Matt Berninger—frontman of critically acclaimed group The National—is livestreaming now on YouTube in celebration of the premiere of the official Chris Sgroi-directed video for the single “One More Second,” off his highly anticipated debut solo record, Serpentine Prison, due October 16. Berninger is hosting a cocktail “hour”—dubbed Cocktail Seconds with Matt Berninger—along with special guests Chris Sgroi and Tom Berninger, discussing the making of the video.
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“I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy (Lost Lander, EL VY) with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation,” explains Berninger. “I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.”
Of “One More Second,” Rolling Stone raves, “The song starts out as a minimal and meditative acoustic tune, but soon expands with shuffling drums, rich organ, blooming backing vocals and even a tasteful—and slightly off-kilter—piano solo.”
The forthcoming record, produced by famed Memphis multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones, will be released via Book’s Records, a new imprint formed by Berninger and Jones in conjunction with Concord Records. The album features contributions from a wide array of notable artists, including Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Andrew Bird, Mike Brewer, Hayden Desser, Scott Devendorf (The National, LNZNDRF), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz), Booker T. Jones, Teddy Jones, Brent Knopf (EL VY, Menomena), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut, LNZNDRF), Walter Martin (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Sean O’Brien, Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Matt Sheehy (EL VY, Lost Lander) and Harrison Whitford (Phoebe Bridgers). Additional production on the album was provided by Sean O’Brien.
Of the forthcoming record’s origins, Berninger explains, “I sent [friend and collaborator Booker T. Jones] a few rough demos of originals that I had started working on with some old friends, including the songs ‘Serpentine Prison’ and ‘Distant Axis.’ Booker responded to those demos right away and encouraged me to keep writing and digging deeper into that stuff. Six months later we had twelve originals and seven covers. Everyone I had been working with on these songs came to Venice, CA, and we recorded it all in 14 days.”
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