Bess Atwell's third album, Light Sleeper, is sort of a full-circle moment for her. The Brighton, U.K., singer-songwriter started writing music when she was a kid, and found a major influence in Taylor Swift. So when Aaron Dessner, The National band member who has also produced for Swift, reached out to Atwell and wanted to produce her record, she jumped at the chance.
While it might be easy for those big names to overshadow your project, Light Sleeper is the first album Dessner has worked on in years that he didn't help write; Atwell's personal songwriting stands on its own.
In this session, Atwell talks about how she connected with Dessner; about recording the album at his studio in Long Pond, N.Y.; and about how this album sees her embracing more feeling and vulnerability.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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