Latest news with #GetSunk
Forbes
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sunday Conversation: The National's Matt Berninger On His New Solo Album
How to describe an interview with The National frontman Matt Berninger? Like talking to Moby or Liz Phair (who along with Robert Plant might be the smartest interview in music) it is a fascinating labyrinth of cerebral twists and turns where you just hold on and do your best to keep up. It is as compelling and enlightening as his music. Which is saying a lot because along with Nick Cave and the timeless Bruce Springsteen, Berninger, with The National and on his own, has been, to me, the most consistent rock act in the first quarter of this century. Once again, Berninger stuns with his second solo album, Get Sunk. A gorgeous slice of life that, like the writing of Raymond Carver, is deceptively complex and profound, Get Sunk is, as Berninger describes it, a romance with ghosts. As we discussed, it is a record of memories, of life, of hope. Steve Baltin: I'm a big believer in environment affecting writing. So, was it Connecticut that lit the spark for this album? Matt Berninger: The Connecticut part of it maybe colored the process. This record has a lot of Midwestern atmosphere with creeks and trees and animals and bike rides along rivers and stuff. I've always been writing about that stuff. But yeah, getting to Connecticut, back in an area that is like what it was like in my youth and particularly on my uncle's farm. The place I live now, I have a barn, and I have a little bit of land. But I have all this stuff and there are trails in the woods and creeks all around where I live now. And that's where I spent all my most memorable stuff of my childhood, it all happened at that farm in Indiana. So, Connecticut really inspired that part of it. But I think anytime you uproot and go to a new place, or take a vacation, you're riding a train through Italy, like suddenly, you're going to write differently and be inspired to write different kinds of stories. So, I do think, I think changing the soil you're in every 10 years is really smart. Baltin: So that's something that you've done regularly, move every decade or so? Berninger: Yeah, I've moved from Cincinnati, moving out of your house or your parents' house, and then going to college in an apartment, that feels like two different types of living. Then I moved to New York City in '96, and I was there for maybe 15 years, and that's where I met my wife, that's where my daughter was born. We'd been in Brooklyn for close to 15 years or something. Then we just felt we had squeezed New York for every drop of inspiration and so we moved to Venice, California. We lived out there for 10 years and then I wrote five or six, seven records, did so much stuff out there and met Mike Mills and became a collaborator with all these amazing filmmakers and stuff. So that was an amazing decade of creativity and then my daughter was about to go to high school, and we all wanted something new, and we had family in Connecticut and it's so close to New York. I didn't want to move back to Brooklyn, but I really want to be close to New York again. I go to New York every week and ride the train. So yeah, it's really new and inspiring and I think that is really good and it does jolt me, although some of this record I started five years ago in Venice. Even some of the songs that are talking about Indiana, and the Midwestern pastoral scenes were written when I still lived in Venice during the lockdown. So maybe I was just dreaming of wandering the woods or going back to a time. But I always write about that stuff. But moving and changing your environment does change your brain. Baltin: Would this album have been made anywhere now at this time? Berninger: Yeah, I feel like this would have been made anywhere at this point in time. I do, and I have been saying this recently because I've been trying to answer that question. Because yeah, a lot of this record does go back and it's a really conscious effort to try to reshape, not in the details and truth, but in the emotional memories of things and write a great story, and of a great 45-minute immersive connected experience. And it was really important for me on this record more than anything I've ever done, I think. But you're right, what is our past? What is it? And often, I've been saying this, that our past is a story we tell ourselves. and we remember it differently. Our memories of it change and our memories are memories of memories. So, it's our own version of (the game) telephone constantly going as we go and try to retell the stories of what happened and why am I like this and what was my childhood like and what were my relationships with my parents like and what was it? It's all fantasy and it's just the same way your future is a story you're telling yourself. What you want, why you're doing what you're doing and where you're trying to go and how long you want to live and what you want in your life and what experiences you want to have going forward is also just a story. And what experiences you had in the past so you're just telling your story of those experiences. All those things, traumas, good things, can totally shape you, yes, but sometimes we can be confined by our own definitions of ourselves and that we create a little bit of a prison or a trap around ourselves and we say, 'I'm this way because of this and that's why and I'm going to stay this way.' And right now you're seeing in the world, everybody, it's an identity crisis. People don't know. I'm a Catholic, but there are so many Catholics identifying with something else that is so un -Catholic. And that kind of thing, but there's so much, 'But this is me now, I'm this and I identify with this.' I think we really trap ourselves into our ideas of who exactly we are and I think it's a dangerous thing. I was trapped in an idea of what I was. Like I was this type of guy. I'd written all these stories. I had manifested becoming this melodramatic, unhinged character. And then I was leaking into that facade or that story I had told had started to become a little real. And it wasn't real. And so, yeah, I think that this record is trying to maybe go back and kind of recontextualize some