Musician and producer Aaron Dessner was born in 1976 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He plays guitar, piano and keyboard for the National, is one half of Big Red Machine alongside Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and has written and produced for artists including Ed Sheeran and Sharon Van Etten. In 2018 the National won a Grammy for best alternative music album with Sleep Well Beast, and in 2021 Taylor Swift’s Folklore, on which Dessner co-wrote and produced many of the songs, won album of the year. The National’s latest album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, is out now on 4AD. They tour the UK in September.
