"A girl recently asked me to say her name so she could hear what it sounded like in my voice. Her name was Jade. I said ‘Jade’. It sounded amazing."
- Matt Berninger (via thesohoriots)
(via presidents)
"A girl recently asked me to say her name so she could hear what it sounded like in my voice. Her name was Jade. I said ‘Jade’. It sounded amazing."
- Matt Berninger (via thesohoriots)
(via presidents)
"I loved the names like, “The The” and “The Smiths and “The Clean”—those were the kind of names that were just so boring they were great. And that was what was amazing about them. I didn’t want a name like “The Arctic Monkeys” or something clever, you know? So, “The National” seemed as boring as I could come up with. Turned out to be a problem because it’s really hard to Google…"
- Matt Berninger of The National, on CNN (Yes, CNN)
(via austinkleon)
"We don’t have casual fans - it’s an obsessive, cult audience."
- Aaron Dessner of THE NATIONAL (via 3kindsofyes)
"People say there’s a monotony to the way I sing, and I totally understand that. But maybe it’s more entertaining to watch the pole-vaulter hit the bar than go over it. Hitting the notes is less important than the attempt. If you believe what you sing, if the notes are right is insignificant."
-
Matt Berninger of The National (via televisionblues)
I love you, Matt
(via dressmedown)
(via thedoldrumsarekillingme)
"And then I got to a point where I just started realizing that you just embrace the fact that it’s uncomfortable and be uncomfortable and just let that be the thing you do. So I never worry too much - - the awkward silences or failed banter that’s not funny, and I’ve been compared to Rainman on stage which was - - I understand it because… I look like I’m a little bit, just really awkward. But I think it’s like, after a while it’s like, that’s fine, you know? That’s an okay thing to be. You don’t have to be cool or charming or funny."
- Matt Berninger (via desperatetoentertain)
(via desperatetoentertain)
pale-fire: Matt and his wife, Carin, not yet married, were breaking up and getting back together frequently, “trying to resist the person you might end up with,” as Carin puts it. One night, Carin accused Matt of being in search of an “out–of-this-world person who’s a pure fantasy,” by telling him he was going through life “looking for astronauts,” which soon became the title of a song. (Source: flavorwire.com)
On Berninger’s wife, Carin Besser, a former editor at The New Yorker:
"I think we’ll probably lose to a Muppets song, but you know, there’s no shame in that. It was really fun to see our names associated with the Academy Awards in any capacity. If we are in fact nominated that would be a blast, but none of us are crossing our fingers on that. Win Win was just a really fun project to work on. Tom McCarthy asked us to write a song for the end of the film. The whole thing was just a really good experience. So yeah, if it gets any more recognition, that would be just icing."
- Matt Berninger told Rolling Stone on being shortlisted for an Oscar for best original song for Think You Can Wait
(Source: Rolling Stone)
"If there’s someone you absolutely miss, you might find yourself talking to them a lot in your mind, creating those fake conversations with them and you answer yourself in their voice in your head. Maybe it’s a girlfriend who dumped you or you know someone who died or that sort of thing, you adopt their personality or the memory of who they were as a means of staying close to them. People talk about spirit, but I have this idea that when we die, we’re gone. All that lives on is our memory and how we affected people, the way we changed people throughout our life. Whether you’ve had a good effect of a bad effect on people, that’s your afterlife—the people who live on after you."
- Matt Berninger (via replayingthemoments)
