Dead helps National live on
In the time it took the National to make “Sleep Well Beast” — the group’s seventh full-length album, and its first since 2013 — the band members moved apart to various destinations on the map, curated an extensive Grateful Dead tribute called “Day of the Dead” and spearheaded a handful of side projects. But they fall back together in glorious fashion on the new record, which was born out of creative tension and personal crisis. Scott Devendorf, who plays bass, guitars, synths and all manner of instruments with the band, talked to us from a tour stop in London about its inception.
Q: You guys spent so many years living on top of each other. Do you think it takes away from the band now that you’re spread across the globe?
A: I don’t think it takes away at all, especially since we spend so much time together on tour. Even when we were all living together, we would go on with our lives when we got off the road. It hasn’t made a huge difference. The antidote to living apart is the studio. It’s where we go to hang out and work.
Q: It sounds like there was a lot of fighting involved in
making this record. Was it worse than ever?
A: No, I think there’s periods making our records that are intensive. There were certainly arguments about what would make a song better, but we’re always able to work together. I feel like there was less fighting even though some of the fights were more intense.
Q: Your set lists on this tour lean heavily on songs from “Sleep Well Beast.” Are you making a statement?
A: It’s just really fun to play the songs. We started most of the shows playing the whole album straight through. Now we’ve started playing some of the older songs. It’s a combination. We’re confident with the new record, and we also want to play some older tunes we’ve shied away from in the past.
Q: Did working on the “Day of the Dead” project have an impact on the way you approached this album?
A: For sure — learning all that Dead stuff and just being a fan of it and getting to know Bob Weir. He has a really different perspective to making music; it’s almost like this yoga approach.