Taylor Swift was keen to collaborate on the “weirdest” song The National had.
The ‘Shake It Off’ hitmaker struck up a friendship with the group in 2014 then Aaron Dessner produced her 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, with the band appearing on the latter’s track ‘Coney Island’, and she returned the favour with guest vocals on ‘The Alcott’, taken from the rockers’ record ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’.
Aaron told MOJO magazine: “She was a big fan and I think that’s part of why we clicked in the way that we did. It felt very natural.
“Even though she’s this giant pop star, she’s actually just someone who makes incredible songs in different styles and in different ways.
“She said, ‘Send me the weirdest thing’, so to hear this dialogue with Matt (Berninger, frontman) was really powerful.”
Matt usually writes a lot with wife Carin Besser and he thinks Taylor did a great job of stepping into her shoes.
He said: “[Taylor] wrote everything she sings on ‘The Alcott’ and that was amazing.
2She brought the perspective of the other voice in the conversation.
“She was maybe imagining herself as Carin, because we did talk with her at one point about how she and I managed to be a marriage and creative partners. Because that’s tricky, y’know.”
Matt praised his wife for “elevating” the band’s songs.
He said:” She got me to start writing great thoughts, great phrases.
“She’s elevated so many songs. There might just be one line and sometimes it’s the chorus.”
Aaron added: “They bounce off each other in really important ways.
“Even if Carin’s not actually writing something on a song, she’ll be giving Matt a lot of feedback all the time, and confidence.
“Her opinion is probably as important as anyone’s in the band, y’know, or more.”
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