Matt Berninger with The National performing at Leeds’ First Direct Arena. December 2019. (Scott Smith for Live4ever)
“We sent it to him and it moved him – he then sang with Matt so powerfully,” The National have said.
The National have resumed their fruitful association with Bon Iver on the new single Weird Goodbyes.
The track is out not long before the band’s appearance at All Points East this month – Aaron Dessner has had this to say on it:
“Weird Goodbyes was one of the first new songs we made. I was misusing drum machines, as usual, and stumbled onto this beat that got stuck in my head – it felt like something only Bryan could naturally play.”
“We built the song around the beat. Matt’s melody and words felt so elegant and moving from the beginning – mourning a loss of innocence and motivation, holding onto memories and feelings that inevitably slip away and the grief we all suffer in weird goodbyes.”