Aaron Dessner Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Universal Music Publishing Group has named Jennifer Knoepfle executive vice president and co-head of US A&R, effective immediately, the company announced on Wednesday. Based in Los Angeles, Knoepfle will report to UMPG chairman-CEO Jody Gerson. According to the announcement, Knoepfle — who joins after 13 years at Sony Music Publishing, where she worked with Gerson — will work closely with David Gray, her fellow co-head of U.S. A&R, and the company’s team. Knoepfle was most recently senior VP of creative at Sony Music Publishing, where she had worked since 2009. During her tenure, she signed and/or developed such major writers as Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Dan Nigro, Ariel Rechtshaid, Bloodpop, Joel Little and artists including Willow, Tate McRae, King Princess, Remi Wolf, Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, Wallows, Salem Ilese, Noah Kahan and Lord Huron. She also has worked extensively with

The National played a surprise, secret acoustic set at Edinburgh’s Connect Festival in memory of Frightened Rabbit‘s Scott Hutchison – see footage below.Yesterday (August 28) festival-goers were alerted to the message, “Secret set added – 7.45pm at the Tiny Changes x Gardeners Cottage”, and soon discovered that The National’s Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner were performing at the Scottish festival’s new stage to pay tribute to their late friend.The band, who were headlining the festival, played ‘Sorrow’ and ‘About Today’, telling the crowd for the latter track, “Whenever we play this one we think of Scott,” and singing the words, “Today…You were far away…and I… Didn’t ask you why“.The Tiny Changes x Gardeners Cottage was set up at the festival in association with Tiny Changes, the charity for supporting young people’s mental health that was set up in memory of Hutchison who died by suicide in 2018.It’s Scotland’s first national children and young people’s mental health charity and raised more than £4,500 during the course of the festival weekend.Scott performed at the original Connect Festival in 2006 on a similar stage.Aaron Dessner of The National said: “Thank you so much, it’s a pleasure to support Tiny Changes. Scott was a really close friend of ours, and like you guys, we were huge fans of Frightened Rabbit.“We were devastated when he left.

The National returned to London last night (August 26) to headline All Points East 2022 – watch them perform new single ‘Weird Goodbyes’ with Fleet Foxes‘ Robin Pecknold below.‘Weird Goodbyes’ was released last week and features Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon on vocals. While introducing Pecknold, The National’s Aaron Dessner said that their friend and collaborator had never sung the song before.Elsewhere in the set, The National played another new song – ‘Tropic Morning News (Haversham)’ – and hits from across their back catalogue.Watch them play ‘Weird Goodbyes’ with Robin Pecknold and see the full setlist below.The National have been performing ‘Weird Goodbyes’ live since late May. They played it for the first time in Pamplona, Spain on May 28 – the first National show in three years – where it was billed on the setlist as ‘Bathwater (Mount Auburn)’.Speaking in a statement about ‘Weird Goodbyes’, The National’s Matt Berninger said: “It’s about letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts.”On the process of making the single, the band’s Aaron Dessner added: “‘Weird Goodbyes’ was one of the first new songs we made.

The National have today (August 22) released their emotive new single ‘Weird Goodbyes’, which features Bon Iver – you can listen to the song below.The track has been teased for some time, with the two artists finally confirming their collaboration last week.Speaking in a statement about ‘Weird Goodbyes’, The National’s Matt Berninger said: “It’s about letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts.”On the process of making the single, the band’s Aaron Dessner added: “‘Weird Goodbyes’ was one of the first new songs we made. I was misusing drum machines, as usual, and stumbled onto this beat that got stuck in my head – it felt like something only Bryan could naturally play.

The National‘s Aaron Dessner says he has “picked up a focus” in his songwriting and production since working with Taylor Swift.Dessner co-produced and wrote on Swift’s 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, and also worked on numerous “From the Vault” tracks that appear on Swift’s re-recorded versions of ‘Fearless’ and ‘Red’ that arrived last year.Last March, after ‘Folklore’ won a Grammy for Album of the Year, Dessner credited Swift with “restoring [his] faith in music,” and has opened up again on the influence she has had on him in a new interview.Speaking to The i, Dessner said: “Even just working with Taylor, she’s a brilliant musician and so experienced in terms of making records, so I was learning from her – I picked up a focus, and also just the joy that she has.”Of working in the pandemic, he added: “It was almost like I was in some crazy boot camp for making a tonne of music really fast and fully producing it and then it would be released quickly.”Though he has said in the past that “this story, this era, has concluded” with ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, Dessner has confirmed that he anticipates that he and Swift “will continue to be in each other’s artistic and personal lives. I don’t know exactly what the next form that will take, but certainly, it will continue.”After his work with Swift and a host of other artists including King Princess, Dessner is now working on a new album with The National.Ahead of their headline show at London’s All Points East next week (August 26), Aaron’s twin brother Bryce Dessner has spoken to NME about the new material, and whether Aaron’s work with Swift will have attracted new fans to the band.

