Aaron Dessner of The National has responded to a false claim that he was paying people to riot in Ohio. He’s really the steward of that. Tom’s awesome, he’s doing great, I’ll tell him you asked. By “We’ve seen a lot of all the good and bad in each other,” says Aaron.
The National had recorded their previous four albums – Trouble Will Find Me, High Violet, Boxer and Alligator – in more confined spaces. And it makes sense if you follow that logic. Scott: Matt was the commandant of the vibe of that song. I asked both Devendorf brothers what they think of Matt’s cooking/baking metaphor.
I would be rewriting the bridge of a song. That open plan studio set up inspired some of the album’s most cathartic guitar moments including a jagged solo on ‘The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness’…, I did that cause we were drinking beer one night, joking around. I’m a small-room drum-sound guy – it turns out the drums sounded better in a large, open space. The architect made the door openings higher and was conscious of things being head-height. We’re very lucky to be at this point where I could build a studio and really welcome everyone, and have everyone stay for long periods of time. We started a band because we just liked hanging out together. On Sunday, (May 31), The National's Aaron Dessner took to Instagram to reply after bizarrely being accused of being an “Antifa organizer caught on camera appearing to pay some kids to riot” in Ohio. I definitely enjoyed that. This morning I've woken up to the unpleasant and surprising news that I've been misidentified by some social media users as someone seen encouraging rioting in Columbus, Ohio,” he wrote. Bryan, the band’s drummer, was in a talkative mood at home in Cincinnati; his more softly spoken brother, Scott – who plays bass – was in Long Island, New York. It’s also about Aaron. I wake up at 5am. “They’re creatively blossomed,” the band’s guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner – Aaron’s twin – says of the other set of siblings in the band. And he’s got photos to prove it. And between country hikes and dips in the property’s pond, they began laying the foundation of what would be their seventh, and most intricate album, Sleep Well Beast. Then I moved up into the mountains in Upstate New York, and bought this old farm. We never started a rock band because we wanted to be a big rock band. And everyone is plugged in, and there is a conduit, you know, with audio cabling, running throughout the whole structure. Aaron Dessner of Brooklyn-based band The National has sold his beautiful Ditmas Park Victorian home for $2.35 million, meaning the band is losing their studio space. Matt describes the making of the album as a “cooking session”.
I would stay in the [main] house because of my brother’s kids, who I’m really close to. Apparent Antifa organizer caught on camera appearing to pay some kids to riot. But, then again it’s not really autobiographical or anything like that. Three weeks later, I speak to Bryan and Scott Devendorf back-to-back on a Wednesday evening.
Some of it is, but I think I write songs about possible, hypothetical situations of real relationships.
Typically, Aaron sort of drives the bigger-picture-type things. In 1998, after Dessner's earlier band, Project Nim, broke up, Devendorf invited the brothers to join his band The National. “But we’re still a close family.”. When they’re not playing in The National, the pair makes kraut-inspired instrumental music as part of the trio LNZNDRF with Beirut’s Ben Lanz. Is that a personal or general statement? They would wake me up at 6am. And it’s not by choice, it’s just weird. According to Brooklyn Vegan, a now-suspended Twitter account suggested that Dessner is "an Antifa organizer paying people to riot" who "needs to be arrested NOW!!". The “last guy” is guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner, who was supposed to be the second guy before the interview was rescheduled. In addition, we also write a lot of the music together. Terms of Service / Privacy Policy / All Rights Reserved, Michael Stipe shared a video of his new collaborative track with Aaron Dessner titled "No Time for Love Like Now", Django Django announce fourth album with title-track “Glowing In The Dark”, Billie Eilish grabs food at a deserted mall on new cut “Therefore I Am”, It looks like Megan Thee Stallion is about to announce her debut album, 3OH!3 to link with 100 gecs on first new single in four years “Lonely Machines” tomorrow, You can now play as Dua Lipa in FIFA 21 VOLTA, Ryan Hemsworth shares new Quarter-Life Crisis song “Comfortable” with Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, Joan of Arc preview final LP with third single “Karma Repair Kit”, Elder Island return with striking new single “Feral” and b-side “Absolute”, Margot probe a very timely yearning for intimacy on new track “Falling In Between Days”, Alicia Clara hits upon dream-pop perfection with new single “Five”, Palberta level up on the ambitious harmonies of “Corner Store”, Hiatus looks beyond human behaviour on the atmospheric “Arrival”, daine teams up with Danny L Harle for spiritual emo ballad “Angel Numbers”, Polly Money shares debut mixtape and bold new single “In The Dark”. I wasn’t like, “Oh, here – I’m going to play this epic guitar solo.” It was more like, “I’m just going to impersonate Keith Richards for five minutes and see what happens.”