The National’s second long-player for Beggar’s Banquet, Boxer, already ranks highly in the slightly premature but enduringly accurate ‘Album of the Year’ lists floating around in cyberspace.
And what a knock-out it is. A rich tapestry of haunting melodies, dramatic string arrangements and mercurial guitar merge sublimely to form the perfect backdrop for vocalist Matt Berninger’s sumptuous deep baritone.
In advance of their recent sell-out Olympia show, the velvet-throated frontman has taken some time out to spar a few rounds with hot press.
Despite his darkly sonorous vocals and lugubrious lyrics, in person Berninger is warm and affable. After we exchange pleasantries I remind him that when the band visited these shores in 2005, they played the notably more modest setting of Whelan’s.
“We remember that show!” he exclaims with a smile. “That was one of the more memorable dates over the last few years. It was before many people knew who we were but it was packed and the crowd crazy. It was a very uplifting experience at a time when we were playing a lot of clubs where hardly anybody showed up. We have very fond memories of good times in Dublin.”
Since then the trajectory of the Brooklyn-based Ohio quintet has been firmly in the ascent. Case in point: they started out 2007 with a slew of Arcade Fire support slots.
“We've known them for a while,” Berninger explains. “Bryce (Dessner, The National’s guitarist) and Richie (Reed Parry, Arcade Fire’s upright bass operator) were already buddies through their Clogs side-project. We've been fans of theirs for a long time and they're fans of ours. They asked us if we wanted to do ten of their dates. It was a great way to kick off the year.”
Their paths also crossed this summer when both acts played Oxegen. In fact Arcade Fire swooped in with a modern day Sir Walter Raleigh routine.
“We were walking across to the stage and it was really rainy and muddy,” Matt recalls. “Arcade Fire pulled up in their shuttle and kindly picked us up and drove us over to where we had to go.”
That's not the only reason why the festival was memorable.
“During our performance I looked over and Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Michael Stipe were standing at the side of the stage! I met Michael Stipe later who was sweet as could be. He just came up and said, ‘Hello, I’m Michael’ and I said, ‘Hi, I’m Matt’ (grins) and we chatted for a few minutes. As soon as we were done I called my brother and my parents and told them, ‘I've met Michael Stipe!’”
Any other moments of note from the '07 festival circuit?
“Bob Dylan was at one of the festivals, the idea that you’re playing in the same venue as him is quite surreal.”
Which brings us to The National's new album, Boxer, and its apolitical overtones. On ‘Fake Nation’, for instance, Berninger seems to be throwing in the towel with lines like: "Turn the light out/Say goodnight/No thinking for a little while/ Let’s not try to figure out everything at once."
“The song sounds like it might be an indictment of American apathy, but it's not,” Matt clarifies. “It's more of a self-indictment, reflecting my own desire to avoid thinking about it and just stay in a false mindset where you're pretending everything's fine. It deals with a futile attempt to forget, to go off into the city at night and drink and pretend everything's rosy.”
“After Bush won the second time there was a tendency for people to get depressed. It had been getting worse and worse – he wasn’t going to change, he wasn’t going to pull his head out of his ass.”
Matt is looking forward to the 2008 election with guarded optimism.
“The situation certainly can't get any worse,” he proffers. “It seems like hopefully the sun is going to come out finally next year. But then again never underestimate the power of the conservative Christian right.”
On a lighter note, is it true that Matt is one of the world’s biggest Office fans?
“The US Office is very good,” he enthuses. “It’s probably the best sitcom in America at the moment, but the British Office just raised the bar on humour. It's one of the most courageous and brilliant things I've ever seen.”
Talking of audio-visual treats, fans can look forward next year to a documentary about the making of Boxer.
“Yes, and it's very similar to The Office,” he chuckles. “It shows us at a time when we had no idea where we were going with the record. We were stressed out and look very serious, which is a shame because people think of us as being a dark, morose band. Then you see the documentary and it only confirms that!”