Aaron Dessner Discusses Collaborations on ALCHEMY WITH ANTHONY MASON

Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and The National co-founder Aaron Dessner welcomes veteran journalist Anthony Mason to Long Pond Studio for a revealing new episode of Alchemy with Anthony Mason, out today on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Recorded at Dessner's home and workplace in upstate New York, the conversation explores the relationships behind his collaborations with Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, Noah Kahan and Mumford & Sons—and why decades of success have not erased the uncertainty of starting a new song.

Dessner recalls wondering whether Swift's unexpected text proposing a remote collaboration during the pandemic was a friend playing a joke. After he sent her a folder of instrumental sketches, she returned a voice memo of 'cardigan' within hours. Their exchange grew into folklore, and Dessner describes how Swift's conviction helped him learn to see ideas through rather than leave them unfinished. He also explains how working with Abrams introduced a different creative rhythm: writing together in the room, sometimes making two or three songs a day from scratch. The conversation traces the chance encounter at Electric Lady Studios that sparked his collaboration with Mumford & Sons and how working on Abrams' contribution to Noah Kahan's 'Everywhere, Everything' brought him closer to Kahan's music.

Throughout the episode, Dessner reflects on the delicate balance between helping an artist and knowing when to step back. He describes resisting the expectation to become a 'super producer' and giving unconventional songs the same attention as tracks with obvious commercial appeal. Even after years of acclaimed records, the first spark of a new song still brings reassurance. 'No matter how many songs you've written, no matter how many records you made, you still feel like you might not make another good one or your best days are behind you,' he tells Mason.

Dessner also opens up about discovering instruments as a child with his twin brother, Bryce, and finding an emotional outlet at the piano while experiencing depression as a teenager. That instinct to get lost in music remains central to his life—and to Long Pond, a studio he originally built for The National that became a gathering place for fellow artists. 'The main thing was just really wanting to let the nature in,' he says, 'and wanting to create a space that feels like an instrument itself.' For Dessner, the friendships formed there are inseparable from the music: a community built through making something together.

The Aaron Dessner episode of Alchemy with Anthony Mason is available now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. New episodes are released every Wednesday at 7am ET.

About Alchemy with Anthony Mason

Alchemy with Anthony Mason is a long-form interview series exploring the creative process as an act of transformation. Through in-depth conversations with leading artists, musicians, and cultural figures, the series reveals how lived experience becomes artistic expression. Find Alchemy on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Instagram and TikTok.

About Anthony Mason

Anthony Mason, the host of Alchemy, is also a Special Correspondent with CBS News. One of the most versatile and experienced television journalists, Anthony co-hosted CBS This Morning: Saturday for seven years (2012-2019), and then the weekday CBS This Morning broadcast for two more. But he may be best known for his interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Annie Leibovitz, Judi Dench, David Hockney, and André 3000. He has won a dozen Emmy Awards. In 2023, the Songwriters Hall of Fame presented him their Patron of the Arts Award. And for the past three years he has hosted the GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala.

Photo Credit: John Tanner