Phoebe Bridgers Matt Berninger
photo by Chloe Brewer

The National's Matt Berninger & Phoebe Bridgers release "Walking On A String" & video

When Between Two Ferns: The Movie came out on Netflix last month, it featured in a scene in a bar where the house band was fronted by Phoebe Bridgers and The National’s Matt Berninger, who were playing a new song written just for the movie, “Walking On A String.” As promised, the song gets its official release as a single on Dead Oceans today, and it also comes with a video featuring studio footage and ending with a clip of a conversation between Matt Berninger and Zach Galifianakis.

The song was written my Matt, his wife and frequent musical collaborator Carin Besser, and Mike Brewer; it was recorded with Walter Martin on guitar and Matt Barrick on drums (both of The Walkmen); and produced by Phoebe, Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska. The taste of it in the movie was promising, but the full song — which builds to an explosive climax that wasn’t in the movie — is even better. There’s also an alternate version of the song – listen to both and watch the video below.