The National's Matt Berninger won't have to 'climb the rafters' in Minneapolis on solo tour

It's been one of the most-played songs on the Current in the Twin Cities this year and a big Spotify hit, too — a vividly detailed, New Orderly melodic rock song about running into a dangerous ex-lover with a sharp edge.

So fans are understandably anxious to hear Matt Berninger recount the real-life inspiration behind "Bonnet of Pins," from the National frontman's elaborate new solo album. Because that's what singers in rock bands do when they make solo records, isn't it? They turn more autobiographical and confessional, right?

"No, not me," Berninger glibly answered.

Talking by phone last week as he prepped for his first solo tour — a trek that brings him back to First Avenue in Minneapolis on Friday — the singer in Taylor Swift's favorite band had plenty else to say about the acclaimed single and other tracks from his new record, "Get Sunk." He just couldn't pinpoint what parts of the songs actually come from real life.

"Everything I write is autobiographical at least emotionally," Berninger said. "But I'm mostly a storyteller writing fantasy."

In the case of "Bonnet of Pins," for instance, the 54-year-old singer said, "It's just a fantasy of bumping into an old love, maybe somebody you've always been on the fence with. Are they the one? But also, are they someone who's had the worst influence on you?

"That song is kind of a short film, but it ends the same way 'The Graduate' ends. You wonder: Are these people even going to make it?"

Berninger himself wondered if "Get Sunk" was ever going to make it. He started writing the album in 2021 right after the release of his first official solo record, "Serpentine Prison." And then he hit a yearlong bout of writer's block.

"My last solo album came right when the lockdown happened, so I couldn't tour that record," he recounted.

"I had a band all ready to go out on tour. So instead, we wrote about 10 or 15 songs in 2021, and I was calling the record 'Get Sunk' all the way back then. But I didn't want to put out another record and have no way to promote it."

Once the lockdown subsided, he started recording and touring with the National again. Then he, his wife and his teenage daughter made a big move to Connecticut after nearly a decade of living in Los Angeles that followed a decade or so of living in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he and his bandmates in the National famously moved from their hometown of Cincinnati.

"Going through the process of making the last two National records and going on tour with them brought me out of my writer's block," he recounted. "And then moving to Connecticut, I was inspired to start writing a whole new batch of songs."

"Get Sunk" is a hybrid of those two different writing periods. Much of the writing and recording was done with the same producer as his previous solo record, Sean O'Brien, who also has worked with the National.

The music and songwriting don't fall far from the National tree, with moody but melodic ballads bumping up with charged rockers, each style laden with poetic and opaque — and apparently fantastical — lyrics. In Berninger's mind, though, his solo records are very different from the National's because they're never actually done "solo."

"I can't play guitar or piano, so it's always going to be different for me because I'm always with another musician," he explained.

"My own process isn't different. I don't go into writing a song with Sean O'Brien or [the Walkmen's] Walter Martin or [the National's] Aaron Dessner or anybody differently. The process just ends up being different because of the changed chemistry from whomever I'm working with. Every time I do it, it's always exciting and fun."

Among that cast of collaborators is a growing list of female singers. Berninger has frequently dueted with women over the years whose contributions often nicely offset his deep baritone voice. Swift, St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers and Sharon Van Etten have all guested on the National's tracks.

On "Get Sunk," Berninger trades lines and harmonies with Meg Duffy of Hand Habits in another of the LP's standout tracks, "Breaking Into Acting," about faking forgiveness ("Your mouth is always full of blood packets / You're breaking into acting / I completely understand"). He also shares vocals in several tunes with Julia Laws of Ronboy, who is also touring with him and opening the shows.

While he acknowledges "there are tonal advantages" to having women sing with him, Berninger insisted that these frequent collaborations "have nothing to do with gender."

"Honestly, it's more about wanting to work with the best writers," he said. "If somebody is singing with me, I want them to be good collaborators, too. It doesn't matter so much to me what their voice sounds like. A great writer will read my lyrics and hear what to sing."

One sharp difference between the National — which is on break this year but ever-moving — and Berninger's solo outing is he is back to performing in smaller venues like the ones his old band played on its way up. Yes, like First Ave, which Berninger could've sworn they just played.

"We did that show with Justin [Vernon] there, and it wasn't that long ago, was it?" he asked.

That was in 2010. A lot has happened in the meantime.

"It boggles my mind that the National has sold out Madison Square Garden and is playing biodomes and basketball arenas," he said.

"Some of my manic stage stunts — walking on bars and climbing into elevators and climbing up balconies — is a desperate attempt from me to make those places feel small, because I think our music really works well in small places. I just feel like I have to put on a whole other kind of circus in those places, which is maybe my own fault."

The circus won't be coming to town this time, in other words: "I'm very excited to be in places where I don't have to really climb the rafters to try to connect," Berninger concluded.

Matt Berninger

With: Ronboy.

When: 8 p.m. Fri.

Where: First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls., $40, axs.com.