In late August 2017, the members of The National had fairly solid expectations about what the next year and a half of their lives would look like. The veteran band was only a few days away from releasing their seventh studio album, Sleep Well Beast, to critical acclaim and was on the cusp of an extensive slate of headlining and festival performances that would take them across the world. It was, in other words, a fairly standard album rollout; no surprises in store. Then, suddenly, the certainty of their schedule was quickly dismantled when Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Mike Mills, best known for Beginners and 20th Century Women, sent an out-of-the-blue e-mail to frontman Matt Berninger inquiring about a potential collaboration with the band.
During the recording of Sleep Well Beast, The National’s creative output had resulted in a pile of unused songs and unfinished ideas that, while cut from the final album, were very much intended to be a part of whatever came next for the band. Berninger, along with twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, decided to hand this unreleased material over to Mills, who in turn dissected and reconfigured the tracks into a soundtrack for a proposed short film. A mutual symbiosis soon developed between the director and the band. As Mills turned to the group for additional songs and compositions, the band suddenly felt a wave of inspiration from Mills’s rough footage. By the end of their collaboration, Mills emerged with a 24-minute short film starring Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander, while The National walked away with an impressive new full-length album. Both are called I Am Easy to Find, two companion pieces that are each capable of standing on their own sound and vision. Despite its monochrome cinematography, Mills’s film depicts the life of a woman, colored in by both major milestones and the mundane, leapfrogging through time. Accompanied by the brilliant arrangement of new National songs, the short’s otherwise silent stream-of-consciousness is like watching someone attempt to remember the entirety of their life. The National’s companion album, meanwhile, though more narratively opaque, maintains a quiet resolve against the relentless doubt and fear one encounters during a life fully lived. A thesis of sorts comes on the album’s title track, when Berninger laments, “There’s a million little battles that I’m never gonna win anyway / I’m still waiting for you every night with ticker tape, ticker tape.”
For all the coordination and ambition of the six men involved in this endeavor, what truly sets I Am Easy to Find apart are their female contributors, women who across months and years have entered the orbit of The National and become a part of the all-male band’s extended professional family. This new project features vocals from, for instance, Gail Ann Dorsey, the veteran session musician best known for her decades-long residency with David Bowie; British musician Kate Stables of This Is the Kit; French songwriter (and wife of Bryce Dessner) Pauline de Lassus Saint-Geniès, a.k.a. Mina Tindle; Sharon Van Etten; Eve Owen; and Lisa Hannigan. There is also Dianne Berkun Menaker, whose talented boys' and girls' Brooklyn Youth Chorus has collaborated with the likes of Elton John, Thom Yorke, Beyoncé, Arcade Fire, and Grizzly Bear. And finally, showcased throughout the record are the words of Carin Besser, Berninger’s wife, who over the past several albums by The National has become an integral lyrical partner and co-writer alongside her husband.
Ahead of the release of I Am Easy to Find (out Friday), GQ spoke with some of these invaluable supporting female artists to discuss how The National upended their established songwriting perspective, what their recording experiences with the band were like, and why such inherent joy comes out of collaboration.
Carin Besser: I Am Easy to Find became this project of everybody doing what they do, all together.
Dianne Berkun Menaker: The film idea started on one side, and the album starts with one side, and then at some point they kind of meshed together in the collaboration and started to inform each other.
Besser: In the middle of the record-writing process, suddenly there was this film. I've been saying it's like the record dreamed itself up before we all fell asleep. So we all watched this rough cut, and we were so inspired. As we continued to write, we all had that film in our heads. It all felt very like, "Oh, we all do know how to swim." It was so cool as a collaboration. And there was just a compatibility to everybody's efforts on this thing.
Kate Stables: It was obvious that it wasn't the usual album-making process—if there is such a thing. Instead of music and lyrics being passed around between band members, there was Mike as an extra set of ears and eyes and creative sounding post; a kind of correspondence of reactions between Mike and The National. They would send him music and he would send a reaction back, and then the band would in turn write something in response to Mike's response. It was a really nice way of going about things, to really get involved in the process and exchange of ideas and to not just be focusing on the finished product from the start. It was a relationship, as opposed to a production line. I think Mike's involvement in shaping the music, not only for the film but also for the album, was really refreshing for everyone involved. He brings a really wonderful light and wisdom to everything he does.
Besser: There was a lot of discussion between Matt and Mike, about sort of this compressed life, a life told in these small moments, these really compacted moments and the way that would naturally bounce up against everybody's predilections for this or that. It's an interesting way to filter your own perspective. It's like, what moments are you choosing? Where are the big ones? Where are the small ones? And how does that all feel different? And I think it's so much about aging, too, just in the sense of what gets added up and winds up being a surprise, not what you planned for.
