Brooklyn-based band head into the studio to record follow-up to The Boxer

31 March 2009 - Melancholic indie band The National have said their new material features “higher” and “louder” singing from frontman Matt Berninger.

Their critically-acclaimed last albumThe Boxerwas released in 2007 and guitarist, pianist and bassist Aaron Dessner told 6 Music how far along they are with its follow-up.

“We’ve written a lot of music and Matt [Berninger], who sings, has been sitting with it and writing a lot of lyrics,” he explained. “I think he’s getting close to having a lot of finished songs that we’ll start recording.”

Speaking of the location, the band have built a recording studio in Dessner’s garage.“It’s like we’re in Disney land or something,” he said laughingly. “We feel like Metallica.”

They are due to head into the studio in the next couple of weeks: “I think we’re going to start recording in April and be done with it in the fall and I guess it will come out in early 2010.”

Fans of their last offering should be prepared for a different style of vocals.

"Matt is singing a lot higher and a lot louder."

Aaron Dessner

“We always challenge ourselves to change what we’re doing and experiment with form and the aesthetic of how we’re recording things,” Dessner explained. “But I can’t really say yet exactly how it will be different, except that Matt is singing a lot higher and a lot louder.”He added: “He’s not murmuring so much likeThe Boxer, which I’m kind of glad about, and there’s one new song which seems to have more lyrics than the entire album ofBoxerso that was amusing.”

The band have already road-tested some new tracks at gigs; they recently performed Karamazov and Wake Up Your Saints at a benefit for Tibet House in New York.

Dessner admitted it was a risk: “We never really debut songs live because we’re too nervous and it takes us too long so figure out what they are, but it was a really good sign of where things are going because it went really well.”

They have just announced a string of North American dates in May, with dates in Toronto, Washington DC and Atlanta.

Georgie Rogers