Bryan Devendorf embodies every preconceived notion I’ve ever had about a rock star. Throughout our interview he never removed his aviator shades and chain smoked cigarettes at a rapidity not seen since Bob Dylan in Don’t Look Back. Of course, for every musician that dons a pair of aviators and enjoys a Marlboro, very few can say that they are the drummer of one of the greatest bands in the world.
Devendorf’s band The National has enjoyed incredible amounts of success thanks to the critical and commercial acclaim for their 2007 album Boxer. Highlighted by the voice and lyrics of frontman Matt Berninger, Boxer’s lush arrangements propelled it to the top of many critics’ Top 10 lists. The success earned The National a slot supporting R.E.M. and Modest Mouse on their upcoming tour. I conducted the interview with Devendorf just before the band played a blistering set at this year’s Langerado Music Festival, and we discussed The National’s relationship with R.E.M., Devendorf’s favorite books, and a litany of other subjects ranging from Daryl Hall to Dirty Dancing.
Grooveshark: How did the R.E.M. and Modest Mouse tour come about? Have you guys always been REM or Modest Mouse fans?
Devendorf: We’ve always been fans of REM. I don’t know how the whole tour was organized but I know Michael Stipe and Mike Mills came to one of our shows in London and I think that that was probably part of the process. I think they’re putting a lot of care into the tour. I think they want to make it more of like a nice package tour rather than like a, you know…
Grooveshark: An R.E.M. Greatest Hits Tour?
Devendorf: That, but also they want the whole show to consist of good bands. Or, you know, bands that are doing something kind of interesting.
Grooveshark: Did they come back and say hi?
Devendorf: Oh yeah! They hung out for a while.
Grooveshark: That’s pretty crazy! What do you say to Michael Stipe?
Devendorf: I didn’t speak to him at all. I was a little nervous. Aaron (Dessner) spoke to him a lot. He was very approachable. I talked to Mike Mills for a minute or two about being in the band and what’s it like and how you sustain a band for so long so that it becomes a part of your life. He was very open and frank in his opinions about what makes a band function healthily or properly.
Grooveshark: Before Alligator, you guys were playing to pretty small clubs and now you’ve evolved into a nationally touring band. Was there ever a point where you guys considered packing it in?
Devendorf: Packing it in and pulling, pitching our tent? Folding our tent? Pitching our tent? No, folding our tents? Packing our tents? Not really because we all had jobs and we all pretty much had these like stable lives essentially. Most of us are married, and some of us own homes, and we don’t have our entire being riding on being a successful band. We just kind of got lucky and attracted an audience that continues to grow a little bit, I guess
Grooveshark: So Sufjan Stevens played piano on a couple tracks on “Boxer” didn’t he? How was that?
Devendorf: I wasn’t actually at the sessions. I understand that they were very easy– he’s really gifted. He’s very facile at picking up parts. I think it was on two songs, and he just banged it out in like half a day at a studio.
Grooveshark: That’s cool. And how do you guys typically approach the song-writing process? Is it like a diplomatic thing?
Devendorf: Democratic. It’s diplomatic at times. The recording process gets a little more heated. But the writing process, the last record we kind of wrote as we recorded, which was kind of a mistake. We were spending a lot of money on the [pay] rate. It’s mostly just getting a set of chords or some core idea around which Matt will start writing lyrics and the two evolve side by side.
Grooveshark: That’s cool. I noticed a lot of literary references in some of your songs…What books have you been reading lately?
Devendorf: I just picked up No Country For Old Men.
Grooveshark: Great book.
Devendorf: I liked the movie, but I’m reading the book after it. We usually read pretty serious stuff. Mostly just fiction but occasionally some non-fiction. I tried to read War And Peace because we were doing a European tour that terminated in Moscow and I thought how perfect would it be to read it there. I did it once before with Gravity’s Rainbow? It’s a WW2 book. I can’t remember who wrote it, do you know?
Grooveshark: I used to work in a bookstore so I should…
Devendorf: It’s Thomas Pynchon I think.
Grooveshark: That sounds right.
Devendorf: The kitchen sink is in there. But there’s rockets raining down on London, lots of digressions but ultimately this character is questing across Europe and it ends in Berlin. Our tour was ending in Berlin so I thought I would try it again with War And Peace but I couldn’t get through it. It’s a slog…
Grooveshark: You guys opened for Arcade Fire, do you think that prepared you for this upcoming tour?
Devendorf: I think it prepared us for the logistical operation that happens with all the trucks, the unions, how a stage gets managed and what you’ve got to do to kind of like fit in. You have to just give it over to the system and do what you’re told, hurry up, wait, and do your thing.
Grooveshark: We’ve started asking people what their favorite movies, albums, and songs of the moment are.
Devendorf: I just saw a movie called “The Savages”.
Grooveshark: Oh, with Phillip Seymour Hoffman?
Devendorf: Yeah, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. I saw it on the plane last night. It was great.
Grooveshark: That’s a good in-flight movie. I got “Dirty Dancing” last time I was on an airplane, so you guys won out.
Devendorf: I just bought that for my wife! It’s her favorite movie. We just got a new TV at home.
Grooveshark: Oh, that’s cool. There’s a guy at our office that inexplicably loves that movie.
Devendorf: It’s “Dirty Dancing: The Ultimate Edition”.
Grooveshark: Not “Havana Nights”, though? The sequel?
Devendorf: No. I don’t recognize that as a legitimate “Dirty Dancing” franchise.
Grooveshark: What about a song, album you’ve been enjoying lately?
Devendorf: The Maps and Atlases album I got was good. I have a guilty pleasure I’ve been listening to… I was listening to Hall and Oates at a party and I was really into it. What’s that song called where it’s like, “I can’t go for that…” or…
Grooveshark: You know Darryl Hall is doing a speech at SXSW.
Devendorf: Oh… no shit?
Grooveshark: I’m gonna fly out there and see that.
Devendorf: Yeahhh…I have a lot of guilty pleasures. I listen to Steely Dan a lot.
Grooveshark: That’s not a guilty pleasure, man! “Can’t Buy A Thrill” is a pretty good record.
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