. Previously we had a studio in my garage in Brooklyn where we had made High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me, and I made a bunch of other records there. And it’s beautiful to look out at the nature – you’ll see wild turkeys, and coyotes, and hawks, and all kinds of stuff. We took the barn down and recycled all the wood, and built a recording studio specifically for the band. We’re not necessarily trying to assert some agenda, but I’d say that ‘Turtleneck’ and ‘Walk it Back’, which has the quote from Karl Rove in it, sort of feels like a precursor to the whole nightmare we’re living in now. Nor have I been in Ohio since June 2019. He’s in his living room when the call is connected, and talks warmly about his role in building a home base for the band in Hudson, a scenic two-hour train ride from NYC. And so I do find songs a way of, or an excuse for saying things out loud that are maybe harder to say out loud in normal conversation. The band jammed it and I remember Matt was coaching us over the headphones, basically telling Bryce and I to duel. So getting each one on the phone individually was the only option for an act that really only reconvenes to tour and record. We recorded Alligator in my sister’s attic; and Boxer, a lot of it in my attic. I think it kind of brings us back to the joy of why we did this in the first place. There’s really not any hierarchy there. From those sessions out at Aaron’s Long Pond studio to the political climate that underpins tracks like ‘Walk It Back’ (featuring a sample from former George W Bush advisor Karl Rove) and ‘Turtleneck’ with its references to “another man, in shitty suits”. Matt lives with his wife and collaborator Carin Besser, a former editor at The New Yorker; his daughter Isla; and his brother Tom, who directed the band’s 2013 doco Mistaken For Strangers. Like duel soloing … almost like it was a game between twins or something. I've been here for three months now isolating with my wife and young children. Reportedly, Stine is from a pretty Danish lady from Copenhagen who met Aaron around 2007. Please delete this tweet. “I am not the person some are suggesting I am. The band's self-titled first album was released in 2001 on Brassland Records, a label Dessner co-founded along with his brother Bryce and Alec Hanley Bemis. ‘Turtleneck’ was one of the first songs we conceived of at the initial session where we all met in Easter 2016 … It was tossed off, very casual.
According to Brooklyn Vegan, a now-suspended Twitter account suggested that Dessner is "an Antifa organizer paying people to riot" who "needs to be arrested NOW!!".
It’s also about the band. We didn’t want to have a control room, mainly just to create an open space where everyone could be working all the time.
And what better way to musically represent The Donald than something a little, well, deranged. I would be programming drums. Bryce would often work in an isolated booth in the left corner of the barnhouse, with a little window overlooking the pond. He shared a photo of grass, trees, and mountains with a note to fans.
So there’s a lot of break up songs and, you know, I’m married. The weird claim was made after a video clip that sees a man who looks a little like Dessner paying protesters to riot in Ohio surfaced. How lucky we are to have the kind of audiences that we do. And then I’d go take a nap and go swimming or whatever and they’d start baking. They were mindful of my height.
Despite the relaxed nature of those Long Pond sessions, a sense of unease permeates the record, which Bryce says is reflective of the current mood in the US rather than anything consciously political. That was special. A few days of orchestrations in Paris. Matt used to keep notebooks full of lyrics up until about five years ago. We recorded a great deal of material there, but the twins were travelling the world capturing a lot of sounds, mainly in Berlin and then all the orchestrations were recorded in a studio in Paris. Then again the album does feature a sample of a quote often ascribed to Karl Rove, a former White House senior advisor and one of the main players in George W Bush’s regime.
“I've been here for three months now isolating with my wife and young children. Bryce lives in Paris with his French wife, but he’s in Dublin now, where The National are playing a double-header at a venue called Vicar Street. I had my iPhone and a bluetooth speaker…. Bryan: The kitchen metaphor? The National 's Aaron Dessner was dragged into a bizarre theory over the weekend regarding the ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd last month.. Because I thought a lot about how the band would need to work. It has an 18th-century farmhouse on it, and there was a really old barn. With Devendorf and the Dessner brothers were Scott Devendorf, Bryan's older brother, and Matt Berninger. Aaron’s wife is Danish, so he splits time between Copenhagen and Upstate New York. Then I’d come back in later on and we’d write and collaborate until, you know – some people would do it all night long. “Just another man, in shitty suits, everybody’s cheering for/This must be the genius we’ve been waiting years for.” That’s The Donald. He has over 49k followers on his Instagram, “aadrondessner.” Likewise, the singer also has over 13.4k followers on his twitter, “aaron-dessner.”