The National appear to be on the precipice of a new single release, as posters for a song titled ‘Weird Goodbyes’ (featuring Bon Iver) have begun to circulate.The band have been performing ‘Weird Goodbyes’ live, sans the guest spot from Bon Iver – which, presumably, will comprise some of its lyrics being sung by Justin Vernon – since late May. They played it for the first time in Pamplona, Spain on May 28 – the first National show to go down in three years – where it was billed on the setlist as ‘Bathwater (Mount Auburn)’. It’s been performed at seven show since, including this week’s headliner in Dillon, Colorado and at the Outlandia festival on Friday (August 12).

Gracie Abrams spoke to NME backstage at Lollapalooza 2022 and told us her songwriting process, what it’s like to work with The National‘s Aaron Dessner, and the potential name of an unreleased track she just performed live. Watch our interview above.Hours before taking on the festival’s Discord stage Saturday (July 30), one of her first performances since going on tour with Olivia Rodrigo, Abrams told us Chicago was one of her “favourite cities to play in.”“Having been here a couple of times on tour, they’re just the greatest people,” Abrams said.

“Where the Crawdads Sing” leveled up from its already high standing in the world of pop culture when singer/songwriter Taylor Swift announced that she had written a song that would be featured in the film adaptation. But what fans didn’t know was Swift wrote the song before production on the film had even begun.The novel, written by Delia Owens, tells the story of a young girl named Kya who lives on her own undisturbed out in a marsh, until she becomes a suspect in a potential murder.Swift wrote “Carolina” specifically for the new film, with momentum from her “folklore” album production, asking Aaron Dessner to produce it. She teased the single with the movie’s trailer on social media in March, writing “I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerizing story.”“Taylor wrote this song when she heard that there was a movie being made out of this book,” director Olivia Newman told TheWrap in a recent interview.

Taylor Swift’s New York residences.According to police the suspect, who was arrested on Friday (July 1), entered one of the residential buildings on March 26. He allegedly walked “through an unlocked door and remained unlawfully”, later fleeing on foot when security asked him to leave, investigators said.Then on June 12, the same man then allegedly entered another residential building inked to Swift and “made threats through the intercom toward a 32 year-old female,” according to a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information (via Billboard).NME has reached out to representatives of Swift for comment.In the past, Swift has faced previous issues with alleged stalked.In 2017, Eric Swarbrick, from Austin, Texas, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to stalking the pop star and sending threatening letters and emails to her former record label, Big Machine.

New music from Taylor Swift has arrived.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticTaylor Swift has gone to Carolina in her mind in her new single, which was released at midnight Thursday night — the first newly written original song she’s put out since the “Evermore” album in late 2020. But things are more brooding for her in that state of mind than they were for James Taylor.“Carolina” is the end-credits theme for the film “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which doesn’t reach theaters for another three weeks — July 15, to be exact — and the song provides a foretaste of the possibly jolting mood of the climax, where she and the movie’s protagonist are definitely not feeling 22.As much as it’s a direct outgrowth of Swift loving the source novel, fans may feel the song is a throwback … all the way back to the “Folklore”/”Evermore” era of two years ago, with those albums’ primary producer, Aaron Dessner, back on board for a tune lightly augmented with the Americana-friendly elements of mandolin and fiddle. Swift provided more insight into the song in an Instagram post.

Taylor Swift has announced the release of a brand new song called ‘Carolina’, which is produced by The National‘s Aaron Dessner.The track, which is set to arrive at midnight ET tonight (5am BST), is the theme song for new film Where The Crawdads Sing, directed by Olivia Newman and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon.A snippet of ‘Carolina’ was first previewed back in March in the trailer for the new mystery thriller. Swift’s vocals sound eerie as she sings: “They never saw me/ You didn’t see me here/ No, they never did see me here/ There are places I will never, ever go/ Things that only Carolina will ever know.”According to Witherspoon, the song was written while Swift was working on her 2020 album ‘Folklore’, after reading the 2018 Delia Owens novel of the same name on which the film is based upon.“She read this book and loved it so much, and then she heard we were making a movie [during the period] she was making her ‘Folklore’ album and then she wrote a song with that whole ‘Folklore’ team, which was so haunting and magical and beautiful,” Witherspoon said during a recent roundtable (via Variety).Newman explained that Swift submitted the song out of the blue after writing a “gorgeous letter” to the crew.

