With his deep baritone voice, Matt Berninger fronts the rock band The National.  We spoke to him earlier in 2005 about their latest record Alligator.

Your newest album Alligator has been met with what seems like unanimous praise. Did you sense at all that it would be this warmly recieved? What was the hardest part about recording the record?

We knew it was a great record but we didn’t expect so much response so fast. Our records usually take a while to get into, so we’re told, and most journalist don’t have that kind of time. We’ve always relied on word of mouth, friends telling friends, not so much on the media. People seem to be spending time with Alligator and digging in. We’ve even started to enjoy our first taste of backlash. One guy referred to me as a “repellant dreck.” It’s been validating.

Recording was not so hard. Maybe because we recorded most of it at home and took our time. We had more fun on this record than usual. The hardest part was getting it down to 13 songs and under 45 minutes. We had a lot more songs that some of us couldn’t let go of. It ended up being just over 48 minutes.

There was one very scary moment while we were mixing when we thought we might need to rerecord the drums. Apparently there was a problem with the 1 inch tape we recorded to. This pretty much would have meant losing everything and starting from scratch. Thankfully we came to our senses and forged ahead.

The song Abel sounds so different from what most would expect you to write. Tell us how it came about and what made you decide to use it as the album’s first single.

Abel had been around for a long time in very different form. It used to be an acoustic ballad that we played live for years but could never get a good recording. One day at practice Bryan started playing this pounding rhythm and I started screaming “my mind’s not right” which I stole from my girlfriend, she stole it from Robert Lowell. It fit with the lyrics to Abel so we melted it all together. Abel was reborn in about 15 minutes after floating in purgatory for 3 years. Nice one Bry.

This is your first record for Beggars, but your fourth release overall. Have you noticed a clear transition between records? Is there any personal backstory behind each album?

We’ve evolved pretty naturally from our first record by playing live a lot and getting more confident. We’ve never sat down and said “let’s go in this direction this time.” We just keep writing songs until we have a bunch that work together, then we put out a record. I wish I could say there was some cool melodramatic story behind each record but the truth is they’re all just snapshots of messy obsessions and whatever junk was piling up in our heads at the time. Some of its autobiographical but a lot of the songs are just juicy fiction. I’m reluctant say what parts are true. I’d get in trouble if I revealed who the girl was who pissed in the sink.

You recorded a music video for Abel. Was that a new experience for you? Who was responsible for the idea and direction of the video?

It wasn’t our first video, we did one for Sugar Wife off Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. It featured Scott and I taking a bath together and was met with mixed reactions from friends and family. For Abel we wanted a simple honest video without a lot of razzmatazz or nudity. We’d met Adam Levite, the man behind Associates in Science, and liked what he’d done. He suggested we just play the song in a room somewhere and he’d film it. Originally we were supposed to film in some cool loft space but that fell through at the last minute so we set up in our practice space and at home. I like how our shirts keep changing, exposing the artiface. It only took half the day to shoot so afterward we popped the champagne and all took a bath.

The ninth song on Alligator, All the Wine, originally appeared on your EP Cherry Tree. Why made you decide to re-release it?

Roger Trust from Beggars was in love with that song and really wanted to include it. Not many people owned Cherry Tree and the song seemed to fit well into the context of Alligator, so we included it. That’s what bumped the record past the 45 minute mark. The 45 minute thing is just my own pet peeve. I prefer shorter records that I can play on repeat. Alligator still works well on repeat.

You are about to embark on a tour of Europe, a place you’ve played fairly often. How is your popularity there compared to in the United States? Are there any differences in venues or the crowd?

For some reason we were embraced by Europeans first, specifically the French. Maybe the lyrics sound better through foreign ears. Anyway, everybody knows the French have always been way ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to rock’n'roll and pharmaceuticals.

Have you felt any effect from people file sharing or downloading your music? What are your thoughts on the subject?

For small bands its very helpful. I expect that someone who downloads some songs would eventually buy the record or at least make mixes for friends and spread the word. I know that’s happened for us a lot. It really only hurts the bands who expect to sell millions of records and the labels that are banking on those sales. They should blame themselves for not paying attention to what was going on. They should have changed their business models a lot time ago.

Links
www.americanmary.com
www.beggars.com/us