The National vocalist Matt Berninger is gearing up for the release of his debut solo record, Serpentine Prison. So far, Berninger has previewed the effort through his evocative singles “Distant Axis” as well as the record’s title track. Offering another glimpse at the project, Berninger shares “One More Second” as his interpretation of a “desperate love song.”
Though Berninger’s “One More Time” is anything but lovelorn, the singer penned the song as a response to Dolly Parton’s infamous “I Will Always Love You.” “I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation,” Berninger said. “I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.”
Speaking about the album’s recording process, Berninger said: “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.”
Listen to “One More Second” above.
Serpentine Prison is out 10/16 via Book’s/Concord Records. Pre-order it here.