And the Hi there and welcome to episode 176 of soda jerker on on songwriting. This is Simon here as always with Brian and we hope

you're all staying safe and well as we continue to navigate 20's choppy waters.

Choppy waters was muddy Waters less talented younger brother.

Joining us today as a Grammy winning American singer-songwriter known for his distinctive

baritone voice and thoughtful, literate and intriguingly oblique lyrics, not to mention for being the

frontman of one of the most beloved critically respected indie rock bands of the last two decades,

the National.

Across a prolific two-decade recording career, he's collaborated with the likes of Andrew Bird,

Phoebe Bridges, The Bird and the Bee and John Bryan, and just a couple of weeks ago released his debut solo album,

The Excellent Serpentine Prison, to unanimous acclaim.

We're very happy to welcome the brilliant Matt Byrne and guest of the show.

We've had quite a few requests for Matt over the years, haven't we?

Yeah, so it was great to find the get him on on the show wasn't it? It was and he didn't

disappoint did he? No he's a very engaging guy with quite an unusual approach to songwriting as

you'll hear in the interview and the new album's a low-key Triumph, isn't it? Yeah, it's a lovely set of songs and like so much of the music

that's been released this year. It has a very soothing quality I think.

Yeah, and produced by none other than the great Bucket T Jones. Now there's a seal of quality. Yeah, very hard to go wrong with someone like that at the helm.

Absolutely. I believe it actually started out as a covers album, inspired by the Willie Nelson album Star Dust which I think was one of

Math's childhood favorites. Right, yeah. But during the sessions it morphed into something else entirely which again isn't

your typical starting point for a new creative project.

But hey, whatever works, I guess?

Mm-hmm.

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