You recently performed with Trey Anastasio at the Beacon Theatre. Did you take anything from that experience that you hope to apply to your upcoming show with Bob Weir?

SD: I guess the idea that we should “just go with it.” Here’s a guy you look up to, perhaps he’s a legend just like Trey, but you just have to play some music.

BD: I think with Trey, he was playing on songs we had written. And in this case, we’re playing songs Bob had written in many cases. It goes back to what you were asking about our song choices. We’re just trying to honor these arrangements. We really love the songs and we hope that it can work well with this thing.

Can you talk about your own experiences with HeadCount and producing this? What is the importance of having these events and raising awareness of the political process?

SD: They’ve come and had a table at many shows we’ve done. We think it’s pretty great. Someone’s actively approaching people to register to vote and to participate in the political process.

BD: It’s right there—you can get the paperwork right there. As opposed going to the DMV, though from state to state it’s a different process.

It’s a more direct experience rather than going to a bureaucratic building.

SD: Yeah, you’re already in a place you want to be and it works well that way.

Moving back to the Dead, I feel that many modern rock musicians cite the Dead’s early years as their favorite but the breadth of their work is often overlooked. What are your favorite periods?

BD: We have a couple.

SD: ‘72, ‘77, ‘80, ‘89, ‘90. I also really like some ‘68, the kind of more cowboy songs and things like that. I would say our setlist [for the Bridge sessions] is going to be…

BD: Overarching.

SD: We’re not just going to only focus on ’72 or something like that.

Can you talk a little about how you get the band together for this benefit?

SD: It’s come together in pieces. There was an email thread months and months ago outlining the basics of the event. I guess anytime there’s a member of Grateful Dead involved, naturally there’s attention toward it. I think there’s a cult following for what they do. It was an opportunity to play with someone we looked up to for so long and that was the big draw for us. We thought, “Oh my god, I get to play with Bob Weir that sounds fantastic.”

In terms of how it came together, Bryan and I were the first they approached. But as a rhythm section we didn’t really have the skill set to run a session for a bunch of guys. I basically thought of our friend Josh as the perfect guy for the job. He’s been doing this with other bands and he has his own project, Yellowbirds, with Sam so I mentioned it to him. He was actually doing Traveling Wilburys tribute night, similar to this so I went and checked it out. It seemed like bringing that skill to this would really work: learning a bunch of songs that somebody else wrote and trying to put your own spin on them, but without fucking up too much.

So I just called in Josh and Sam. Then I randomly ran into Walt who’s in The Walkmen, who we’ve toured with played with over the years. The old Dead has Pigpen playing gritty organ and I thought it would be cool with Walt playing some organ. I happened to see Walt at a gig I was playing and I mentioned it to him and he said sure. They just wrapped up an album so they had a month off. So he came in. I guess it’s just through these weird connections over time.

BD: Yeah, we basically had a bunch of friends, musicians, who shared a similar sensibility. It’s been really fun. We’re working, but it’s not a pain in the ass. It’s fun. And Conrad, who has been acting as a vocal stand-in for Bob, who’s an old friend of mine. We played drums together a lot. Seems like a natural thing to do with this music, to have two drummers.

Your ensemble approach definitely plays into the crew or communal concept you feel The National shares with the Dead.

BD: Community—that’s what we’re trying to say.

SD: It’s also happened naturally. We thought it would be really difficult to put together, and I was really nervous to play with Bob but now I’m not.

BD: It feels more natural this way—and unexpected.

SD: We are not only excited to come out and play the show but also there’s gonna be a discussion between us, Bob, and some other perspectives out there. So I think it’ll be interesting. We’re mostly excited from just working with HeadCount and the activism they do. It’s kinda why we’re in it, we’re not ultra-political in any way.

BD: Yeah, we prefer to remain on the sidelines. We don’t want to commit, but I almost think I’m ready to commit. I read something today. BBC news published a poll today taken in Mississippi saying that 52% of the respondents in the poll thought that Barack Obama was a Muslim….So you talk about bridging, I don’t know where you begin with that. It’s just sort of like “okay….”

SD: It depends on the perspectives you are bridging…

BD: I guess there are extremes. We’re trying to remain at the center, I guess. Center left…

SD: Both sides, everything is very diffused right now. There’s not really a clear cut vision coming from either side. The whole thing with music is that it can be political, but for the most part it’s something we do together. We play together, we listen, we have an audience together, we experience it. As one group or as part of a group some people will say, “Oh, this sucks” and others will say, “Oh, that’s great.” But it’s a good place to start the discussion…

BD: With those commonalities.

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