Taylor Swift revealed on social  media this morning that the release of her new song “Carolina” from the soundtrack of the upcoming film Where the Crawdads Sings will arrive at midnight tonight.

Taylor Swift's new song Carolina will be released tomorrow morning UK time, it's been announced.

Taylor Swift delivered surprise guests and a surprise acoustic performance of All Too Well along with a thoughtful half-hour of conversation about filmmaking with writer-director Mike Mills at the Tribeca Festival.

Leave it to Taylor Swift to please fans with a few unexpected twists. During the singer’s “Tribeca Talks With Taylor Swift” event at Tribeca Festival in New York, Swift brought out surprise guests and even performed during the “talk-only” scheduled event.

King Princess has shared two new tracks from her upcoming second album – listen to ‘Cursed’ and ‘Too Bad’ below.The follow-up to Mikaela Straus’ 2019 debut album ‘Cheap Queen’ was announced earlier this year alongside new track ‘For My Friends’, which follows recent tracks ‘House Burn Down’ and ‘Pain’.The album’s release date – July 29 – was then revealed last week alongside details of the album’s collaborators, including Mark Ronson, Ethan Gruska, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Tobias Jesso Jr and more.Sharing a lengthy statement alongside the two new songs, Straus said: “I’ve only ever written about heartbreak. It felt easier to talk about myself through other people. To write about situations that caused me pain, and to use them to justify my own anxieties and depression.“It finally reached a point where I had to turn the barrel on myself.

Where The Crawdads Sing star Daisy Edgar-Jones shipped out DJ decks and put on shows for the cast, according to one co-star.The Normal People actress takes on the lead role in the upcoming adaptation of Delia Owens’ 2018 bestselling novel.However, fellow star Taylor John Smith has spoken on Edgar-Jones’ love for DJing, revealing she taught him how to spin decks.“It was phenomenal,” he told the PA news agency at the MTV Movie and TV Awards (via Irish News). “[Daisy’s] so funny when you’re not working that you forget how brilliant of an actor she is.“It was a great experience.

King Princess has shared more details on upcoming second album ‘Hold On Baby’ – check out its release date below.The follow-up to Mikaela Strauss’ 2019 debut album ‘Cheap Queen’ was announced earlier this year alongside new track ‘For My Friends’, which follows recent tracks ‘House Burn Down’ and ‘Pain’.The album has now been confirmed to arrive on July 29, and will feature contributions from Mark Ronson, Ethan Gruska, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Tobias Jesso Jr and more.“I want this album to give you all some strength in accepting ourselves; as chaotic as we can be,” Strauss said of the album. “It’s not easy being alive and I feel indebted to you all for providing me air to breathe in this insane world.“That’s what King Princess has always been about at its core. Making a home for us to feel safe and weird and messy and imperfect.

Questlove and Aaron Dessner both received honorary degrees from Philadelphia’s University Of The Arts this week (May 19).The event was the university’s first in-person graduation ceremony since 2019 due to COVID-related cancellations.Speaking about his collaborations with Taylor Swift in 2020, Dessner told the crowd: “Making this music became a life raft in the middle of the pandemic. In April 2020, Taylor Swift texted me out of the blue one night when I was sitting at dinner.

Taylor Swift‘s new song ‘Carolina’ has been shared in the latest trailer for Where The Crawdads Sing – check it out below.Back in March, it was revealed that Swift had written a brand new song for the forthcoming film adaptation of Delia Owens’ hit 2018 novel, which stars Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones.The film is set to hit cinemas on July 15, and it’s not clear when the full version of ‘Carolina’ will be available.In a post back in March announcing the existence of ‘Carolina’ and discussing her relationship with the film, Swift said: “Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago. As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible Daisy Edgar Jones and produced by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side.“I wrote the song ‘Carolina’ alone and asked my friend Aaron Dessner to produce it.

Taylor Swift has revealed what it is she admires most about Phoebe Bridgers’ music.Last year, the pair collaborated on the song ‘Nothing New’, one of the “From The Vault” bonus tracks that appear on Swift’s re-recording of her 2012 fourth album, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’.In a new profile on Bridgers for the Los Angeles Times, Swift shared a few words about the ‘Savior Complex’ singer-songwriter and what it is specifically she enjoys about her music.“I think that the specificity of Phoebe’s lyrics, and the vulnerability she expresses in her voice when she delivers them, is what makes her music so deeply impactful and moving for me as a fan,” Swift wrote in an email to the publication.“You feel like she’s reliving a precise memory or delivering a secret message to someone and you get the privilege to read it or hear about it.”This isn’t the first time Swift has heaped praise on Bridgers. Last November, during an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, she hailed Bridgers as “one of my favourite artists in the world”, adding: “If she sings it, I will listen to it.

