The National detail new album, Sleep Well Beast, on BBC 6 Music

“In the past it felt like we made the songs we could make and this time we wanted to make the songs we wanted”

In a BBC Radio session hosted by Steve Lamacq yesterday (11 May), The National’s Bryce Dessner discusses the band’s reunion and their upcoming album, Sleep Well Beast, which is due to land on 8 September via 4AD.

Dessner reveals that the Brooklyn-based indie outfit wanted to go to “a new place musically” with the record, which will be “more adventurous” and “more electronic”. Although the band didn’t aim to be political, their new material has been influenced by global developments. Dessner explains, “There’s a lot of anxiety in the music, but there’s a lot of sense of humour and levity in the songs too.”

He also details how the process was “a very complicated democracy”, but ultimately, the group have taken their time to release material they want to create, with the members opening up and trying “new things on this one”.

Listen to the interview below. Check out the dates for their world tour and listen to their lead single The System Dreams in Total Darkness here.