ABC Classic FM’s Julian Day spoke to all-round musician Bryce Dessner ahead of his Perth Festival classical gig.

Julian Day: Bryce Dessner is an extraordinarily talented individual. He’s not only one part of the chart-topping group The National (touring the country at the moment – indie rock band from Brooklyn), he’s also curator, a performer with Clogs (a long-term cult group) and is now a burgeoning composer with performances and recordings by Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can All Stars, Eighth Blackbird and many more. Bryce is also appearing at the Freemantle Arts Centre to present Soft Soft Loud, an evening of his work. You’ve curated festivals and you have this growing output as a composer. I guess my first question has to be: how do you fit it all in?

BD: You know, people always ask me that and I always say, well “People who have real jobs, going into an office, are busy all day. We’re musicians. We often just play at night.” There’s a lot of time in the day so I like to keep busy and for me music has always been a really varied activity. I’ve had classical music in my life since I was really...