The National's Matt Berninger has recorded a new solo album, produced by Memphis soul legend Booker T Jones. Serpentine Prison will be released on October 2 through Book Records, a new imprint formed by Berninger and Jones in conjunction with Concord Records. Watch a video for the title track no...
The National’s Matt Berninger has recorded a new solo album, produced by Memphis soul legend Booker T Jones.
Serpentine Prison will be released on October 2 through Book Records, a new imprint formed by Berninger and Jones in conjunction with Concord Records. Watch a video for the title track now:
“The song ‘Serpentine Prison’ was written in December 2018, about a week after recording The National’s I Am Easy To Find,” Berninger explains. “For a long time, I had been writing songs for movies and musicals and other projects where I needed to get inside someone else’s head and convey another person’s feelings. I liked doing that, but I was ready to dig back into my own garbage and this was the first thing that came out.
“The title is from a twisting sewer pipe that drains into the ocean near LAX. There’s a cage on the pipe to keep people from climbing out to sea. I worked on the song with Sean O’Brien and Harrison Whitford and recorded it about six months later with Booker T Jones producing. It feels like an epilogue, so I named the record after it and put it last.”