There is much more immediate access to creative music through online communities and blogs which have touched all corners of the music world including contemporary classical. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
With ‘Boxer,’ we made the kind of music we wanted to make and didn’t really worry about what the expectation was. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
I can’t just play in a rock band. The National is a great, exciting band to play in. We improvise a lot onstage, and it’s very intense, but after a while, I crave other kinds of experiences. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
Obviously, any living musician born after 1960 has been touched by rock and roll. It’s the music of our time, and it’s ‘in the air,’ as Steve Reich would say. My experience of it is just really direct because I’m actually playing in a collaborative band. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
As little boys, my brother and I used to spend hours with my grandmother, asking her about the details of how she came to America. She could only give us a smattering of details, but they all found their way into our collective imagination, eventually becoming a part of our own cultural identity and connection to the past. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
Bands like Arcade Fire finding a larger audience has opened a lot of doors. They’ve empowered a whole community in Montreal. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
When we learned to play in bands, what we were covering was equal part the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead. That would defy the logic that somehow these things don’t fit in the same musical well. Bryce Dessner Read Quote
