Ep. 264: How Aaron Dessner Became an Industry Favorite and the 3AM Text That Became 'folklore'

Today's guest is a musician's musician who co-founded The National, the Grammy-winning band behind Boxer, High Violet and Sleep Well Beast.

He co-wrote and produced Taylor Swift's folklore and evermore, including cardigan and willow. folklore won Album of the Year at the Grammys.

He worked on The Tortured Poets Department and produced Ed Sheeran's Subtract.

He's behind Gracie Abrams' I Love You, I'm Sorry and Noah Kahan's Porch Light.

In the last year alone, he's made records with Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, Brandi Carlile, Sam Barber, Kevin Morby and Suki Waterhouse.

He's one half of Big Red Machine with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

And he built Long Pond, the Hudson Valley studio where many of these songs were made.

And The Writer Is... Aaron Dessner!

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0:00 Intro

1:00 Cardigan, willow, Porch Light — and eight albums in a year

5:26 Why "I Love You, I'm Sorry" was never the single

7:27 Secretly rooting for the weird song

8:17 When a pop star needs a single right now

10:25 Don't fill the space: how he walks into a session

12:12 Long Pond and "you never make a mistake investing in your creativity"

17:24 Twin brothers and their dad's jazz drums

22:48 "We faked it": how The National got signed

26:48 Playing to no one — then 500 strangers in Michigan

30:05 "Did you lose yourself?"

33:14 When one bandmate starts writing hits for other people

35:38 On stage with Taylor: "You're playing a stadium. It's okay."

37:27 "Hey, it's Taylor": the text in 2020

40:34 The Dropbox folder — and cardigan by 3 a.m.

47:45 The thank-you note that became willow

51:49 Meeting Gracie Abrams — and 2–3 songs a day

57:47 How an instrumentalist became the storyteller's whisperer

1:01:11 Why his albums don't get shelved: finishing Prizefighter

1:04:23 Studio stories: Gracie, Brandi Carlile, Florence, Sam Barber

1:11:40 Noah Kahan arrives burnt out — and Porch Light

1:15:41 Live Q&A: finding the corners, his first key change

1:18:24 Advice for musicians with day jobs

1:20:07 What all the greats have in common

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.