The National say new music is an exploration of “the whole history of the band”
Bryce Dessner has recently been discussing The National’s new musical material while the band are preparing for the remainder of their tour. During festival appearances throughout the summer this year, the indie legends have been playing several new tunes, including ‘Weird Goodbyes’, which features a collab with Bon Iver and is set to be released soon.
Discussing new material, Dessner said to the NME: “We wanted to road-test songs. The journey that we were on from Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers through to I Am Easy To Find was non-stop. There was no breaking between writing and releasing those albums. Just by nature of various things like Covid and things going on in our individual lives, we’ve been able to take time with the new material.”
He added, “Not only are some of the songs informed by playing them live, but we’ve even been recording them in soundchecks from the stage and recording incredibly loud live guitars. The songs are quite far along, but we’re discovering things about them in real-time. We’ve got a small studio backstage, so we’re able to get a lot of work done here.”
It has been reported that the new material that Dessner and the band have been writing has a somewhat ‘classic’ National sound. On this, Dessner said: “I think that is true, but other things are true as well. What I can say is that we’re at a high watermark in terms of our creativity as a band. There’s a lot happening, and a lot of music. We’re allowing ourselves to dream about it, take risks, try things and give the songs time to develop.”
He added, “It’s starting to become something we’re really excited about. It’s hard to say what shape it will take, but there’s a ton there. […] In a way, it’s the whole history of the band but with a new exploration in it. Some of them are our most accessible, others are more poetic with different arrangements.”
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