Taylor Swift fans ‘confused’ by The National: Berninger

Aaron Dessner has become one of Taylor Swift’s closest creative partners in recent years, prompting some of the more adventurous Swifties to check out his long-running band The National. In a new interview with NMEHowever, Matt Berninger admits that he has seen “confused” Swift fans at The National shows.

Berninger noted that the connection with Swift was “a really, really fruitful thing for our whole band, not just Aaron.” He continued:

“We get a lot of Taylor Swift fans who come to our shows and are confused for the first 25 minutes or so. We’re lucky that our demographics span the spectrum. Then 10 or 15 years ago, a lot of younger people came (to our shows) – more and more women. In the first 10 years, most of our shows were more of a guys’ party, but that’s changed a lot. We have all kinds of old friends at our shows and they’re always different.”

Berninger, meanwhile, does not believe the band will ever be a surprise guest at a Swift concert, saying: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. (…) Of course Aaron had so much fun and did so many great things with her, and the connection to Taylor Swift has been going on for a long time. But no, that’s not us.”

You can see the full interview here.