Song Exploder: The National - Sea of Love
December 22, 2014 12:17 PM - Subscribe

The National formed in 1999. They’ve released six albums, and have been nominated for a grammy. Their music is everywhere from Game of Thrones, to Bob’s Burgers, to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In 2013 they released their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts. The band is made up of singer Matt Berninger along with two sets of brothers: guitarists Bryce and Aaron Dessner, who are twins, and Brian and Scott Devendorf, who play drums and bass, respectively. In this episode, Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner break down “Sea of Love,” a song that they co-wrote. You’ll hear how it went from Aaron’s original guitar demo to a densely layered recording with contributions from their bandmates and others, and they’ll talk about how collaboration is an intrinsic part of their process and their band identity. Episode Page.
posted by ocherdraco (2 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
The tidbit about them hiding a harmonica by panning into the lead singer's temporarily deaf ear while engineering the recording was awesome and hilarious.
posted by mathowie at 1:46 PM on December 22, 2014


I love Sea of Love! That opening guitar riff really hooked me right from the start when I first heard this song. I really liked that Berninger said he quickly discarded his idea to change "Joe" to a woman's name and instead kept it with a male character. He's right, it ultimately doesn't matter, and there's no reason for him to get weird about it.

And ha, I spent ages thinking the line was "what did our love teach you," and not "what did Harvard teach you."
posted by yasaman at 2:18 PM on December 22, 2014


« Older Breaking Bad: Bug...   |  Movie: The House I Live In... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments