The National’s upcoming album, Trouble Will Find Me, is coming together with the help of some very impressive guests including Sufjan Stevens, Richard Reed Parry from Arcade Fire, St Vincent and Sharon Van Etten.
Gothamist managed to coax the list of collaborators, which also includes Doveman and Dark Dark Dark member Nona Marie Invie, out of The National’s drummer Bryan Devendorf, who revealed that some guests play a variety of instruments while other lent their voice to the record”
I know [Arcade Fire’s] Richard Reed Parry did a lot of great stuff. [Doveman] Thomas Bartlett was all over it. There were a lot of great musicians playing interesting instruments: there was a bass clarinet, regular clarinet, there’s strings, violin, viola, cello, there’s brass…it’s all used in these textual shifts rather than like, ‘here’s the brass!’ It’s subtle shifts. There are some great guest vocalists that did really awesome parts: [St. Vincent] Annie Clark, Sharon Van Etten, and Nona Marie Invie, from the band Dark Dark Dark.
Devendorf also went into some detail about Sufjan Stevens’ contributions, noting that Stevens laid down some drum machine and synth parts for various songs:
“There are some drum machines provided by Sufjan Stevens—he did some other things too, but he had this drum machine and he did some cool little parts on that. It’s on a bunch [of songs], it’s definitely on ‘Demons’, there’s some subtle stuff on ‘Pink Rabbits’, and definitely on ‘I Need My Girl’.” But it’s not like Daft Punk or anything.
“He also did some synths. There are some synthy textures. [Guitarists] Aaron and Bryce [Dessner] acquired this pretty awesome keyboard, the Korg DMS-20, that’s probably the most go-to synth on the record.”
Trouble Will Find Me is the sixth studio album from The National and it’s due out internationally on Tuesday, 21st May.
The National – Trouble Will Find Me track list
I Should Live in Salt
Demons
Don’t Swallow the Cap
Fireproof
Sea of Love
Heavenfaced
This Is the Last Time
Graceless
Slipped
I Need My Girl
Humiliation
Pink Rabbits
Hard to Find
