Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham beam out to the south of France in this latest episode of Composing Myself, to chat to American composer, performer and founding member of The National Bryce Dessner. Stops on this week’s conversational journey include:

- learning how to play at a school with no music department, utilising the musical skills of a rebellious English teacher

- why taking time off is as critical for creativity as the creative process itself

- the fascinating genesis of Mari, conceptualised and created during the COVID-19 pandemic

- what it’s like living with another singer-songwriter, his wife Mina Tindle, and how they leverage their co-existence to influence and hone their works

- the inspiration behind The National’s latest album The First Two Pages of Frankenstein

As ever, a thoroughly riveting and illuminating listen.

https://brycedessner.com/

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes and Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon.

Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Mereilles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift. 

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