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Mini-Interview: Bryce Dessner of The National

Bryce Dessner, part of the guitar (and piano) power behind the National, chatted with ARTISTdirect via email about the new direction the band has taken with the release of Boxer.

Where did the title Boxer come from?

Boxer is a title that came up one day while finishing the record. Actually, it was a hard day for a lot of reasons and I think the title resonated with the band. We'd already been through a thousand other titles. There are several lyrics on the record which resonate with Boxer. Alligator had this kind of murky tension to it which worked well for that title. Boxer is more an album about people striving for things, real or imaginary—and achieving them, or maybe not. Mostly, we just liked the word.

What's your opinion on Boxer leaking and being downloaded before it was officially released? Do you find that downloads/leaks are a valuable way of getting the word out?

Leaked albums are a reality. It's not something we are worried about. Of course it affects sales, but more and more people are purchasing music online anyway. Sometimes we sell more tickets to a single show in a small town than we have sold albums there. I think illegal downloads account for quite a percentage of our fans. We hope people will go buy the real thing when it comes out, if only for the reason that the sound quality of downloads is far inferior. And, yes it helps us! I was surprised the album didn't leak earlier. Though it's amazing how quick it spreads. People keep telling me they are hearing Boxer in bars and shops in Brooklyn. It's April! [Boxer is officially released May 22.]

Boxer has references to war, friendships in flux, heavenly angels, and corporate ladders/office life. What themes did you want to resonate with people?

Matt writes all the lyrics so this may be a question to run by him. He worked really hard on these lyrics, far more than any of our past albums. And I know he is happiest with this album, moreso than anything we have done before.

This is a more subdued set of songs than past albums. What were the motivations behind that?

We wrote a lot of rock songs and we wrote a lot of more lyrical, mellow songs. The mellower ones are what we ended up being happiest with. Though honestly, songs like "Brainy," "Guest Room," "Apartment Story," and especially "Mistaken for Strangers" are just as rocking as anything we have done on Alligator, especially in terms of the drumming. I think the live versions will be even more so. They don't have screaming choruses, but that just wasn't happening this time around. It happens naturally in a song, and this time he wasn't feeling it. You can't force a song to become something it isn't. Our best songs kind of just happen to us.

We definitely wanted to change the sound for this record and push ourselves musically. There is a lot going on in the music that is new for the National. Even if it remains within the sound we have embraced for the band. Songs like "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken for Strangers" are some of the most interesting music and arrangements we have done. "Fake Empire" sounds simple but actually the whole thing is based on a 4 over 3 poly-rhythm which is commonly used in minimalist classical music (Steve Reich, Michael Gordon). The chorus to "Mistaken for Strangers" is a very long phrase with a lot of chord changes. That song was the first finished song we all felt really good about.

You've said you are trying to do something exciting and just not write a bad song. Do you see Boxer as a continuation of Alligator or something completely different?

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