I wrote this little account of my time with The National for Rolling Stone Turkey back in December of 2007 for the January 2008 issue of the magazine. I think it is an interesting read for any fan due to the timing of the encounter. Just on the brink of mainstream success, it is amazing to see just how far they have come (Obama’s campaign song anyone?) and just how unsure they were of their continued success. You’ve got to love those modest, midwestern men. I hope you enjoy a look back at The National.
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When I heard that Cincinnati, Ohio natives The National were coming to Babylon I knew that there couldn’t be a better case of perfect timing. The National’s gig at Babylon coincided with the first tour to promote their release Boxer, for which the band was receiving rave reviews. A lot of people seem to take Babylon for granted and forget that a 400-person venue is a really special size, but I appreciate it at almost every concert I go to, especially in instances like this. Fully aware that the opportunity to see The National play at such an intimate venue in the near future might not be possible I made sure to savor every moment of the night.
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I first discovered the National in 2005. One project I was given as an intern at Pozitif was to alphabetize all of the cds in the archives. While carrying out that utterly mundane task, I made sure to upload many of the promo albums to my computer for future listening. Following my internship I packed up and moved to Paris. I went with one suitcase and an ipod filled with thousands of fresh, new songs and artists to discover. One day when I was waiting in the metro station for my ride to come a song off of Alligator came up on shuffle. It was not the most outstanding track on the album, but something about Matt Berninger’s voice sounded so defeated and yet so not ready to surrender. I had to go back and listen again to try and figure out what he was saying, and so began the period of my life when I would listen to Alligator on a daily basis.
When Boxer was released in the spring of 2007 I enjoyed it from the opening bars of ‘Fake Empire.’ Berninger’s formula of using excerpts from stories he has written to assemble his songs works well on this album as does the addition of Padma Newsome. The Yale-educated, Australian-born composer and arranger behind The Clogs is largely responsible for the sweeping orchestral arrangements, seemingly ambitious—but comfortably at home on the album in the hands of the talented Dessner and Devendorf brothers. I had heard news that Padma was accompanying the band on tour and I was hopeful that he would be in the mix at the show in Istanbul as well.
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Leaving nothing to chance, I went and staked out my place forty-five minutes prior to the start of the concert. Standing front row center while enjoying a set by Mabbas, I met two delightful, intelligent young men who were already wearing their freshly purchased The National t-shirts. As Scott Devendorf (guitar) and Matt Berninger both have backgrounds in graphic design I asked them who designed the shirts and it turns out that while Scott has designed some stuff for the National, the shirts are usually designed by one of their friends John.
As for the concert, I can tell you it began with ‘Start A War’, and then to be honest I just went into a meditative state similar to that of a person deep in prayer, worship. I was glad that the band wasn’t too tired to rock, even though Istanbul was the second-to-last date on their extensive tour through Europe. Their set-list was thorough and satisfying, particularly with the last-minute addition of Karen, which Berninger refused to play at first because it ‘is too painful to play’. The band’s fiery delivery of Alligator stand-out ‘Mr.November’ turned the front row at Babylon into something of a moshpit. The entire house chanted out “Mistaken for Strangers” which proved that the audience had done their homework…a bit of a rarity in a city where it seems that most people choose to go to concerts based on hype, rather than of their own desire.
Over dinner the night after the concert I asked The National if they were surprised that so many people sang to their songs at Babylon. The guitarist Aaron Dessner said that “In Zagreb we played before a crowd of 1200, and everyone was singing along to the songs. I asked our record label in Croatia how many of our albums had been sold and the label reps said not a single one. We hadn’t sold any!’ Matt followed up by saying ‘Yeah, see like I said before there are a lot more bands that can find audiences (because of the internet), but nobody gets rich the way that they used to. Right now, we’ve temporarily been able to survive off of it only just recently but we also know that to count on that continuing is a bit delusional..”
As we were ordering our drinks at dinner the conversation turned to alcohol in general, wine in particular. I asked Matt why he felt the need to preface the song “All the Wine” by saying, “this song really isn’t about wine, it’s about love” before singing it at Babylon. Matt clarified by explaining that “earlier in the day, in other interviews I was asked a lot about songs about alcohol. And actually the songs that mention alcohol usually aren’t about alcohol, but that one (all the wine) might be the closest you know. The question was something about us “promoting alcohol”, which I can’t deny… (matt laughs) that you know alcohol is a very positive character in many of the songs and I’m very “pro-alcohol” but the songs aren’t really about that you know, so that’s why I think I prefaced that song with a line like that. I’d never done that before.”
At one point during dinner, talk turned to the events of the night before. I had heard that Bryan, the 2 metre tall drummer, had been a little bit spooked by the dark and occasionally sketchy back alleys of Istiklal, a bustling street he had to walk down to get to a popular after-hours club run by the Godet group. I asked Bryan if he was a bit paranoid because of the fact that he got jumped outside of a recent concert in the UK when on tour with R.E.M. and Matt responded by saying “we find it hilarious that he is the most terrifying looking member of the band and yet somehow he seems to be the target for being attacked on the street.” Bryan’s older brother Scot added, “People like to hit him.”
As for future plans Aaron said that he would like to work on more classical stuff, like his brother Bryce and temporary band-mate Padma do, but that it would be more of a challenge for him since he does not read music. Matt says “we are probably going to start recording soon, working on new shit. Most of us would like to do something other than the band for a while, because you just sort of have to—or I have to and not think about this.” Matt also explained that he had tried writing on the road, but that he had found it difficult. This surely stems from the fact that Matt never wants to be writing self-absorbed songs that whine about the problems of being in a band and get out of touch with reality. In fact, Berninger went on to say “We’re going to keep making records and see what happens but if we have to go back to our day jobs, it’s fine too because we did that for years, that was the balance we had. Sometimes we’re in the band, sometimes we’re on the job, you know? In a weird way, I think the balance of the two is the best thing for us”
Hopefully Matt will get time away, time to blend in to the crowd, take the metro and freelance a bit so that he can continue to write songs that work their way into our hearts and minds. If anyone can become rock stars and keep a down-to-earth demeanor, it is surely these modest Midwestern men. This summer will see The National play before audiences of tens of thousands when they accompany R.E.M. on tour and play many summer festivals.
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