149: Bryan Devendorf (The National)

The Trap Set with Joe Wong

Joe Wong

Joewong, Drums, Comedy, Performing Arts, Arts, Drummers

4.8 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Despite a deceptively unassuming stage persona, Bryan Devendorf's cleverly deconstructed beats are central to The National's sonic identity. He tells Joe about: growing up in Cincinnati, straddling the worlds of punk rock and jam bands, parenthood, white privilege, self improvement, and the intimate relationships at the core of The National.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The awareness of what's going on is so great nowadays,
0:04.0	and we're so seemingly powerless to do anything.
0:08.0	Oh, wow.
0:16.0	This is Joe Wong. Welcome to the Trapset, where each week we explore the lives of drummers.
0:26.6	I want to play something for you.
0:28.6	I want to play something for you. You're hearing Day I Die Die by The National, featuring my guest Brian Devendorf on drums.
1:00.0	Brian's urgent and imaginative rhythmic deconstructions have been central to the sound of the band since its beginnings in 1999.
1:09.0	Aside from his work in the National,
1:12.2	Brian has a solo project, Shit Attack.
1:15.5	I spoke to Brian at a hotel in Los Angeles
1:17.9	before the National played the Hollywood Bowl.
1:21.2	The band's eighth album, Sleep Well Beast,
1:24.1	was just nominated for a grand movie.
1:25.7	The day I die, the day I died, where will we be? Beast was just nominated for a Grammy.
1:35.8	And now my conversation with Brian Devendorf. I should mention I was a student of the violin as a youngster.
1:49.3	Yeah.
1:49.6	The Suzuki program is what my parents put us in.
1:52.9	And that's sort of when I was, I think I was about three or four.
1:55.4	Probably four.
1:56.7	We're not even playing a violin,
1:57.9	and you're holding like a cracker jack box with like rubber bands on it, you know. Um, and I stayed in the violin program for about, uh, about 10 years
2:06.9	until I sort of burned out and got the drums, you know. You had to choose one or the other?
	...

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