Aaron Dessner Nominated For Five Categories For The 62nd GRAMMY AWARDS

New York-based musician, composer and producer Aaron Dessner has been nominated today for Album of the Year (folklore), Song of the Year ("cardigan"), Best Pop Vocal Album (folklore), Best Pop Solo Performance ("cardigan"), and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance ("exile" Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver) for the 62nd GRAMMY® Awards for his work on Taylor Swift's eighth studio album, folklore. Dessner is best known for his work in GRAMMY®-award winning alternative band The National, whose albums he has co-produced and co-written since the group's inception in 1999. This is the third GRAMMY nomination for Dessner, who, with The National, was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album for Trouble Will Find Me (2013) and Sleep Well Beast (2017), the latter of which earned them the award.

Dessner produced and co-wrote eleven songs on Swift's folklore. In addition to his writing and production on the album, Aaron also contributed piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mellotron, OP1 and Synth Bass, percussion, bass, drum programming, slide guitar, synthesizer, keyboards, high string guitar, & drone. He began producing outside projects almost a decade ago, developing his own distinctive sound and approach, and an ability to connect with artists from disparate genres. Aaron's brother and life-long creative collaborator and co-principal song-writer of The National, Bryce orchestrated eight songs off folklore, including nominated songs "cardigan" and "exile".

Aaron studio, Long Pond, near Hudson, New York, has become a creative oasis for Dessner and his collaborators -- a place where the beauty of the woods and the water makes it easy to get lost in the moment. "The best music happens when you aren't overthinking or putting too much pressure on yourself," he says. "What is most rewarding for me now is to write music and share it with other musicians, to see what strange alchemy happens when someone else adds their own voice, emotion and ideas into it. I think every idea is worth chasing, and every experiment is worthwhile. Sometimes what seems like a discardable fragment is actually the seed of a great song."

Also announced today is folklore: the long pond studio session, an original film streaming this November 25th exclusively on Disney+. Watch the trailer HERE.

Dessner also collaborates with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon on their collaborative project Big Red Machine, and co-founded international music festivals including the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in Wisconsin, Boston Calling, and the National's own Homecoming festival in Cincinnati. Along with his brother Bryce, Vernon and a community of musicians and creatives, he launched the 37d03d (PEOPLE) collective in 2016. 37d03d produces multi-artist events and operates an independent record label, all with the goal of supporting and encouraging spontaneous collaboration. His most recent release was a Big Red Machine cover of Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" for Eaux Claires' get out the vote initiative "For Wisconsin".

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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