Chapter 1

The National (2001)

It was actually recorded in 1999 but we didn't put it out until 2001. We actually started a record label to release it ourselves.

It's really kind of primitive relative to where The National ended up. But you can kinda hear us working our ideas out.

At that time we were not totally serious. I played a lot of other music with my brother and with Brian [Devendorf, The National drummer]. The National at that time was not an ambitious project.

We were best friends, we used to get together after work and play music. We loved to write songs and we were big music fans and we used to go see a lot of music together.

So it was almost like the record just sort of happened. We didn't set out with some big agenda to make the greatest rock record of all time.

Chapter 2

Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003)

I think Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers was very important as a transition between the first record and when we finally solidified some of the key aspects of the band, which was on the Cherry Tree EP in 2004.

We started recording that record in 2001. You can hear us experimenting with a lot of different things.

It still has the folk and roots leanings of our first record, but then you also hear some electronic experimentation and some of the louder rock songs that we would later do.

We started to figure a lot of things out both in terms of what we wanted to do and what we didn't want to do as a band.

Chapter 3

Alligator (2005)

I remember thinking to myself 'If I'm going to present music to the band, I'd better be very sure that it's good'. Alligator was sort of the first record that we made that was really The National coming into its own. You can hear Matt, as a lyricist, maturing. We had matured as a band.

'Abel' is an important song. You can hear the frustration that I think Matt felt. Up until that point people weren't really listening to us.

I feel like we were banging down the door at that point. We took a page from the Pixies and put the chorus first. It was this quiet/loud dynamic. We definitely figured something out with that song.

Chapter 4

Boxer (2007)

In the wake of the success of Alligator, it was hard to start writing another album. We didn't want to make the same album again. Boxer was really important as far as figuring out that we could do anything we want, as long as we believed in it and it was compelling to us.

There's a lot of things about that record that are important as far as where we ended up going.

I remember our record label was not confident about Boxer when we turned it in, but it ended up being ten times bigger than Alligator.

I think there was some concern that it didn't have singles. They're a great label and they wanted us to do what we wanted to do and have that independence, so they didn't lean on us too heavily. I think there was some concern that it didn't have the right kind of songs on it, but we felt very confident about it.

The orchestration, you hear it somewhat in Alligator and quite a bit on Boxer. Both as far as the textures on the record and also the fanfare at the end of 'Fake Empire'. It started to weave in more of the classical influence on our music.

I think Matt had powerful lyrical themes on that record. He was really focused and writing very well.

Chapter 5

High Violet (2010)

After Alligator and Boxer there was a certain degree of freedom that we felt. Alligator was us proving ourselves, Boxer was us proving that it wasn't a fluke.

We built our own recording studio in my garage and made the whole thing in there. It really allowed us the freedom and space to experiment and get things how we wanted them.

We started to have conceptual ideas at that point in terms of the sounds that we wanted. There was all this talk of loose wool, Matt kept saying he wanted everything to sound like loose wool.

The first song that focused on that was 'Terrible Love'. What's on the record is actually my demo, I'd improvised this sound, creating this really thick, muddy guitar sound. We ended up using that sound in quite a few places on the record.

'Bloodbuzz Ohio' was a song that was originally a very fragile folk song. I found a way to turn it on its head and think of it more like a rock song. We had done this a lot on Boxer, these sort of fast-slow songs or these slow-fast songs. Matt is singing in his drunken bedroom way, but the music is quite driving, there's this force to it.

It's a very simple song in a way but it obviously touched a nerve lyrically. This sentiment of feeling nostalgia for home, but also this anxiety of what's happening to your loved ones. This was the time the world was going into this great recession and it kinda captured that anxiety in this weird love song.

I think the combination of the speed of the song against Matt's gentle murmur of a voice, there's something about it. The chemistry between Matt's voice and Brian's drumming is something you hear very clearly on High Violet.

There was a song that predated 'Anyone's Ghost' called 'Wood Ducks'; that was the name of the sketch. It had totally different lyrics and was slower but we really liked it. One day in the studio, Matt asked us if we could play it twice as fast. So we did and he rewrote the lyrics and it became the dark pop song that it is.

Chapter 6

Trouble Will Find Me (2013)

To me it has a confidence and a more relaxed quality to it. That was the band not being afraid – whether it's 'Pink Rabbits' or 'I Need My Girl', those kinds of song we might not have written before. But there was an openness to any idea at that point.

The record is the most ambitious in terms of the music; there are many songs that have mixed meter and harmonic shifts that we hadn't done before.

A lot of the songs on Trouble Will Find Me just clicked for Matt. I'd send him the demo and he'd send me back the song not long after.