Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is best known as a member of the rock band The National, and co-founder of Big Red Machine with Justin Vernon in 2016 based on a song they wrote of the same name for compilation Dark Was the Night in 2008. Dessner writes the majority of the music for The National, collaborating on songwriting with singer Matt Berninger. As a record producer, Dessner has produced the charity compilations Dark Was the Night and Day of the Dead for the Red Hot Organization as well as albums for The National, Local Natives, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Lone Bellow, Frightened Rabbit, Luluc and This Is the Kit, among others. Dessner also co-founded and curates three music festivals: Eaux Claires in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with Justin Vernon; HAVEN in Copenhagen with Bryce Dessner; and Boston Calling Music Festival.