere, frontman Matt Berninger formed a new side project, El Vy, alongside former Menomena multi-instrumentalist Brent Knopf. The duo’s left-of-centre indie-pop, a fascinating contrast to the sepia sadness often associated with The National, resulted in an album, Return To The Moon, released last November.
“It looks like the El Vy stuff is going to keep on going,” says Berninger. “We’re actually going to be playing three songs at the TED conference in Vancouver – I’m heading over there tomorrow. We’ve got a handful of things in the pipeline, too. Putting out the album and touring in support of it was such a blast. We got to play these really intimate rooms – places that I haven’t had the chance to play in years. When you’re seeing The National these days, most of the places that we play have the big security barriers and a big moat between you and the audience. I had missed that intimacy – that’s actually a part of why I started going out into the crowd during our shows. It was great to have people right up against the stage again. We enjoyed it so much that we’re already starting work on the next record.”
If that wasn’t enough, The National themselves are back in session, hard at work on their seventh LP. When Berninger touches base to give a status update, nothing is yet set in stone regarding the album – no title, no tentative release date and not even the tracklist has begun to take formation. The singer is, however, incredibly excited about the potential of what’s to come. He sees the album as a chance to explore what it is The National are capable of, and maybe even challenge their comfort zone.
“We’re pretty deep into making this record right now,” he says. “We had a big batch of about 30 songs that we played around with in the studio when we were starting out. Now, Aaron and Bryce are sending me even more new stuff to work with. Sometimes, they’ll just send over a loop, I’ll put it into GarageBand and if I find myself drawn to it, I listen to it over and over. It’s weird – sometimes they’ll send over these beautiful little sketches of songs and I will have absolutely no idea where my place is in it. You never know what it’s going to feel like.
“We’re exploring and experimenting right now, and there’s about ten songs that are really starting to take over my focus. They’re songs that I feel are just dying to be written. I’ve never been this excited and motivated to try new things on record. The things that are coming out of this process, a lot of it is different to what we’ve done in the past. We’re trying to push the boundaries on our own terms.”
2016 will primarily see Berninger and The National focusing on completing – and hopefully releasing – their seventh album. Before that mountain is climbed, however, the band will be back in the Southern Hemisphere for a whirlwind visit. The National are booked as festival exclusives for Byron Bay’s Bluesfest with the likes of D’Angelo, Kendrick Lamar, Modest Mouse and Tom Jones, as well as Auckland City Limits in New Zealand, where they will be joined by Girl Talk and Action Bronson. Despite considerable demand, they will not be playing any other sets – a position that Berninger could never have anticipated he would find himself in.
“If you’d have told me ten years ago that this band would be at a point where we could fly halfway across the world, play two shows and then go back again, I’d have never believed you,” he says with a laugh. “Especially if those two shows were in Byron Bay and Auckland, of all places. We’re looking forward to the break from the studio. As much as we want to keep making the record, it’s good to shake the vibe of it and shake up your chemistry a little bit. It’s invigorating. We might even play one or two songs we’ve been working on, just to see how people respond to it.
“Besides everything else, we get to see each other again. Everyone has this idea of bands just hanging out together all the time – we honestly don’t get to do it all that much! We all have kids, apart from Bryce, and we’re still trying to balance out our work and family life as much as possible. I mean, you’re telling me we get a break from being husbands and dads for a week to go hang out in Byron Bay and be rock stars? We live very fortunate lives.”
[The National photo by Shane McCauley]
The National play Bluesfest 2016, at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay, Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28.