of the beauty and I think the good things mostly. There's a lot of darkness in this record, but I'm a happy person. I've had very unhappy times. I've had very dark, long depressions. Everyone has, but my core is optimistic, hopeful, kind, brave, and happy mostly, and I remember that. And I learned that from my parents. I learned that from my cousins. I learned that from my uncle. I learned that from nature. I learned that from the farm. I learned that early, and that hasn't changed. I identify as those things, but sometimes you get lost in these other prisons of other things that you think you are, but you're not. Baltin: That's so interesting on so many levels. As The National started getting bigger, do you feel like personally you became a character people wanted you to be? Berninger: I was actually in my early 30s before we got successful. But when you get your first taste of success and people are really reacting to your work that is some of the most extreme, darkest parts of your personality, or the saddest parts, and those become the best songs because I'm being honest about something. But when you're writing those songs in your 30s, and then you get successful, I'm sure subconsciously I've elevated that idea of that guy in my head. There's more currency to that character, I realize. And so maybe you start to manifest it, and you keep building this weird sculpture of these little Legos of melodrama and anger or rock and roll songs and all these things. Then they become this really weird cool sculpture that everybody buys tickets to see. And then the next thing you know, you're stuck as this thing that wasn't what you intended. Baltin: You and I have talked over the years too about literature being inspiring and I feel like there were very literary and cinematic points of this album. Right when we got on the Zoom, I was listening to the record again. I love 'Silver Jeep.' That one has almost like a Raymond Carver feeling to me. Berninger: Yeah, there's a few of them. Some of them are more kind of blurry, abstract, impressionistic, emotional descriptions of emotional things or descriptions of process, like 'Nowhere Special' is a totally different song from a lot of the other songs and so is "End of the Notion.' I don't think about it when I go in but I see that I'm often trying to write a type of song I've never written but I've written hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs. But "Silver Jeep" and "Bonnet of Pins" and "Frozen Oranges," those are three examples of songs that are like scenes. Or "Bonnet of Pins" is maybe just an hour or a couple of hours of reconnection between two people. Then "Frozen Oranges" is a whole day, a long bike ride filled with medicines and joys and fruit and sunshine and bugs and juice and it's a really healthy song. Then 'Silver Jeep' is a is an echo of the same character from 'Bonnet of Pins.' That character is not really present much in 'Frozen Oranges.' But then at the end of the record, I think 'Silver Jeep' and 'Bonnet of Pins' are a little bit of a return to that relationship or that dynamic. What is it? Well, they're always chasing each other. They're always seeking each other, but they're always there. The line in 'Silver Jeep' that I like is, 'I see you out there somewhere in a silver jeep.' Maybe only in my mind but you'll always be there whether I ever see you in person again, you're never leaving. This person might already be dead. The whole record is about a ghost but it's not a singular ghost, it's not one person, it's a ghost of something. It's a really romantic record. It's a romance with a ghost, I guess.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
11 New Albums to Stream Today
The post 11 New Albums to Stream Today appeared first on Consequence. It's New Music Friday, and the weekend brings an exciting batch of new albums to stream. Miley Cyrus is back with her highly-conceptual, Pink Floyd-inspired visual album Something Beautiful, while The National's Matt Berninger returns for his second solo effort, Get Sunk. Plus, there's new releases from yeule, Garbage, and Mt. Joy, as well as a collaborative project between Low's Alan Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles. Check out our list of the best new albums to stream today. After sharing the experimental White Roses, My God last year, Low's Alan Sparhawk returns today with a collaborative album made with the folk band Trampled by Turtles. It's a fitting combination, as both acts emerged from the Duluth, Minnesota area and have shared the stage together dozens of times over the years. Stream on , , or | Buy on Singer-songwriter Ben Kweller returns to music with Cover the Mirrors, his first project since the tragic passing of his son Dorian Zev in 2023. The new album, releasing on Dorian's 19th birthday, is a raw, emotional journey through grief and loss, with support from Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, The Flaming Lips, and Coconut Records. Kweller broke down the origins of lead single 'Optimystic' for Consequence here. Stream on , , or | Buy on Vinyl/CD Three years removed their self-titled debut album, London eight-piece band Caroline have returned with the aptly-named Caroline 2. To keep things as 'Caroline' as possible, the group recruited Caroline Polachek for lead single 'Tell me I never knew that' and included a song on the album called 'Coldplay cover' that, in fact, is not a Coldplay cover. Stream on , , or Spotify | Buy on While Garbage are often masters at depicting darkness, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light searches for a more uplifting message. 'This record is about what it means to be alive, and about what it means to face your imminent destruction,' said the band's Shirley Manson. 