Photo Credit Chantal Anderson (2020)
Debut Solo Album
‘Serpentine Prison’
Out Today (on Book’s Records) – Produced by Booker T Jones
+ Rough Trade Q&A Announced For 22nd October
Interactive Live Stream Zoom with Special Guest Host
“It’s a stunning record. Matt Berninger didn’t want to write a solo record. But thank god he did.” – Record Collector ★★★★★
“An intimate and generous offering from one of 21st Century rock’s most prominent voices.” – NME ★★★★
“This collection allows Matt’s lyrics and song-craft to shine” – DIY ★★★★
“Elegance and confidence in ample supply here” – Uncut ★★★★
“Matt Berninger has never sounded so free” – MOJO ★★★★
Serpentine Prison, the highly anticipated debut solo album from Matt Berninger, frontman of internationally acclaimed band The National, is out today, 16th October. Deemed by Music Week “One of the most highly anticipated records of the year”, Serpentine Prison was produced by famed Memphis multi-instrumentalist Booker T Jones, and is available via Book’s Records, a new imprint formed by Berninger and Jones in conjunction with Concord Records.
Order the album HERE.
To celebrate the release of Serpentine Prison, Rough Trade will present an interactive live stream Zoom Q&A with Matt Berninger on 22nd October. Matt will join a special guest host for an intimate in-conversation, with a bonus intermission screening of an exclusive live studio performance of a track from his new album. Book Tickets HERE
Berninger will be performing selections from the new record on CBS This Morning: Saturday on 17th October and The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert on 22nd October. In the meantime, the video for “One More Second” the third and latest single to be taken from Serpentine Prison.
Berninger explains, “I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy (Lost Lander, EL VY) with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation. I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.”
Described by Esquire Magazine as “downright soulful” Serpentine Prison features contributions from an array of notable artists, including Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Andrew Bird, Mike Brewer, Hayden Desser, Scott Devendorf (The National, LNZNDRF), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz), Booker T Jones, Teddy Jones, Brent Knopf (EL VY, Menomena), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut, LNZNDRF), Walter Martin (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire*Eater), Sean O’Brien, Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Matt Sheehy (EL VY, Lost Lander) and Harrison Whitford (Phoebe Bridgers). Additional production on the album was provided by Sean O’Brien.
As well as being a longtime band member of The National (with whom he won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for 2017’s Sleep Well Beast), Berninger has also collaborated with Brent Knopf under the moniker EL VY on their 2015 release Return to the Moon. In 2019 Berninger appeared in Between Two Ferns: The Movie and teamed up with Phoebe Bridgers to contribute the song “Walking on a String” to the film’s soundtrack.
