I’m really loving the way the National are rolling out these pre-release teasers for their forthcoming album, High Violet (due out on May 11). By combining a free download of “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” a late-night television live debut of “Terrible Love,” and numerous bootlegged YouTubes from concerts, Matt Berninger and the Dessner/Devendorf brothers have cooked up quite the anticipatory concoction. Now they’ve dropped a few more mouth-watering details that will keep you begging for this epic record to drop already…
“Richie Reed Parry from Arcade Fire is all over the record, I think he’s on six or seven songs,” Aaron Dessner told the Quietus in an excellent interview posted this morning, adding later:
[Parry] played guitar and stand-up base on ‘Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks’, and… he heard me working on the music for ‘Conversation 16’, and he said, ‘I have an idea!’ So he went in and sang – his father is a choir director so he knows multi-part singing – he sang this seven-part vocal, it’s all him layered.
Dessner and Berninger also provided more details about Sufjan Stevens’ contribution of vocals and harmonium on the song “Afraid Of Everyone” (which was hinted about in an interview with Pitchfork earlier this year). And if that doesn’t get you on the edge of your seat: “Justin Vernon from Bon Iver is the main harmony man on ‘Vanderlyle’.”
Check out the Quietus’ Q&A here.