'It's hopeful. It's very tender towards what it means to be a human being.' They're also supporting the album with their first headlining North American tour in seven years. Stream on , , or | Buy on The National frontman Matt Berninger is back with his sophomore solo album Get Sunk, a rich, sorrowful exploration of the human experience. The single 'Bonnet of Pins' showcases Berninger's knack for storytelling, offering a taste of the hero's journey to the self that Berninger delivers on Get Sunk. Stream on , , or | Buy on Miley Cyrus returns again with Something Beautiful, her ninth studio album. The project was inspired by Pink Floyd's The Wall and high fashion, and features an accompanying music video for each song. Plus, she recruited some exciting collaborators for the album, including Shawn Everett, Brittany Howard, Alvvays' Molly Rankin and Alec O'Hanely, Model/Actriz's Cole Haden, BJ Burton, Ryan Beatty, and many more. Stream on , , or | Buy on The five-piece indie folk and rock outfit Mt. Joy is back with their fourth studio album Hope We Have Fun. The project is a reflection of the fast-paced, chaotic lifestyle that comes with being an artist, which is captured in lead single 'More More More.' They're also heading out on a major 2025 tour in support of the album. Stream on , , or | Buy on Oakland-based rapper and producer Ovrkast. returns with his latest collection of sample-based, jazz-inspired hip-hop. On the newly released WHILE THE IRON IS HOT, he's joined by Vince Staples, MAVI, Samara Cyn, Malaya, and his upcoming tour mate Saba. Stream on , , or This year marks a decade since the release of Sufjan Stevens' beloved, personal album Carrie and Lowell. In honor of the milestone, Asthmatic Kitty is releasing a 10th anniversary edition with 40 minutes of bonus material from the era, including demos for songs like 'Death With Dignity,' 'Should Have Known Better,' and 'The Only Thing.' Read our review for the original record here. Stream on , , or | Buy on Indie rocker Ty Segall continues his prolific output of music with his 16th album Possession, a cinematic romp through the American landscape. The lead single 'Fantastic Tomb' is a tale about an attempted home burglary, backed by a jaunty guitar and a saxophone played by Mikal Cronin. Possession sees Segall once again collaborating with filmmaker Matt Yoka, who brings another level to the narrative arc of the album. Stream on , , or | Buy on Experimental artist yeule is back with Evangelic Girl is a Gun, their fourth full-length project and the follow-up to 2023's acclaimed Softscars. They've already supported the release with a standout appearance on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney this month, where they gave a highly-choreographed performance of lead single 'Skullcrusher.' Stream on , , or | Buy on Popular Posts Billy Joel Diagnosed with Brain Disorder, Cancels All Upcoming Tour Dates Man Wearing Nazi T-Shirt Gets a Beatdown from Fans at Punk Rock Bowling Fest Freddie Mercury's Alleged Child Revealed in New Biography David Lynch's Personal Archive Going Up for Auction Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence Are Now In-Laws Dave Mustaine: Metallica Stole "Enter Sandman" Riff from Another Band Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
Scottish Sun
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
On stage, I become a romanticised, superhero version of me, says Matt Berninger as he opens up on solo album release
Berninger opens up on his battles with depression but confesses that one bout proved particularly debilitating MATT'S ALL THAT On stage, I become a romanticised, superhero version of me, says Matt Berninger as he opens up on solo album release Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ANYONE who's seen Matt Berninger sing live will know that he has a commanding stage presence. Tall, elegant and blessed with a sumptuous baritone, The National's frontman looks every inch a rock star. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Matt Berninger has made acclaimed records for 25 years, headlined numerous festivals — and sung with Taylor Swift Credit: Supplied 4 Matt releases his second solo album, the soul-searching Get Sunk Credit: Supplied All 6ft 3in of him. With his beloved band, he's made acclaimed records for 25 years, headlined numerous festivals — and sung with Taylor Swift. And yet, as I discover and he admits, there's a very different person beneath the veneer. As he releases his second solo album, the soul-searching Get Sunk, he says: 'Sometimes, you must go into the world in character just to survive. 'To go on stage and be Matt Berninger of The National for two-and-a-half hours, you need armour. 'I become a romanticised, superhero version of me,' he continues via video call from Los Angeles, where he's rehearsing for his solo tour. 'It's especially odd for people like me who don't play the guitar, like the Bonos of this world. It can be particularly humiliating if you do it badly, you've got nothing to hide behind.' 'Get rid of the acting' Berninger, 54, is supremely aware that audiences 'can smell a fake a mile away'. 'After a while, you've got to take off that stupid costume because you start to get weird and become a dick,' he says. 'I've been through that. You even slip into caricature at home or on the school run. Taylor Swift fans think Shania Twain will be on star's debut album re-recording after dropping 'clues' in Grammys 'I have to tell myself, 'I'm not on stage right now so why am I singing to the garbage men?'' Berninger says things came to a head on The National's last tour. 'I just thought, 'Get rid of all the acting. If you're in a bad mood, talk about it. Don't pretend to be happy and confident if you're not.'' I can't write a line unless it somehow rings with me emotionally Berninger The reason I'm sharing these particular insights is because Get Sunk, five years in the making, brings the REAL Matt Berninger into sharp focus. Though he actually auditioned for acting roles during the pandemic — 'just trying to make the hustle but will never try again' — his song Breaking Into Acting, a duet with Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits), deals openly with his 'scam' stage persona. 'I can't write a line unless it somehow rings with me emotionally,' he affirms when I ask about his refreshingly candid lyrics. Get Sunk is the follow-up to Berninger's solo debut, 2020's Serpentine Prison, and began life the same year just as the Covid pandemic upended his and all our lives. Unable to tour that record, his first without his National cohorts, he hunkered down in the Silver Lake district of LA with producer Sean O'Brien. They came up with another album's worth of songs, of which only four have survived — Inland Ocean, Junk, Little By Little and Times Of Difficulty. The last of these contains the lines: 'In times of heartache, get drunk/In times of tears, get sunk.' These sentiments proved prophetic, as you'll discover when their author tells us what happened next. 