SoundProof Interviews the National
By: Eli Lee
If any band proves you've got to keep on trying until you get it right, it's the National. While the Brooklyn-based band's scratchy-voiced rawly produced earlier offerings were met with critical confusion, Boxer was a hit, winning over old and new fans alike. In short, everyone went crazy for it. I can testify - one day back just after its release, I listened to "Slow Show" about sixty times, and singer Matt Berninger's croaky, lovelorn bass voice got me right there every time. As they limber up for a slot supporting REM on their U.S. tour, Berninger and bassist Scott Devendorf took a few moments to hurl some dry wit Soundproof's way during the UK music festival All Tomorrows' Parties (ATP). Preparing to tour with REM and enjoying their first ATP experience, Matt and Scott were in the mood for kicking and kidding around about their "shitty taste" in music - that is, until we mentioned Barack Obama.
Soundproof: So how did you come to be playing at All Tomorrows' Parties - surely the only festival taking place at a holiday resort usually reserved for families spending a week playing crazy golf?
Matt Berninger: Well, we were just asked (by Explosions in the Sky, who curated the festival) and we said yes immediately. We had heard about it, and it came recommended, and they offered us three million dollars. That's the biggest reason. To be honest I had a slight bit of anxiety about it, because of my experience of other festivals. Though fun, they're similar to the worst experience I could imagine, insofar as the mud and the rain and the urine. But thankfully, it's very nice, although someone got kicked out last night for defecating on their windowsill, apparently.
SP: Only at ATP. So what bands are you excited to see here?
MB: I thought Explosions in the Sky were really good last night. I'm also a huge fan of Friday Night Lights. I was channeling Tim Riggins last night, but no one noticed. And I'm looking forward to seeing Battles and Okkervil River.
Scott Devendorf: I really want to see Iron and Wine.
SP: What's involved in preparing for a tour with REM?
MB: I'd never heard of REM before they asked us to tour with them, but we checked out their stuff . . . [It was at about this point the realization that Berninger was being sarcastic about almost everything kicked in.] Actually, this was one of the rare times that you find out one of your heroes has been listening to your stuff, so we're really excited about that. The new REM album is awesome, and it's nice to see a band that can stay together and still all like each other - on certain levels, I guess -and whowas able to keep reinventing themselves and try different things. It will be awesome playing stadiums with them, too. Half-filled stadiums at that point in the evening, but that's still ten times the size of our biggest crowd.
SP: Are you working on any new stuff at the moment?
SD: Yeah, a couple of new songs
MB: There are some seeds that are sprouting, but it will be a while. We always plan to work on the songs while we're on tour but we never do. We can't reallyget in that sort of zone when we're on the bus.
SD: We're trying to set up our own studio, probably by next year, closer to where we live in Brooklyn.
"I'm very proud of America, very patriotic, and being against Bush is the most patriotic thing you can be". - Matt Berninger
SP: I was in Brooklyn last week. All I saw were "Support Obama" posters everywhere. Are you keeping up with the election?
MB: Yes. Obama would be a significant change and I think, after eight years of this, there's a feeling that we're just driving really fast down the wrong way. It's just getting uglier and uglier and uglier, almost close to the point of no return, and he has emerged as the great hope. He's also the first politician in my living memory who is remotely likeable. He's actually loveable, in my opinion - so far. Being an American, there's definitely a sensation of feeling that this country's been taken away, these past eight years feel like the country's been hijacked. I'm very proud of America, very patriotic, and so being against Bush is the most patriotic thing you can be.
We played political hardball a while longer, but got back to the music eventually. Matt revealed, in his own words, that he "didn't listen to good music". Predilections for Guns n' Roses were revealed, but pressing deeper, we found that what the National really got a hard-on for was G n' R cover bands. G n' R cover band Mr. Brownstone, side project of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Sean Greengalgh, got the thumbs up from both Matt and Scott.
As the conversation somehow segued into what they would call a National cover band, they mused on how it might be cooler to have a lesbian cover band. But what to name it escaped us. We tossed around suggestions. The naSHEnal? Sh'national? Vagashional? Hmm. It was time to wrap things up.
Not too many weeks later, the National announced their new t-shirt design, festooned with a picture of Barack Obama and the words "Mr November", which you can get from the band's website, www.americanmary.com. All proceeds go towards Obama's 2008 campaign. It would be nice to think this little chat with Soundproof was the start of that.
