Matt Berninger spent twenty years as vocalist and frontperson for The National. Now, with Serpentine Prison, he is making his mark as a solo artist.

Of the record’s origins, Berninger explains, “I sent [friend and collaborator Booker T. Jones] a few rough demos of originals that I had started working on with some old friends, including the songs ‘Serpentine Prison’ and ‘Distant Axis.’ Booker responded to those demos right away and encouraged me to keep writing and digging deeper into that stuff. Six months later we had twelve originals and seven covers. Everyone I had been working with on these songs came to Venice, CA, and we recorded it all in 14 days.”