'Yes, I even wrote that when Biden was president,' quips Berninger, suggesting he's not a fan of the present incumbent. He adopts a more serious tone and adds: 'We couldn't put out a new record out because I hadn't even been able to support Serpentine Prison. I didn't want another one to disappear into the void. 'So I did a year of nothing and got really depressed.' Berninger has talked about his battles with depression in the past but confesses that this bout proved particularly debilitating, and that it came with writer's block and crushing insomnia. 'Some antidepressants helped a little but I was sleepless for weeks and months at a time,' he says as he begins an unflinching description of his turmoil. 'Your brain melts down' 'Insomnia can really scramble your logic — you can't leave the bedroom, you can't look out the window but you also can't sleep. 'You just pace and your brain melts down. That's what happened to me.' Berninger vividly recalls being unable to leave the house: 'Sunlight depressed me, hummingbirds outside the window antagonised me. I had contempt for bumblebees because of their joy and because they didn't give a f* about all my problems. I was like, 'F* you!' 'That's what depression does to you. It's crazy and it took a healing process. 'I'd never been to the bottom before and I hope that was the bottom. I learned a lot. 'Am I back at the top? By no means. The bottom's not as far down as we think it is. It's always right there, really close. 'You could fall into a two-inch puddle and think you are at the bottom of the sea — but now I've got my neck above the waterline.' Berninger reveals that two things kickstarted his recovery process. 'Getting back with The National helped pull me out,' he says. 'And moving from California to Connecticut.' In 2023, he and his family, wife Carin Besser and teenage daughter Isla, upped sticks from LA's beachfront resort of Venice for a rural idyll in the East Coast state not far north of New York City. 4 Matt, centre, with The National bandmates in 2023 Credit: Free for editorial use That, in turn, led him to re-engage with his solo project and the songs started to flow again. Six new compositions were added to the original four and even most of those underwent rewrites with re-recorded vocals. 'I started to enjoy sunlight again and now I just can't get enough of it,' he enthuses. 'I don't have screens so hornets, bees and snakes come into the house and I kind of welcome them. I have reconnected to my love of life.' I spent my wild youth with my older sister Rachel and my five cousins Berninger The call of the wild has long run strong in Berninger and that is reflected in Get Sunk songs Inland Ocean and Frozen Oranges, both beautifully realised and dripping with nostalgia. 'I've never been to a gym in my life but find me a park or a woods or a hill or a trail,' he says. During his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, he would spend bucolic holidays on his aunt and uncle's farm in nearby Indiana. 'I spent my wild youth with my older sister Rachel and my five cousins,' says Berninger, as the cherished memories come flooding back. 'We all had rifles' 'The seven of us would hike the railroad tracks to different towns, just like in the movie Stand By Me. 'We all had rifles. It was farm life and my aunt Elaine, also my godmother, was the matriarch. When I was about 12, I would chew tobacco in the fields while harvesting it with my cousins. 'I'd roll up the dried brown stuff, chew on it and get a buzz. I've been a nicotine aficionado ever since — though I don't smoke cigarettes any more.' Later, in the Eighties, the crop changed from tobacco to Christmas trees and Berninger remembers working among them through his college years. Berninger began writing about his time in Indiana before his move to Connecticut but his new surroundings had a profound effect. 'I started to tune into how I felt as a kid, all that time I spent in the woods, just staring at creeks and bugs and snakes. 'I like being more connected to it again. I like to take my shoes off and walk around barefoot — it does something.' However, Berninger adds that he wasn't the driving force behind his return to the East Coast. (He spent 15 years in Brooklyn during the formative years of The National). 'I had built a house in Venice and I thought I was going to be there forever,' he says. 'My daughter was about to go to high school and she's a big Gilmore Girls fan (the comedy set in a fictional Connecticut town). So it was really her and my wife's decision to move.' I've been writing lyrics on baseballs for a long time Berninger Once in his new and welcome surroundings, Berninger rediscovered his love of painting, and he began writing lyrics on old baseballs. 'Originally, I was more of a visual artist than a songwriter,' he says. 'I did a design programme at the University Of Cincinnati and worked as a designer in New York City for ten years. 'In The National, I ended up painting lists of songs and what we could do with them on whiteboards. The band's studios are filled with them. 'And I've been writing on baseballs for a long time because they take ink well and they feel good. 'I used to toss baseballs with my dad and now I do it with my daughter. It's more fun than writing in a notebook. It slows you down and makes you think differently.' If Get Sunk is the lyrically rich product of this unique process, it is also notable for guest appearances, including the aforementioned Hand Habits on Breaking Into Acting and Ronboy (Julia Laws) on the wistful Silver Jeep, also blessed with Kyle Resnick's sublime trumpet. There's also a reappearance by R&B legend Booker T. Jones (best known for Green Onions) who produced Serpentine Prison and plays organ and keyboards on self-deprecating Junk, gently pleading Little By Little and life-affirming finale Times Of Difficulty. I ask Berninger if he enjoys collaborating and my question prompts insights into some of The National's high profile friends. 