The National are one of the few bands that you and your partner agree on. The Brooklyn quintet are a group that manages to combine classic rock songwriting; an indie sensibility, and simmering sentimentality without sounding like they belong on a bad episode of Grey’s Anatomy -- they make it relevant. It’s also rare to find a group with such a strong back catalogue -- with nary a weak track in sight they were one of the clear highlights of the weekend's Harvest Festival.
We managed to track down bass player Bryan Devondorf backstage at Harvest in Sydney to discuss being in a band with your brother, playing under cover of darkness and the secrets to getting only blue M&Ms in your rider.
(Pics of The National in Melbourne, January 2011: Callum Ponton)
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So Bryan, I hear that I've got you here today because your brother can’t talk.
No, Bryce’s brother can’t talk. People get that mixed up a lot. We’ve been off [tour] for like a week and then six weeks before that so it’s always a bit strange with the vocals [when you're not playing regularly]. So yeah, maybe he is sick, I don’t know. One of our horn players claims he has a cold, too.
You brought your horn section down? This isn’t the same one as TV On The Radio used, is it?
No, but that’s a good idea!
Like a timeshare in horn players kind of thing.
I think they have actually played for TV On The Radio, now that I think about it.
Is there some sort of freelancer.com arrangement for horn personnel, where you can just search ‘Trumpet’ and find someone? Or is it guys you know?
[Laughs] No, they’re guys we know. They’ve been with us for years and played on our records, but they do other stuff too. But I will tell them that.
'Anyone's Ghost'
I read a piece where [frontman] Matt [Berninger] said that The National were most comfortable playing mid-sized theatres. But I suppose that was a while ago, and now you’re playing gigantic fuck-off stages at festivals like this. Do you feel better about the bigger shows now?
Well I suppose everyone, band and fans, would prefer a theatre just as far as acoustics go.
Right. Because you can’t predict how it will sound at festivals.
I mean, to that end we have played a lot of festivals recently, so I think we are more comfortable by virtue of doing it a lot, you know? I think we do prefer playing in the dark, but I suppose that’s the same with everyone and it depends on who headlines the festival. We played Latitude Festival this year in England and that was massive, so I guess you get used to it.
Is it because you're used to the darkness in theatres? I can imagine it would be very strange at five in the afternoon at a festival, seeing all those people…
I know. We’re very wrinkly in real life.
So it definitely isn’t a diva request, this darkness thing? Like ‘I only want blue M&Ms…’
[Laughs] No, no. But I only recently found out why that was, the M&Ms thing.
Was it Mariah Carey who said it?
No I think it was Van Halen. I was told — or at least I read this — that it was a way for them to secretly check that their people were actually reading the riders. Because they were more concerned about things like pyrotechnics working, so they figured if they got the M&Ms right, the crew had obviously read the rest of the list, too.
You played Reading Festival this year...
Yeah, that’s a huge festival. It was just mind-blowing how many people over there knew our music. It’s such an institution that it was great to be there, but that was definitely a case where we were sort of wishing for a theatre again. I mean, you’re outside and there’s 80,000 people there…
Do you have to amp yourself up? I could not imagine going from playing theatres and then going ‘Jesus, I’m now outdoors in front of all these people.’
Well on the plus side we’ve done a lot of weird tours like that lately where we it was a lot of festivals mixed with a lot of venue shows. You never get truly used to it.
This festival was billed as something a bit unique for Australia because our festival culture is generally one where it devolves into lots of dickheads with their shirts off, passed out and stuff like that. Do you ever play those big festivals and say ‘Oh my god, these kids are here to see something entirely different?’
Well yeah, I’m surprised for sure. Especially at the bigger ones, you do wonder if they’re here to see you or [you're just playing] next to the bar and they’re waiting in line [laughs]. But people seem to be interested. You mentioned the shirtless thing; there was a lot of that earlier in the year because we played Falls Festival, which was really fun but the whole concept [for us] was weird. We’d just left a snowstorm. So we were like ‘What’s everyone doing here?’ It was like another world.
'Bloodbuzz Ohio'
You played at Reading supporting The Strokes. Do you ever feel like you have to be more aggressively ‘showy’ now that you’re on that big platform?
Uh, not really. I think the only things we’ve done to make the show translate to a bigger audience is work on our video projections and lights. We don’t have anything crazy like lasers. Pulp had lasers, which I was not expecting, because I always associate lasers with dance music.
Well they’ve broken new ground now. There’s nothing stopping you from getting those girls who shoot T-shirts out of guns.
[Laughs] Finally! No, but other than that, I think at festivals we tend to play less of our quieter songs.
Does that get problematic when a lot of the really hardcore fans are the ones who perhaps love the soft, slow ones?
I know! But you can’t please everyone. We’re not Metallica, so it’s not heavy rock all the time but I think our festival shows tend to be a bit more rock-y.
I’ve played in bands with my brother before and that’s nowhere near you guys who are touring mates, friends and family all at the same time. [The National have two sets of brothers in the band.] Is there that kind of brotherly responsibility in certain instances, like ‘No you’re not going out tonight’, or ‘Wake up Scott [Devendorf, drums], we have to catch a plane’?
Everyone sort of participates in that depending on the situation. We are both immediately responsible for each other, I guess. But if there’s a conflict that needs to be solved, everyone chips in. We were friends before we had the band, my brother and I and the twins went to high school together so we have a long-term friendship beyond the band that I think is helpful.
Besides, you and your brother form the rhythm section, too, so that’s another thing to think about.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you ever sort of stand there and think ‘How did this happen? How did my brother and I — and our friends — end up in this position?’
You know, I do every once in a while. I just think about it. I try not to do it while I’m on stage. That could get awkward.
Jonno Seidler