The National’s frontman collaborates with producer Sean O’Brien and various musicians on his second solo album, recorded in California. The National’s Matt Berninger is set to release his second solo album ‘Get Sunk’ through Book/Concord Records. The album was created in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Sean O’Brien, who also served as co-writer on several tracks.
The project features contributions from numerous musicians, including Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Julia Laws of Ronboy, Kyle Resnick, Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Booker T Jones, Harrison Whitford, Mike Brewer, and The Walkmen’s Walter Martin and Paul Maroon. The recordings took place in a basement studio in Silver Lake, California.
Berninger shared the album’s first single, ‘Bonnet of Pins’. Speaking about the creative process behind the album, Berninger says, “Our hearts are like old wells filled with pennies and worms. I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.”
The album follows his solo debut ‘Serpentine Prison’, which was produced by Booker T Jones. After experiencing writer’s block in 2020, Berninger found new inspiration in Connecticut, where he wrote lyrics and created art pieces in his barn. “I was able to get the blurry picture as close to just right for me,” he reflects.
Berninger will embark on a tour in support of ‘Get Sunk’, accompanied by the core band from the album’s recording sessions, with Ronboy opening the shows.
“Get Sunk” is an ode to the infinite. It brings brush-stroked, blurry memories to the surface, amassing in a heap of colours and connections that stretches beyond individuality and into an endless altering. Under water, everything moves in slow motion and for Matt Berninger, he saw his creative voice slipping away with the current.
But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. “Get Sunk” is the purgative inhale. It’s seeing the undulating reflection in the water and realizing that you are not yourself without a thousand others: parents, friends, siblings, spouses and exes, college roommates, childhood best friends, cousins and kids, strangers even––all of it––make up the spirit of “Get Sunk’s” narrator. Berninger wanted to figure out why he loves what he does and it’s in the album’s collaborative spirit and loose, unfurling attitude that Berninger looked up and felt the warmth on his face. When we sink into ourselves, we’ll often find that we are actually swimming with others.
The official audio for Matt Berninger’s from the new album, “Get Sunk” out May 30th, 2025
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