'The first time The National brought anybody in was Sufjan Stevens because Bryce (Dessner) was doing a lot of work with him. That's how we met Annie Clark (St. Vincent). 'Sufjan brought so much — he added colour and energy. He gave us a way of thinking that changed our chemistry.' He adds: 'Obviously there's Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers. These are huge stars but we knew these guys. 'Phoebe opened for us, one of the people we met in the trenches. Even Taylor I met six or seven years ago because she reached out and she was a fan. So it's kind of organic.' Berninger is at pains to point out that 'they're not plug-in names for the featuring credits. That's not how we work.' His bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner, work- ed with Swift on her albums Folklore, Evermore and The Tortured Poets Department. And Berninger adds graciously: 'The National songs with Taylor on them are our most listened to songs in the world. 'I'm just stuff' 'If you put The National into Spotify, the first couple of songs are Taylor and Aaron songs but it all makes sense. 'We started out as five dudes from Ohio but now it feels like a giant community, much more than a band. 'Everyone in The National is a total blood sucker for talent and we want to be infected by those people's mastery.' Ultimately, love, bravery and kindness are the only things that will survive. It makes me happy knowing that means there's not much pressure on me Berninger That said, this moment is all about one man's voyage of self-discovery which has resulted in an album for the ages, Get Sunk. Water is an abiding theme of the record, whether 'it's rain, the ocean, a river, a puddle, ice in a glass, a frozen pond, snow' or 'fruit sustained by it like apples and oranges.' Berninger signs off in thought-provoking style: 'I stare into the deep end of swimming pools. I look out across the ocean all the time. I spend a lot of time in creeks. 'There's something unknowing about water but it is why we're all here on earth. It's life, it's death. A raindrop is a metaphor for heartbreak. 'Ultimately, love, bravery and kindness are the only things that will survive. It makes me happy knowing that means there's not much pressure on me. 'I'm just stuff. I'm just water and molecules.' MATT BERNINGER Get Sunk ★★★★★
The Sun
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
On stage, I become a romanticised, superhero version of me, says Matt Berninger as he opens up on solo album release
ANYONE who's seen Matt Berninger sing live will know that he has a commanding stage presence. Tall, elegant and blessed with a sumptuous baritone, The National's frontman looks every inch a rock star. 4 4 All 6ft 3in of him. With his beloved band, he's made acclaimed records for 25 years, headlined numerous festivals — and sung with Taylor Swift. And yet, as I discover and he admits, there's a very different person beneath the veneer. As he releases his second solo album, the soul-searching Get Sunk, he says: 'Sometimes, you must go into the world in character just to survive. 'To go on stage and be Matt Berninger of The National for two-and-a-half hours, you need armour. 'I become a romanticised, superhero version of me,' he continues via video call from Los Angeles, where he's rehearsing for his solo tour. 'It's especially odd for people like me who don't play the guitar, like the Bonos of this world. It can be particularly humiliating if you do it badly, you've got nothing to hide behind.' 'Get rid of the acting' Berninger, 54, is supremely aware that audiences 'can smell a fake a mile away'. 'After a while, you've got to take off that stupid costume because you start to get weird and become a dick,' he says. 'I've been through that. You even slip into caricature at home or on the school run. 'I have to tell myself, 'I'm not on stage right now so why am I singing to the garbage men?'' Berninger says things came to a head on The National's last tour. 'I just thought, 'Get rid of all the acting. If you're in a bad mood, talk about it. Don't pretend to be happy and confident if you're not.'' The reason I'm sharing these particular insights is because Get Sunk, five years in the making, brings the REAL Matt Berninger into sharp focus. Though he actually auditioned for acting roles during the pandemic — 'just trying to make the hustle but will never try again' — his song Breaking Into Acting, a duet with Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits), deals openly with his 'scam' stage persona. 'I can't write a line unless it somehow rings with me emotionally,' he affirms when I ask about his refreshingly candid lyrics. Get Sunk is the follow-up to Berninger's solo debut, 2020's Serpentine Prison, and began life the same year just as the Covid pandemic upended his and all our lives. Unable to tour that record, his first without his National cohorts, he hunkered down in the Silver Lake district of LA with producer Sean O'Brien. They came up with another album's worth of songs, of which only four have survived — Inland Ocean, Junk, Little By Little and Times Of Difficulty. The last of these contains the lines: 'In times of heartache, get drunk/In times of tears, get sunk.' These sentiments proved prophetic, as you'll discover when their author tells us what happened next. 'Yes, I even wrote that when Biden was president,' quips Berninger, suggesting he's not a fan of the present incumbent. He adopts a more serious tone and adds: 'We couldn't put out a new record out because I hadn't even been able to support Serpentine Prison. I didn't want another one to disappear into the void. 'So I did a year of nothing and got really depressed.' Berninger has talked about his battles with depression in the past but confesses that this bout proved particularly debilitating, and that it came with writer's block and crushing insomnia. 'Some antidepressants helped a little but I was sleepless for weeks and months at a time,' he says as he begins an unflinching description of his turmoil. 'Your brain melts down' 'Insomnia can really scramble your logic — you can't leave the bedroom, you can't look out the window but you also can't sleep. 