Aaron Dessner
Aaron Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is best known as a member of the acclaimed rock band The National, for whom he writes the majority of music, collaborating on songs with singer Matt Berninger who writes their lyrics.
Collaborations with Bryce Dessner
Aaron and Bryce write and play guitar for The National. The brothers both graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1994. The brothers are co-founders, alongside Alec Hanley Bemis, of Brassland Records, a label that has released early albums from The National, the Clogs catalog and releases by Doveman and Nico Muhly.
The two Dessners also write, produce, and perform contemporary music internationally in collaboration with many artists. In August 2008, Aaron and Bryce performed a collaborative concert with David Cossin, and Luca Tarantino as a part of Soundres, an international residency program for contemporary music and art in Salento, Italy and at the Guitare Au Palais Festival Perpignan France. They also performed at Matthew Ritchie's Ghost Operator opening at the White Cube Gallery in London.
Aaron and Bryce have also collaborated with many world renowned orchestras. Most recently the brothers played with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in a concert billed as "Sixty Minutes Of The Dessners." The program included "St. Carolyn by the Sea," "Lachrimae" and "Raphael," all of which were composed by Bryce Dessner. Last spring Bryce and Aaron performed "St. Carolyn by the Sea" and "Raphael" with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta during the Holland Festival. These performances took place at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven. In October 2011 Aaron joined his brother Bryce to perform "St. Carolyn by the Sea" with the American Composers Orchestra at The World Financial Center in New York City.
Producer
Aaron has production credits on every album by The National since and including Alligator. The majority of both High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me were recorded in his garage studio behind his house in Brooklyn, and Alligator and Boxer were partially recorded in his attic and his sister's attic.[1]
Outside of his work with The National, Aaron has made a name for himself as an influential producer, working with a number of talented and respected musicians. Most recently, Aaron produced Local Natives’ second full-length album Hummingbird (2013). Local Natives first met Aaron while on tour with The National. Though they were originally unsure if they wanted to work with a producer at all, they felt that Aaron could be a big help in shaping their album so they decamped to his Brooklyn studio. Hummingbird received rave reviews and the music website Pitchfork praised Aaron's production work, saying that he "knows how to make things sound good, and there's plenty of richness and depth to these songs."[2]
Aaron also worked with Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten on her most recent album, Tramp (2012). Sharon and Dessner spent over fourteen months working in his studio and the end result was Sharon’s most acclaimed release yet. The Fly and Drowned in Sound both ranked Tramp as the best album of 2012, and the album has appeared on a plethora of lists of the best albums of 2012 by websites and publications including Spinner, Pitchfork, NPR and Consequence of Sound.
Other production credits include 2009's AIDS charity compilation, Dark Was the Night, for the Red Hot Organization, as well as Doveman's 2009 release, The Conformist. He is currently producing the new album for British indie-folk group This Is The Kit, which will be released on Brassland Records. He is also working on the forthcoming album from the Australian band Luluc.
Guest Performer
In addition to extensive touring and performances with the National, Aaron has performed with and supported David Byrne, Clogs, Doveman, Final Fantasy, Feist, Grizzly Bear, Hayden, Justin Vernon, Local Natives and My Brightest Diamond.
Collaborations and Contributions
Aaron is a frequent collaborator with a wide range of musicians. In 2009, Aaron contributed a track to the Dark Was the Night compilation. This track, "Big Red Machine", was co-written with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and was also featured in the 2010 film, “Last Minutes with ODEN,” a short documentary that later went on to win the overall Best Video Award at the first annual Vimeo Awards ceremony. Vernon and Aaron collaborated once again at the 2010 MusicNOW Festival, performing a cover of Sharon Van Etten's "Love More" together. In 2008, Aaron premiered sketches with Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) at the same event.
Marshall Curry's award winning documentary Racing Dreams includes music contributed by both Aaron and The National. "Win Win" directed by Thomas McCarthy closes with "Think You Can Wait," a track written by Aaron and Matt Berninger, recorded by The National with additional vocals from Sharon Van Etten.
In March 2012, Aaron, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf teamed up with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir for a live webcast, which featured two musical sets and a political discussion. The event was produced by Head Count, a non-partisan organization that uses live music events to promote voter registration and awareness.
In December 2012 Aaron curated a day of Other Voices (TV series), an Irish music festival that is aired live on RTE Two in Ireland. The performances take place in the Church of St James in Dingle, County Kerry. Aaron brought three bands to Other Voices: Luluc, This Is The Kit and Local Natives. He performed with all three bands.
Aaron also played an important role in The National's contribution to the HBO show Game of Thrones. In May 2012 The National's performance of "Rains of Castamere" played during the closing credits of season two episode nine. Though the song is not an original, Aaron helped to interpret the instruments and music so that it evoked the land of Westeros.
Boston Calling
In May 2013 the inaugural Boston Calling Music Festival, which was co-curated by Aaron, took place at City Hall Plaza in Boston. The two-day festival featured 18 acts, including the Walkmen, The Shins and Of Monsters and Men. The festival will take place again during Labor Day Weekend (September 7-8 2013) and will again be co-curated by Aaron. It will include performances by Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar and Local Natives, among others.
Dark Was the Night
In 2009, brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner produced an extensive AIDS charity compilation, Dark Was the Night, for the Red Hot Organization. The record features exclusive recordings and collaborations from a long list of artists including David Byrne, The Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Sharon Jones, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, and Spoon. Dark Was the Night has raised over 2 million dollars for AIDS charities as of January 2012.
On May 3, 2009 4AD and Red Hot produced Dark Was the Night - Live, a concert celebrating the newest Red Hot album. The show took place at Radio City Music Hall and featured several of the artists that contributed to the compilation.
The Long Count
The Long Count is a large commission for the BAM Next Wave Festival that finds Bryce and Aaron working alongside visual artist Matthew Ritchie. Together they created a work loosely based on the Mayan creation story Popol Vuh that includes a 12 piece orchestra and a number of guest singers, including Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders, The Pixies), Matt Berninger (The National), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Tunde Adebimpe (TV On The Radio). The work had its world premiere at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in September 2009 as part of the Ellnora Festival. It has since been performed at BAM, the Holland Festival and the Barbican.
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is a music festival curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner. The festival showcases bands, composers, singer-songwriters and filmmakers from all corners of the New York music scene. The inaugural festival took place May 3-5 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and included performances by the Walkmen, St. Vincent, Beirut, The Antlers, yMusic and Jherek Bischoff, as well as newly commissioned films by Jonas Mekas, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tunde Adebimpe, among others. Last year's event took place April 25-27 2013 at BAM and included performances by The Roots, Solange, TV on the Radio, Phosphorescent and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The event also featured a curated program of film shorts and a visual art installation by Andrew Ondrejcak.