Anna Calvi and Matt Berninger Unite on Reflective New Track 'Is This All There Is?'
Anna Calvi collaborates with Matt Berninger on 'Is This All There Is?', a poignant track exploring hope and existential questions, featured on her upcoming EP.
Anna Calvi has unveiled a new collaborative track with Matt Berninger, titled ‘Is This All There Is?’. This release precedes Calvi's upcoming EP of the same name. Listen to it below.
Calvi's EP ‘Is This All There Is?’, slated for release on Friday, March 20, boasts collaborations with Berninger, Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop, and Perfume Genius. Pre-orders are available here.
Following the release of ‘God’s Lonely Man,’ Calvi has now shared the EP's title track. Originally composed for Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II, Calvi enlisted The National frontman to create a new version.
"This song is about the bravery it takes to hope,” Calvi explains. “It’s the willingness to ask questions, even when knowing you’ll never get a definitive answer.”
Discussing her collaboration with Berninger, Calvi remarked: “The tone of Matt’s voice has such an epic, almost ancient quality to it, which felt perfect for a song asking such a big existential question. We’re both searching for answers together, and yet somehow always apart, which I find beautiful.
“He brings an intimacy to the song that I couldn’t have imagined.”
Elsewhere on the EP, Calvi reimagines Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ with Anderson, and revisits her cover of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s ‘I See A Darkness’, featuring Perfume Genius, which was released last year.
“The opportunity to be in the same space as people you love is so inspiring,” Calvi shared. “To see how different people approach the same thing – it sharpens you. It’s thrilling.
“They share a kind of subversive honesty. They’re not trying to please anyone. They express exactly who they are.”
Calvi also contributed to the ‘Help(2)’ charity album alongside Arctic Monkeys, Beck, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, Big Thief, and Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell.
Produced by James Ford, ‘Help(2)’ was recorded in collaboration with Abbey Road Studios during a week in November 2025.
Before this, Calvi lent her sound to the fifth and sixth seasons of Peaky Blinders.
As for Berninger, he spoke to NME last summer about overcoming writer’s block and depression during his press tour for ‘Get Sunk’, and the future of The National.
“Yes. It’s been four years since the dark months where it felt like there was no flame and I didn’t want to do it anymore,” he said. “I didn’t want to listen to music anymore, much less fucking make any. That was scary. Then it came back. I’ve been writing a lot these past four years. The National have generated a huge batch of possible new things. There isn’t any rush for that, but I’ve been in a real juicy and creative couple of years.
“I’m glad I had that break and that ‘Get Sunk’ took five years because I was able to go back and change so much and make it better.”
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