THE NATIONAL, the greatest band in the world right now, take to the stage in Galway in July. The centre of attention will be vocalist Matt Berninger, a charismatic storm of passion and masculine existential angst, his lyrics matched by the intensity of guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner, and the imaginative rhythms of drummer Bryan Devendorf, while calmly, authoritatively anchoring all this tension and release will be bassist Scott Devendorf.
Over the last decade, The National have enjoyed a slow, but steady, ascent to international commercial and critical success. Then came the release of the band’s masterpiece, Trouble Will Find Me in May 2013, which earned a Grammy Award nomination, and went Top 5 in Ireland, Britain, the US, Canada, Portugal, and Denmark. Now the New York by way of Ohio quintet find themselves on a pinnacle, commanding huge audiences across the world at their own shows and at festival appearances.
“We’re very proud of it,” Scott Devendorf says about Trouble Will Find Me, which made this possible. “Each of our albums I have a fondness for but we’re happy with how people are receiving it.”
Yet the album almost did not happen, as a freak tornado caused havoc around the band’s converted barn studio in upstate New York.
“It was classic of our luck,” Scott tells me. “We spent the whole day making adjustments, were ready to go, and as soon as we struck the first note, this tornado, twister, high winds, touched down and blasted out the power for a good few days. We had all the equipment so we did acoustic, ‘round the campfire, versions of the songs. That was fun for about a day, but we eventually moved studios and as soon as we did, the power came back at the main studios! We started late and it was stressful, but it didn’t kill the recording process. A lot of our situations have over the years been affected by weather. At this stage it’s par for the course.”
Despite this inauspicious beginning, “our other records have been hard to make, but this was little less harder than the others,” Scott declares. Once the electricity was restored and the band got to work, the “process was more relaxed and some of that shows in the production. It’s a little breezier, less claustrophobic.”
Read Kernan Andrew's full interview here.
