I am an expert at applying premade pesto to pasta.
From the very beginning, we just sort of made things up together. That's one of the great things about having a twin brother; you have a sort of feedback loop, where you can bounce things off of each other.
It's very exciting to have a festival in the heart of Boston. It's an amazing experience to be in a city and to be able to walk in and out of a festival. I think that's part of what's going to make Boston Calling really special.
My wife is from Copenhagen and her father has been a huge Liverpool supporter since the early 1960s.
If I'm not working on music, I'm probably torturing my infant daughter, Ingrid, with kisses or running or playing soccer in the park.
The great thing about being on tour is that... the band plays at night and other than that we have a lot of free time.
I think the idea is that every time we perform Big Red Machine music it should be different somehow - like, different people, different songs maybe, definitely different versions of the songs.
One of the negative sides of a really intense arc as a touring band is there are big gaps in your memory because you're so exhausted.
Big Red Machine is really a community effort: I guess it involves almost 30 musicians. It does come out of our friendship, but it's really something that is deeply collaborative.
I busked a few times in Asheville, North Carolina, when I was 18. It was terrifying. I was probably just trying to meet girls.
There have definitely been phases of the National, many years ago, where we did party, and various people, in their own way, fell off the wagon.
There are people who want to hear what they consider your hits. There are people who want you to experiment and explore random, rare things. And it's kind of a different; they're two different beasts.
When you're working with someone new, it takes a second to understand their instincts and range. It's not really conscious.
I do have a way of playing piano where it's very melodic and emotional, but then often it's great if whoever's singing doesn't sing exactly what's in the piano melody, but maybe it's connected in some way.
Seven' is this kind of nostalgic, emotional folk song.
I had been living with my family in France as COVID was starting to spiral out of control in Europe. I said to my wife that maybe they should come back to the States with me because I was worried about getting separated.
I tried hard not to think about the scope or scale of making a record that would be heard by millions and millions of people. I did a pretty good job of tuning that out.
Music for me is an emotional necessity. It's therapy. It's what I live and breathe.
The National guys will tell you the same thing - I tend to work until the last possible minute.
There are some things that you see that are hard to talk about. You can't talk about it. You just bear witness to them.