Ellise Shafer Standing onstage at the El Rey Theatre in March, Gracie Abrams seemed genuinely shocked at the turnout for the first of two hometown shows in Los Angeles on her “This Is What It Feels Like” tour. She blushed and stumbled over her words, rattling off a list of thank-yous and interacting with fans in side conversations, as if she weren’t one of the fastest-rising singer-songwriters in her generation playing a sold-out show.Abrams started that performance full of nerves, she tells Variety in a Zoom call from Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where she is currently working on new music with Aaron Dessner, guitarist of the National (and, over the last couple of years, a primary Taylor Swift collaborator).

The National have announced a special show in Manchester for this summer – tickets will be available from here.The band last performed in the UK as part of their ‘I Am Easy To Find’ tour in December 2019, and are set to return with appearances at All Points East in London and Connect Festival in Edinburgh this August.Last week, they confirmed a run of 2022 North American headline dates. “The last couple years have given us ample time for reflection and rejuvenation,” they wrote to announce the concerts.

Music to our ears! Taylor Swift unveiled her new song, “Carolina,” in the first look at the upcoming film Where the Crawdads Sing — and it is just as eerie as the movie trailer.

The joy of playing the guitar radiates from Really Good Rejects, Alice Gu’s SXSW documentary about Reuben Cox. Cox is a modern-day “luthier” – he makes stringed instruments, and his custom guitars grace stages all over the world. Artists clearly have a passion for his work: those lining up to praise him include Jackson Browne, Carrie Brownstein, Aaron Dessner of The National, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Madison Cunningham, and Andrew Bird.

The National‘s Bryce Dessner has said that the band’s upcoming new album harks back to their “classic” sound, as well as having a “lot of energy in it”.The guitarist and composer was speaking to The Up Coming about his and the band’s work on the music for the new Peter Dinklage-starring movie adaptation of Cyrano when he was asked when new material would arrive from The National.Admitting that he “wasn’t sure when new music will come”, Dessner did insist that they were “working on it” and it should be “imminent at some point” ahead of the band’s packed summer of festivals and live dates – as well as revealing that it would take a much more stripped-back approach than the lush predecessor of 2019’s ‘I Am Easy To Find‘.“It’s all very exciting: it kind of feels back to the classic National sound in a way, which was really just the five of us, and it has a lot of energy in it,” said Dessner. “Maybe it’s like bursting out of the closed doors of COVID or something? I don’t know.

Ed Sheeran has revealed that he’s written 25 songs with The National‘s Aaron Dessner – and that they were done in the space of a week.The singer-songwriter appeared at the High Court this morning (March 7) for the start of a three-week legal battle over the copyright of his hit single ‘Shape Of You’.Sheeran is involved in a dispute with two musicians who claim his 2017 track borrows parts of their song ‘Oh Why’, which was released in March 2015.Sami Chokri (who performs under Sami Switch) and Ross O’Donoghue claim Sheeran’s song is similar to “particular lines and phrases” of their own song. Sheeran has denied the claims.During court proceedings this morning, Sheeran faced a number of questions about the creation of ‘Shape Of You’ as well as his songwriting process as a whole.At one point he told the court that he had written 25 songs in the space of a week with Aaron Dessner of The National,” according to BBC News reporter Mark Savage. No further information on the songs was shared.Speaking at his copyright trial in London's High Court, @edsheeran says he recently wrote 25 songs in the space of a week with @Aaron_Dessner of The National.— Mark Savage (@mrdiscopop) March 7, 2022In addition to his work as part of The National, Dessner is also responsible for co-producing Taylor Swift‘s latest albums, ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’.

here.The song was written by members of the Brooklyn-based rock group The National (music by Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Matt Berninger and Carin Carin Besser), originally for Erica Schmidt’s 2018 stage musical of “Cyrano.” In an interview with TheWrap in December, the band said that they consider “Wherever I Fall,” to be one of “the strongest songs we’ve written in our career” and a “timeless” song that they would’ve never written if not for ‘Cyrano.'”The open-hearted, plaintive ballad is sung by three soldiers to a messenger boy who is collecting letters from the battlefront. Each man dedicates his portion of the song to a beloved person: one his wife, one his unrequited love, one his estranged father.

Joe Wright’s Cyrano twirls onto 797 screens, the highest-profile specialty release in weeks (as the market awaits Focus Features The Outfit with Mark Rylance and Sony Pictures Classics Mothering Sunday). But the well reviewed period musical romance from UAR starring Peter Dinklage is landing in a tough place. Industry estimates anticipate a low single digit opening given the inconsistent reception for movie musicals and the fact that its key older demos, especially women, have been the slowest to return to theaters.