EL VY

Berninger and Knopf met when The National and Menomena shared a bill in Portland, Oregon on October 24, 2003, at Holocene.^[1] The two became friends and kept in touch, periodically playing gigs together in subsequent years.^[2]

EL VY released its debut studio album, Return to the Moon, in October 2015,^[3] which Berninger, inspired by both Grease and We Jam Econo, imagined "as a sort of punk rock musical following the adventures of Didi and Michael—named after the Minutemen's D. Boon and Mike Watt."^[4] EL VY tours as a four-piece, with Matt Sheehy on bass guitar and Andy Stack on drums.

On January 11, 2016, following the death of David Bowie, EL VY performed a cover of Bowie's "Let's Dance" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, collaborating with Colbert's house band, Jon Batiste & Stay Human.^[5]

In October 2016, EL VY contributed a song and videogame^[6] to Dave Eggers' 30 Days, 50 Songs project, entitled "Are These My Jets".^[7]

Official Members

• Matt Berninger – lead vocals, lyrics
• Brent Knopf – music composition, production, keys, guitars, synths, programming

Touring Members

• Andy Stack (of Wye Oak) – drums
• Matt Sheehy (of Lost Lander) – bass guitar

During the recording of Return to the Moon, EL VY collaborated with several artists, including drummers Drew Shoals (of Train) and John O'Reilly Jr (fun. and others^[8]), violinist Lauren Jacobson (The Lumineers and others), and background vocalists Ural Thomas, Moorea Masa, Allison Hall, and Margaret Wehr. A unique art card was created by John Solimine^[9] for each song on the album. Return to the Moon was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, mixed by Craig Silvey at Toast (assisted by Eduardo de la Paz). EL VY later enlisted Andrew Joslyn for strings on "Are These My Jets".^[10]