In 2013, The National were the subject of the documentary Mistaken For Strangers, which took an unconventional approach to the typical music doc. Instead of a story about the making of an album or life on the road, it was a movie about brothers. This made sense, considering that the group is made of two sets of bros (twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Bryan and Scott Devendorf), leaving frontman Matt Berninger as the odd one out. The story is told from the perspective of Matt’s brother Tom, who creates the film on tour with the band and reflects on his own life as the less successful sibling.
Now, in a recent interview with Australia’s Double J radio, Matt Berninger revealed that he might not be done with the world of visual entertainment. The singer divulged that he is working on a TV show with both his brother and his wife, Carin Besser, along with the help of Australian director Trent O’Donnell.
“It’s something we’ve been cooking for a while,” Berninger said. “My brother made this documentary [Mistaken For Strangers] and it has a lot of the same tone. But this is more scripted than that and it’s not a film Tom’s making, Tom is just a subject of it. It’s not a fake documentary.”
Berninger says the show won’t be out this year, but did divulge some of the basic premise:
“I play myself and my brother plays my brother – Tom can’t play anyone else – but then the rest of it’s all cast. I’m in a band. Aaron [Dessner] helped cast the band with all the guys who were working on the Grateful Dead project together, it’s a bunch of guys from different bands who we’ve known and been friends with for a long time. Aaron is in it as a producer, not as himself.”
It might all sound a little bit too much like real life, but if we learned anything from their previous documentary, it’s that this group can create special, surprising things when they put their mind to it. For now, The National are touring in support of their latest great album, Sleep Well Beast.
