Ever exquisite and heartrending, the Brooklyn band are back with album number five that takes their songs and stories to a new epic level. 2ser Subscribers can win a copy of this album all week on Breakfast, Overdrive and Static.
The album features guest appearances from Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), Sufjan Stevens, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), regular collaborator Padma Newsome and Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman).
Formed in 1999, the Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based band consists of vocalist Matt Berninger plus two pairs of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar), and Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). Early albums The National and Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers preceded their signing to Beggars Banquet in 2004. Alligator (2005), including “Mr. November” and “Daughters Of The Soho Riots”, raised their profile as the band grew into a compelling and incendiary live proposition. Boxer (2007), featuring songs like “Fake Empire”, “Mistaken For Strangers” and “Start A War”, sold over three times as many copies as its predecessor and saw them gracing the likes of the Letterman show and touring with REM. Barack Obama later used “Fake Empire” in his election campaign, on the soundtrack to the promotional video Signs Of Hope And Change.
Since going the distance with Boxer, which along with Alligator has made countless “album of the decade” lists, The National have been, in the main, very busy. Aaron and Bryce produced Dark Was The Night. “That was a real undertaking,” says Aaron. The 31- track album to benefit the Red Hot Organization featured contributions from Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, and many others. It has so far raised close to $1,000,000. This allowed Red Hot to make donations to many AIDS charities, including an emergency grant of $150,000 to Partners In Health in Haiti, right after the earthquake. The Dessners also produced a sold-out concert for Dark Was The Night at Radio City Music Hall, at which The National performed as well as acts like David Byrne, Dirty Projectors, Feist and Bon Iver. The brothers were then commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy Of Music to write and perform a 70-minute song cycle at the Howard Gilman Opera House, with orchestra, to accompany a film by artist Matthew Ritchie. Their songs for this project were sung by Matt Berninger, Kim and Kelley Deal (Breeders, Pixies) and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond). It went by the name of The Long Count.
“After all the touring for Boxer, nobody wanted to dive back in to being-in-a-band right
away” Matt says in regards making a start on High Violet. “It took a while to get our brains cooking again. Aaron and Bryce always have creative outlets, and my wife had a baby girl at the beginning of 2009, so I unplugged from music and focused on family a little. Then gradually Iʼd walk around writing cornerstones of lyrics for all the sketches theyʼd sent me. It was a drip-by-drip, trickle-through process.” Aaron agrees, “We always agonise. The process can be difficult. But eventually something beautiful and cohesive emerged.”
Having their own studio proved a boon. “It made so much more possible,” enthuses Aaron. Behind his old Victorian house lay a 1920s garage thatʼd been decaying for years. In summer 2008 the band decided to invest in transforming it. “For the first time in our lives, we had access to a really great home studio. We were now creating the shape of the sound-world ourselves. We could capture and preserve the spontaneity and roughness of first takes but also re-do things many times if we wished, predetermining the outcome a little better. The record has a thick, layered, shifting textural feeling to it that we discovered through experimentation. The rawness of the garage recordings also gives the whole thing a sense of humility that I think is important.” Many of the songs went through generations of evolution. A few however were based on Aaronʼs original demos, when what initially happened “accidentally” couldnʼt be recaptured. The striking opening track, “Terrible Love”, was based on an
“accidental” guitar sound.
Meanwhile, Matt was gradually zero-ing in on a selection of the dozens of pieces of music heʼd been sent. “When I told them which ones I was getting attached to, I think they were surprised. I was drawn towards more ugly tones and rhythms, perhaps not the usual sweet spots.” Matt expressed a desire to hear things that “sounded like hot tar. Or loose wool.”
Matt was looking for melodies that were “fun, and maybe a little outside my previous range.” While he acknowledges that a personal, confessional element is always going to be intrinsic in the lyrics, thereʼs a conviction that High Violet has a wider, communal perspective. “Thereʼs more of an “us” than an “I”. The perspective is less singular. Maybe that has to do with having a baby and family.” Itʼs perhaps most evident on “Afraid Of Everyone”, a chilling response to the separations currently dividing America. While “Conversation 16” hovers on the brink of frustration and rage, “Runaway” is the subtlest of love songs and “Lemonworld” hails the value of hope, fun and fantasy. As Matt muses, the lyrics were going to go where they wanted “and I could only fight that up to a point.” “Somehow we create our own little world,” says Aaron, “and it works, even though sometimes it shouldnʼt. We stick with it, and it goes somewhere.”
Matt concludes, “Oddly, though this album is catchier and more fun than our other records, it's also a lot bleaker in its ideas and themes. We started out trying to make a light and happy record, but it just didn't happen."
