The National’s Matt Berninger on working with Taylor Swift: “She makes such a joyous event of everything”

nme.com:

The National‘s Matt Berninger has spoken to NME about the “different kind of spotlight” that has fallen on the band after working with Taylor Swift.The band have collaborated with Swift on a number of occasions – featuring on her track ‘Coney Island’ from 2020’s ‘Evermore‘ before she provided vocals and lyrics for ‘The Alcott’ on their 2023 album ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein‘.

Guitarist Aaron Dessner has also produced Swift’s last three albums and ‘re-recorded’ records.“The Taylor thing was super organic,” Berninger told NME for this week’s In Conversation interview. “We’ve known her for a long time and obviously Aaron has been doing so much amazing stuff with her.

I wrote ‘The Alcott’ with my wife Carin [Besser] in mind, Aaron sent it to Taylor and she added her own perspective on it and wrote all her parts to it.

It was a true duet where she heard that and inhabited the character that I was singing about – which is almost always Carin.”Berninger continued: “It’s not really a strategic game.