'You just pace and your brain melts down. That's what happened to me.' Berninger vividly recalls being unable to leave the house: 'Sunlight depressed me, hummingbirds outside the window antagonised me. I had contempt for bumblebees because of their joy and because they didn't give a f* about all my problems. I was like, 'F* you!' 'That's what depression does to you. It's crazy and it took a healing process. 'I'd never been to the bottom before and I hope that was the bottom. I learned a lot. 'Am I back at the top? By no means. The bottom's not as far down as we think it is. It's always right there, really close. 'You could fall into a two-inch puddle and think you are at the bottom of the sea — but now I've got my neck above the waterline.' Berninger reveals that two things kickstarted his recovery process. 'Getting back with The National helped pull me out,' he says. 'And moving from California to Connecticut.' In 2023, he and his family, wife Carin Besser and teenage daughter Isla, upped sticks from LA's beachfront resort of Venice for a rural idyll in the East Coast state not far north of New York City. 4 That, in turn, led him to re-engage with his solo project and the songs started to flow again. Six new compositions were added to the original four and even most of those underwent rewrites with re-recorded vocals. 'I started to enjoy sunlight again and now I just can't get enough of it,' he enthuses. 'I don't have screens so hornets, bees and snakes come into the house and I kind of welcome them. I have reconnected to my love of life.' The call of the wild has long run strong in Berninger and that is reflected in Get Sunk songs Inland Ocean and Frozen Oranges, both beautifully realised and dripping with nostalgia. 'I've never been to a gym in my life but find me a park or a woods or a hill or a trail,' he says. During his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, he would spend bucolic holidays on his aunt and uncle's farm in nearby Indiana. 'I spent my wild youth with my older sister Rachel and my five cousins,' says Berninger, as the cherished memories come flooding back. 'We all had rifles' 'The seven of us would hike the railroad tracks to different towns, just like in the movie Stand By Me. 'We all had rifles. It was farm life and my aunt Elaine, also my godmother, was the matriarch. When I was about 12, I would chew tobacco in the fields while harvesting it with my cousins. 'I'd roll up the dried brown stuff, chew on it and get a buzz. I've been a nicotine aficionado ever since — though I don't smoke cigarettes any more.' Later, in the Eighties, the crop changed from tobacco to Christmas trees and Berninger remembers working among them through his college years. Berninger began writing about his time in Indiana before his move to Connecticut but his new surroundings had a profound effect. 'I started to tune into how I felt as a kid, all that time I spent in the woods, just staring at creeks and bugs and snakes. 'I like being more connected to it again. I like to take my shoes off and walk around barefoot — it does something.' However, Berninger adds that he wasn't the driving force behind his return to the East Coast. (He spent 15 years in Brooklyn during the formative years of The National). 'I had built a house in Venice and I thought I was going to be there forever,' he says. 'My daughter was about to go to high school and she's a big Gilmore Girls fan (the comedy set in a fictional Connecticut town). So it was really her and my wife's decision to move.' Once in his new and welcome surroundings, Berninger rediscovered his love of painting, and he began writing lyrics on old baseballs. 'Originally, I was more of a visual artist than a songwriter,' he says. 'I did a design programme at the University Of Cincinnati and worked as a designer in New York City for ten years. 'In The National, I ended up painting lists of songs and what we could do with them on whiteboards. The band's studios are filled with them. 'And I've been writing on baseballs for a long time because they take ink well and they feel good. 'I used to toss baseballs with my dad and now I do it with my daughter. It's more fun than writing in a notebook. It slows you down and makes you think differently.' If Get Sunk is the lyrically rich product of this unique process, it is also notable for guest appearances, including the aforementioned Hand Habits on Breaking Into Acting and Ronboy (Julia Laws) on the wistful Silver Jeep, also blessed with Kyle Resnick's sublime trumpet. There's also a reappearance by R&B legend Booker T. Jones (best known for Green Onions) who produced Serpentine Prison and plays organ and keyboards on self-deprecating Junk, gently pleading Little By Little and life-affirming finale Times Of Difficulty. I ask Berninger if he enjoys collaborating and my question prompts insights into some of The National's high profile friends. 'The first time The National brought anybody in was Sufjan Stevens because Bryce (Dessner) was doing a lot of work with him. That's how we met Annie Clark (St. Vincent). 'Sufjan brought so much — he added colour and energy. He gave us a way of thinking that changed our chemistry.' He adds: 'Obviously there's Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers. These are huge stars but we knew these guys. 'Phoebe opened for us, one of the people we met in the trenches. Even Taylor I met six or seven years ago because she reached out and she was a fan. So it's kind of organic.' Berninger is at pains to point out that 'they're not plug-in names for the featuring credits. That's not how we work.' His bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner, work- ed with Swift on her albums Folklore, Evermore and The Tortured Poets Department. And Berninger adds graciously: 'The National songs with Taylor on them are our most listened to songs in the world. 'I'm just stuff' 'If you put The National into Spotify, the first couple of songs are Taylor and Aaron songs but it all makes sense. 'We started out as five dudes from Ohio but now it feels like a giant community, much more than a band. 'Everyone in The National is a total blood sucker for talent and we want to be infected by those people's mastery.' That said, this moment is all about one man's voyage of self-discovery which has resulted in an album for the ages, Get Sunk. Water is an abiding theme of the record, whether 'it's rain, the ocean, a river, a puddle, ice in a glass, a frozen pond, snow' or 'fruit sustained by it like apples and oranges.' Berninger signs off in thought-provoking style: 'I stare into the deep end of swimming pools. I look out across the ocean all the time. I spend a lot of time in creeks. 'There's something unknowing about water but it is why we're all here on earth. It's life, it's death. A raindrop is a metaphor for heartbreak. 'Ultimately, love, bravery and kindness are the only things that will survive. It makes me happy knowing that means there's not much pressure on me. 'I'm just stuff. I'm just water and molecules.' Get Sunk ★★★★★
