Matt Berninger of The National steps into spring 2025 with Todd Snyder in a campaign shaped by friendship and creative admiration. Set between Berninger’s home in Connecticut and the Black Duck Café in Westport, the featured shoot offers a more intimate look at the musician ahead of his upcoming solo album Get Sunk.
Matt Berninger for Todd Snyder Spring 2025
The space feels real. Stacks of painted baseballs and handwritten grids all hint at a mind in motion. Photographer Kenny Thomas captures Berninger mid-process, wearing Todd Snyder’s soft tailoring with the ease of someone who lives in these clothes.
Snyder and Berninger discussed the creative reset behind his new album, Get Sunk. The title came from a difficult period when writing stopped.
“I had walked away from a lot of projects when I had writer’s block,” Berninger said. “That was my sunken period…and getting past this very fearful, insecure, sunken place…I started writing with a whole new perspective. It cleared everything…so it was good to have gotten sunk.”
That recovery brought with it a new rhythm, one shaped by instinct rather than expectation. When Snyder asked how a song begins, Berninger paused before drawing a comparison. “There’s songwriting and there’s poetry. And they’re as different as swimming and ice skating. It’s still just words. Or just water. But they’re totally different things.”
For Berninger, songwriting is less about following rules and more about shaping something from uncertainty. “It’s a sculpture,” he said, offering a glimpse into a process built on revision, pressure, and the slow arrival of meaning.
That same sculptural approach carries into Todd Snyder’s clothes. Nothing feels dressed for effect. Instead, Berninger’s styling feels personal, shaped by habit and instinct rather than arranged for impact. The result is a portrait of a musician who has found his footing again and a designer who knows how to dress that kind of progress.