Stables: The project is looking at one person’s whole life and the ingredients that make them who they are and the different voices that are all within us all the time.
Besser: I feel like there was a voice that sounded different, and that bled so naturally into the way Aaron [and] Mike were working with the singers, who they were bringing in and who they were hearing. It was so exciting, because we’re so used to just writing for one singer.
Stables: It was sometime in November 2018. Bryce got in touch with a bunch of Paris-based singers to try some vocals out on some songs The National were working on, and I was one of those singers. It was a friendly affair, kind of a gaggle of us trying different stuff out in a really nice little studio in Paris, Bryce being super patient and diplomatic and offering respectful and gentle guidance with all the very many voices that had been brought to the pot.
Gail Ann Dorsey: My first session ended up being like a 10-and-a-half-hour session. I did about eight songs that day. I sang till I couldn't sing anymore.
Menaker: Only a small portion of the album had actually been written when we arranged to do our session with them. I brought these kids into the studio and recorded a whole bunch of stuff, kind of not knowing what would make it on or how it would be used. Apparently, Mike Mills was really excited about the chorus, and that kind of amped up how much we were used.
Besser: At one point Aaron even wrote to Matt, like, "Is there enough you?" And Matt was like, "I don't miss me at all." It was very collaborative, like, "Let's make this painting using a few different colors this time."
Pauline de Lassus Saint-Geniès: I sung with the band way before I married Bryce, when we had just met. I sung on "Boxer," and I did backing vocals on "Green Gloves." I can't even hear myself on the track. Bryce swears I'm on it. This time, though, it was the first time I could be in Matt's skin and the way he sings. It felt really interesting to understand the geometry of his singing, which is a really particular thing.
Dorsey: I had a hard time in the beginning. When I first started on the first few songs, understanding how Matt phrases is very unique. The things I had to do in unison, I had to do piece by piece. I'd have to hear a section and hear it again and hear it again. And then I'd get in my body how he sings, so I could feel as comfortable singing that way because his phrasing is so, so unique. It's not what you expect. A lot of singers sing in a way that's kind of traditional, but he has a real specific thing that he does. And now I know it really well.
Stables: When I was doing the sessions, I was deeply listening to Matt's voice and following his delivery and intonation and cadences. It was a great exercise in syncing up to someone else's voice and immersing yourself in the words. Plus, it's a real pleasure to listen to Matt's voice. It's like some kind of dark, multifaceted mystery crystal. There are so many layers to it, and he can become so many different characters and tell so many different stories with it. I feel like I learned a lot from that.
Dorsey: "Hey Rosey," that particular song was just so jarring to me. Its sentiment, I think, is something that most people can relate to. I certainly could, particularly in terms of the difficulty of relationships and trying to get what you want and be who you are, but you know it's not working; or perhaps you want to love someone, but you hurt them at the same time. There were such depth to the words, particularly, "I will love you like there's razors in it." I just thought, "What an incredible line."
Menaker: The songs that feel like they're interludes, they're kind of more like washes of tone. I knew that there was this film piece. I knew that we were trying to kind of create these ethereal washes of sound where they're more fluid. They're definitely meant to be atmospheric. A lot of that is sliding between pitches or layering a lot of tone clusters, where they're just kind of moving in and out of dissonant harmonies. And then, you know, I knew how to approach pieces like "Rylan," where it's with the band and you've got the backbeat going and it’s just straight ahead band energy, with all the things that you'd associate with doing that. And then the pieces are maybe a little more introspective, like "Oblivions," where we start out doing more of a background thing, and then we take it over with this chorale at the end. I think it's really to Bryce's credit that he has the vision to put things together that you wouldn't expect.
Dorsey: Aaron is a fantastic producer. I've worked with a lot of producers, and he has that thing. I have to say it reminds me of sessions I've done with Bowie, where he knows exactly what he's going for and he's able to get it out of you.
Saint-Geniès: The way they've been making music for a long time, it's always in the service of the song. I feel that they were smart enough in the process of making this record to think about that. Every song seems really attached to the singers involved. It's really for the songs.
Dorsey: I just kind of walked in blind. And now when I hear the result, now I'm just floored. I think it's a masterpiece. It's such a beautiful record. It's so emotional. And I feel so, so proud to be a part of it.
Saint-Geniès: I've always loved their music, but to have the opportunity to be really [on the] inside... The National has been in my soundtrack life for a long time now, you know? And now I know I'm gonna have these songs forever in my head, because now I'm performing them.
Stables: It's just beautiful, not just because they're female voices but because they're different voices. I think as a project that investigates identity and stories within a life, it's great that we are hearing and noticing different voices that bring different moods and energy and narratives.
Menaker: I just think it's really beautiful the way that they can expand, bringing other people in, without compromising or giving up the artistic integrity of the band itself. It just feels like this beautiful extension.