The Irish Sun
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
On stage, I become a romanticised, superhero version of me, says Matt Berninger as he opens up on solo album release
ANYONE who's seen Matt Berninger sing live will know that he has a commanding stage presence. Tall, elegant and blessed with a sumptuous baritone, The National's frontman looks every inch a rock star. 4 Matt Berninger has made acclaimed records for 25 years, headlined numerous festivals — and sung with Taylor Swift Credit: Supplied 4 Matt releases his second solo album, the soul-searching Get Sunk Credit: Supplied All 6ft 3in of him. With his beloved band, he's made acclaimed records for 25 years, headlined numerous festivals — and sung with Taylor Swift. And yet, as I discover and he admits, there's a very different person beneath the veneer. As he releases his second solo album, the soul-searching Get Sunk, he says: 'Sometimes, you must go into the world in character just to survive. READ MORE ON MUSIC 'To go on stage and be Matt Berninger of The National for two-and-a-half hours, you need armour. 'I become a romanticised, superhero version of me,' he continues via video call from Los Angeles, where he's rehearsing for his solo tour. 'It's especially odd for people like me who don't play the guitar, like the Bonos of this world. It can be particularly humiliating if you do it badly, you've got nothing to hide behind.' 'Get rid of the acting' Berninger, 54, is supremely aware that audiences 'can smell a fake a mile away'. Most read in Music 'After a while, you've got to take off that stupid costume because you start to get weird and become a dick,' he says. 'I've been through that. You even slip into caricature at home or on the school run. Taylor Swift fans think Shania Twain will be on star's debut album re-recording after dropping 'clues' in Grammys 'I have to tell myself, 'I'm not on stage right now so why am I singing to the garbage men?'' Berninger says things came to a head on The National's last tour. 'I just thought, 'Get rid of all the acting. If you're in a bad mood, talk about it. Don't pretend to be happy and confident if you're not.'' I can't write a line unless it somehow rings with me emotionally Berninger The reason I'm sharing these particular insights is because Get Sunk, five years in the making, brings the REAL Matt Berninger into sharp focus. Though he actually auditioned for acting roles during the pandemic — 'just trying to make the hustle but will never try again' — his song Breaking Into Acting, a duet with Meg Duffy (aka Hand Habits), deals openly with his 'scam' stage persona. 'I can't write a line unless it somehow rings with me emotionally,' he affirms when I ask about his refreshingly candid lyrics. Get Sunk is the follow-up to Berninger's solo debut, 2020's Serpentine Prison, and began life the same year just as the Covid pandemic upended his and all our lives. Unable to tour that record, his first without his National cohorts, he hunkered down in the Silver Lake district of LA with producer Sean O'Brien. They came up with another album's worth of songs, of which only four have survived — Inland Ocean, Junk, Little By Little and Times Of Difficulty. The last of these contains the lines: 'In times of heartache, get drunk/In times of tears, get sunk.' These sentiments proved prophetic, as you'll discover when their author tells us what happened next. 'Yes, I even wrote that when Biden was president,' quips Berninger, suggesting he's not a fan of the present incumbent. He adopts a more serious tone and adds: 'We couldn't put out a new record out because I hadn't even been able to support Serpentine Prison. I didn't want another one to disappear into the void. 'So I did a year of nothing and got really depressed.' Berninger has talked about his battles with depression in the past but confesses that this bout proved particularly debilitating, and that it came with writer's block and crushing insomnia. 'Some antidepressants helped a little but I was sleepless for weeks and months at a time,' he says as he begins an unflinching description of his turmoil. 'Your brain melts down' 'Insomnia can really scramble your logic — you can't leave the bedroom, you can't look out the window but you also can't sleep. 'You just pace and your brain melts down. That's what happened to me.' Berninger vividly recalls being unable to leave the house: 'Sunlight depressed me, hummingbirds outside the window antagonised me. I had contempt for bumblebees because of their joy and because they didn't give a f* about all my problems. I was like, 'F* you!' 'That's what depression does to you. It's crazy and it took a healing process. 'I'd never been to the bottom before and I hope that was the bottom. I learned a lot. 'Am I back at the top? By no means. The bottom's not as far down as we think it is. It's always right there, really close. 'You could fall into a two-inch puddle and think you are at the bottom of the sea — but now I've got my neck above the waterline.' Berninger reveals that two things kickstarted his recovery process. 'Getting back with The National helped pull me out,' he says. 'And moving from California to In 2023, he and his family, wife Carin Besser and teenage daughter Isla, upped sticks from LA's beachfront resort of Venice for a rural idyll in the East Coast state not far north of New York City. 4 Matt, centre, with The National bandmates in 2023 Credit: Free for editorial use That, in turn, led him to re-engage with his solo project and the songs started to flow again. Six new compositions were added to the original four and even most of those underwent rewrites with re-recorded vocals. 