Interview: The National Visit Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater for Intimate Outdoor Show with ALVVAYS
Anyone looking for a special, alternative rock show this weekend should consider The National and ALVVAYS playing a dual-show at Stanford’s recently renovated Frost Amphitheater on Saturday, September 1st.
With Matt Berninger on main vocals, plus two sets of brothers – Aaron and Bryce Dessner on guitar/piano/keyboards, along with Scott and Bryan Devendorf on bass and drums respectively, The National has a soothing sound that blends alternative and folk-rock. Beyond the music, the band has a knack for visual presentation, having released multiple films alongside their new albums, including one for their latest record, I Am Easy To Find. The band’s eighth studio album follows up on their 2017 Grammy-award winning release, Sleep Well Beast.
To learn more about the band’s recent run, we spoke with Scott Devendorf to ask about the band’s creative process, filmmaking, San Francisco and more.
What’s been the most surprising feedback you’ve received about the new album?
I think a lot of people were really surprised about having all the different vocalists and everything. The most surprising is how natural people seem to be taking it. I think when we were making it, we weren’t certain how people would take it. We really felt strong about it and it made a lot of sense for a million reasons. There are songs that Matt doesn’t take the lead vocal right away. There are other people things. How well and how natural it all feels, how people have taken to it. Also in the live performances its been coming off well. that’s probably the best surprise of it all that it worked as well as we hoped it would.
How did you identify the female vocalists that participated on the album?
Everyone on the record is someone we’ve toured with, worked with, produced records with, or even friends. Pauline, also known as Nina Timble on the record. She’s Bryce’s wife. She’s her own performer and band as well. All people we’ve known over the years from touring, recording or both.
What’s the difference between studio sound and the live performance?
When we’re making records, we’re wading through a forest of the unknown. There’s always a basic part of the scene that is happening. It takes us a while to get to a song and get to a recording. When we finish, we re-learn and re-imagine what it will be like when it’s love. It’s been fun to see how a lot of the songs have taken off on the new records. “Oblivion” and songs like that that have become more energetic live performances but also reflect and draw on the new record. I like that compare between the two.
How did you get the idea to make a black and white film with the record?
The film is all the work of Mike Mills, who approached us a couple of years ago when we were touring the last record. He’s a professed fan of the band and we’re fans of his work. He wanted to do a video for us at the time and we were in the middle of touring. We’re like, we would love for you to do a video for our upcoming work.
What ended up happening is we had done a few tracks on the record and subsequently performed them live and then changed them. We gave Mike a bunch of the rough tracks and mixes and stems. He started to work with them and weave them into the film. That was happening while we were touring for about a year. At the end of the tour in late 2018, he was finished with a rough cut of the film. We were really blown away by how powerful it was. It’s all his work without music in it. What he was doing with the music inspired eventually come into the studio and help us produce the record.
Not from a music producer standpoint but from a filmmaker and storyteller way.
Who are some of your influences?
I’m a fan of all classic bass players like James Jamerson. Personally, I really like Bob Marley’s bassist, Aston “Familyman” Barrett and then Phil Lesh from the Grateful Dead. I also like bass players who aren’t “bass players” like Tina Weymouth. People with unique styles that arent necessarily what you think of bass playing. Those are some I feel pretty strongly about.
What’s your favorite and least favorite part about touring as a band with two sets of siblings?
For us, it’s been such a long process I guess. We started 20 years ago, and I guess the thing about us and siblings and the band is sort of like we were all friends and brothers before the band. We started the band just as something to do. After work, something to do. We were all working jobs. We’ve all have been in bands together and separately. It’s probably a thing that’s kept us together all these years. Had we not been brothers, it would have been troubling at times to try and stay together. Just being in bands in hard. Most bands, many great ones, are just a couple years long. It’s been this sort of bond that keeps our band together. There’s no huge downside to it. Just camaraderie and literally brotherhood that we have.
What’s been your proudest moment so far in 2019?
It was really fun at the very beginning to unleash this whole art project on the world with the film. The first five shows were filmed presentations, slash QA, slash show. It was the most theatrical we’ve been. We were literally in theatres, showing the film and talking about that and playing rock shows… we pulled that off in a way I liked and enjoyed. That whole bit was really exciting. And then seeing how it’s gone from that presentation into what we normally do; which is to tour and play shows. We’ve been able to be flexible and pull this off… (That) has been pretty cool.
What do you like most about visiting the San Francisco Bay Area?
It’s definitely my favorite city. I lived there in the ’90s for a little bit with Matt actually. It’s super fun, super beautiful. Every aspect of being in the fog, the weather, the music scene, the food, the architecture, and the landscape.
Did you guys intentionally decide to play at Stanford’s Frost Amphitheatre?
Yes, we love the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I’ve always wanted to play Frost. I’ve never been there honestly. I’ve only ever seen pictures and obviously the legendary Grateful Dead shows there. I can’t wait. I’m very excited to play there.
The National with Alvvays
Sunday, September 1st, 6:30pm
at Frost Amphitheater, 351 Lasuen Street on the Stanford Campus in Palo Alto.
