Aaron Dessner

The album was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 56th Grammy Awards.

Later that year, Dessner and the rest of the band were featured in the documentary Mistaken for Strangers, which followed the band's tour for High Violet and early recording of Trouble.

Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician.

He is best known as a founding member of the rock band The National, with whom he has recorded nine studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swift's studio albums Folklore and Evermore, both of which contended for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021 and 2022, respectively, with the former winning the accolade.

Dessner has co-written, produced or co-produced songs by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Michael Stipe, Gracie Abrams, Frightened Rabbit, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, Local Natives, This Is the Kit, Adia Victoria, Lisa Hannigan, and Lone Bellow, among others.

Dessner co-founded and curates three music festivals: Eaux Claires in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, alongside his Big Red Machine partner Vernon; HAVEN in Copenhagen with his brother Bryce, and Boston Calling Music Festival.

On May 19, 2022, alongside Questlove, Dessner was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa from The University of the Arts, for "his eagerness to seek out opportunities, to really be a thoughtful collaborator, and someone who would encourage every single student at UArts to explore with their peers across disciplines, new opportunities, and new ideas."

Dessner, along with his twin brother Bryce, was named the 243rd greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.

Dessner grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio with his twin brother, Bryce Dessner.

Dessner was raised as Jewish and has Polish Jewish and Russian Jewish ancestry.

Dessner has said that his Jewish background influences his music: "My brother and I have always been fascinated by liturgical religious melodies in Judaism ... I don't like major chords. I like the meditative patterns in certain prayers, and I like music that repeats itself."

Dessner attended high school at Cincinnati Country Day School and graduated in 1994.

Dessner went on to study Modern European History at Columbia University.

Aaron Dessner and his twin brother Bryce were childhood friends with Bryan Devendorf.

In 1998, after Dessner's earlier band, Project Nim, broke up, Devendorf invited the brothers to join his band the National.

With Devendorf and the Dessner brothers were Scott Devendorf, Bryan's older brother, and Matt Berninger.

The band's self-titled first album was released in 2001 on Brassland Records, a label Dessner co-founded along with his brother Bryce and Alec Hanley Bemis.

The band's second album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, was released in 2003, also on Brassland.

After some critical success with Sad Songs, the band signed with Beggars Banquet Records.

With the new label, they released their third studio album, Alligator, in 2005.

The album received a positive response from critics, which exposed the band to a larger audience.

In 2007, the band released their fourth album, Boxer, also through Beggars Banquet.

Upon release, the album received widespread critical acclaim, and was named to "album of the year" lists.

Several songs from the album appeared in TV shows and movies.

In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama used an instrumental version of the song "Fake Empire" in a presidential campaign video.

Following the success of Boxer, the band began collaborating with other artists on various songs and compilation albums.

In 2008, Dessner sent Justin Vernon an instrumental sketch of a song called "Big Red Machine" for the compilation album Dark Was the Night.

Vernon wrote a song to it, interpreting the Big Red Machine title as a heart.

In 2009, the band participated in Dark Was the Night, a charity album to benefit the Red Hot Organization.

That same year, they recorded a song for the album Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, to help support Polaris frontman Mark Mulcahy who had recently lost his wife.

In 2010, the band released High Violet, their fifth full-length album.

The album saw both critical and commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on US charts, and going on to sell over 850,000 copies worldwide.

The band followed up High Violet by releasing their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, on May 21, 2013, via 4AD.

Like their previous two efforts, Trouble was named to several year-end best-of lists.

In 2017, the band released Sleep Well Beast, their seventh full-length album.

The lead single from the album, "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness", became the band's first song to reach No. 1 on a Billboards chart after topping the Adult Alternative Songs list in August that same year.

The band released their eighth studio album I Am Easy to Find in 2019 alongside a short film by Mike Mills.

In 2023, the band released two studio albums, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track, with the latter being a surprise album.

Dessner has production credits on all of the band's albums since Alligator.

The majority of both High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me were recorded in his garage studio behind his house in Brooklyn, and Alligator and Boxer were partially recorded in his attic and in his sister's attic, which is on the same street in Brooklyn.