'I started to enjoy sunlight again and now I just can't get enough of it,' he enthuses. 'I don't have screens so hornets, bees and snakes come into the house and I kind of welcome them. I have reconnected to my love of life.' I spent my wild youth with my older sister Rachel and my five cousins Berninger The call of the wild has long run strong in Berninger and that is reflected in Get Sunk songs Inland Ocean and Frozen Oranges, both beautifully realised and dripping with nostalgia. 'I've never been to a gym in my life but find me a park or a woods or a hill or a trail,' he says. During his childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, he would spend bucolic holidays on his aunt and uncle's farm in nearby Indiana. 'I spent my wild youth with my older sister Rachel and my five cousins,' says Berninger, as the cherished memories come flooding back. 'We all had rifles' 'The seven of us would hike the railroad tracks to different towns, just like in the movie Stand By Me. 'We all had rifles. It was farm life and my aunt Elaine, also my godmother, was the matriarch. When I was about 12, I would chew tobacco in the fields while harvesting it with my cousins. 'I'd roll up the dried brown stuff, chew on it and get a buzz. I've been a nicotine aficionado ever since — though I don't smoke cigarettes any more.' Later, in the Eighties, the crop changed from tobacco to Christmas trees and Berninger remembers working among them through his college years. Berninger began writing about his time in Indiana before his move to Connecticut but his new surroundings had a profound effect. 'I started to tune into how I felt as a kid, all that time I spent in the woods, just staring at creeks and bugs and snakes. 'I like being more connected to it again. I like to take my shoes off and walk around barefoot — it does something.' However, Berninger adds that he wasn't the driving force behind his return to the East Coast. (He spent 15 years in Brooklyn during the formative years of The National). 'I had built a house in Venice and I thought I was going to be there forever,' he says. 'My daughter was about to go to high school and she's a big Gilmore Girls fan (the comedy set in a fictional Connecticut town). So it was really her and my wife's decision to move.' I've been writing lyrics on baseballs for a long time Berninger Once in his new and welcome surroundings, Berninger rediscovered his love of painting, and he began writing lyrics on old baseballs. 'Originally, I was more of a visual artist than a songwriter,' he says. 'I did a design programme at the University Of Cincinnati and worked as a designer in New York City for ten years. 'In The National, I ended up painting lists of songs and what we could do with them on whiteboards. The band's studios are filled with them. 'And I've been writing on baseballs for a long time because they take ink well and they feel good. 'I used to toss baseballs with my dad and now I do it with my daughter. It's more fun than writing in a notebook. It slows you down and makes you think differently.' If Get Sunk is the lyrically rich product of this unique process, it is also notable for guest appearances, including the aforementioned Hand Habits on Breaking Into Acting and Ronboy (Julia Laws) on the wistful Silver Jeep, also blessed with Kyle Resnick's sublime trumpet. There's also a reappearance by R&B legend Booker T. Jones (best known for Green Onions) who produced Serpentine Prison and plays organ and keyboards on self-deprecating Junk, gently pleading Little By Little and life-affirming finale Times Of Difficulty. I ask Berninger if he enjoys collaborating and my question prompts insights into some of The National's high profile friends. 'The first time The National brought anybody in was Sufjan Stevens because Bryce (Dessner) was doing a lot of work with him. That's how we met Annie Clark (St. Vincent). 'Sufjan brought so much — he added colour and energy. He gave us a way of thinking that changed our chemistry.' He adds: 'Obviously there's Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers. These are huge stars but we knew these guys. 'Phoebe opened for us, one of the people we met in the trenches. Even Taylor I met six or seven years ago because she reached out and she was a fan. So it's kind of organic.' Berninger is at pains to point out that 'they're not plug-in names for the featuring credits. That's not how we work.' His bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner, work- ed with Swift on her albums Folklore, Evermore and The Tortured Poets Department. And Berninger adds graciously: 'The National songs with Taylor on them are our most listened to songs in the world. 'I'm just stuff' 'If you put The National into Spotify, the first couple of songs are Taylor and Aaron songs but it all makes sense. 'We started out as five dudes from Ohio but now it feels like a giant community, much more than a band. 'Everyone in The National is a total blood sucker for talent and we want to be infected by those people's mastery.' Ultimately, love, bravery and kindness are the only things that will survive. It makes me happy knowing that means there's not much pressure on me Berninger That said, this moment is all about one man's voyage of self-discovery which has resulted in an album for the ages, Get Sunk. Water is an abiding theme of the record, whether 'it's rain, the ocean, a river, a puddle, ice in a glass, a frozen pond, snow' or 'fruit sustained by it like apples and oranges.' Berninger signs off in thought-provoking style: 'I stare into the deep end of swimming pools. I look out across the ocean all the time. I spend a lot of time in creeks. 'There's something unknowing about water but it is why we're all here on earth. It's life, it's death. A raindrop is a metaphor for heartbreak. 'Ultimately, love, bravery and kindness are the only things that will survive. It makes me happy knowing that means there's not much pressure on me. 'I'm just stuff. I'm just water and molecules.' MATT BERNINGER Get Sunk ★★★★★ 4 Matt Berninger Get Sunk Credit: Supplied
