Matt Berninger, the frontman and lyricist for The National, will unveil his second solo album, ‘Get Sunk’, May 30th through Book/Concord Records. Berninger worked on the project with Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Sean O’Brien who also co-wrote many of the songs. With its rich sonic landscape and poignant lyrics, Get Sunk is a testament to Berninger's artistry and his ability to capture the complexities of the human experience.

In 2020, he went through “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust. I just got sick of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’” For Berninger, identity is amorphous, ever-evolving and stretches beyond individuality. This is the driving force of his second solo album. Underwater, everything moves in slow motion, and Berninger glimpsed his creative voice slipping away. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. Get Sunk is the inhale, bringing blurry realizations to the surface.

Berninger’s “gorgeous” (Rolling Stone) solo debut, Serpentine Prison, came out in early 2020, produced by the legendary Booker T. Jones. While hr says the follow-up is not necessarily an autobiographical album, the narrator is processing how he became himself. Berninger is an expert in what it feels like to lose all bravery, and Get Sunk points to an undulating reflection in the water. It’s about realizing that you are not yourself without a thousand others: parents, friends, siblings, spouses and exes, college roommates, childhood best friends, cousins, kids and even strangers.

Inspired by the flora and fauna of his new home in Connecticut after years living in Los Angeles, Berninger wrote lyrics and drew all over baseballs, and rearranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does. “I was able to get the blurry picture as close to just right for me,” he says. That the picture ever comes into full focus isn’t the point; it’s by being happy that we can make out anything at all.

Berninger has also announced North American and UK/EU dates in support of Get Sunk, which will begin May 19 at The Showbox in Seattle and pick up August 22 in Dublin, Ireland.

Matt Berninger tour dates benelux:

August 31 - Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli Vredenburg

September 1 - Antwerp, Belgium - Olt Rivierenhof