Bon Iver and Zane Lowe - Official ‘i,i' Interview

you either have incredible presence of mind or no mind at all and I don't know which one had in that moment in your life I don't think I had anywhere else to go I had definitely given up I wanted to have music be my job so badly I was holding on way too tight and when I finally I was like maybe I can't do this it just happened right in that moment when you let go well thanks for inviting us dr. Clare yeah thanks for coming I mean this is where I'm from I love it and now it's amazing me to have anybody here a short time but it's pretty enchanting then thank you pretty special kind of incredible too when you drive here and you get here because I've flown to Minneapolis and the drive you really are in the heartland as they say in them and I always think like artists who are able to travel the world and do what they love and then make home somewhere else kind of want you don't feel the need to be in the thick of it when you're not in the thick of it but this is really not in the thick of it mm-hmm is it kind of mad when you sort of pack your bags and get ready to leave being so isolated in the way you got I've gotten used to it and now I've I've grown to love coming back here more and more like it slows down here and there's like there are races in the bigger cities and there's there's like a sense of competition or something sometimes amongst people and I think one of the reasons I I've always kind of liked being from here it matched by the part of my personality that like is maybe there's just not a lot to prove to one another we I mean we have to go through these really long winters that are really tough and everyone sort of gets equalized by that and so we're not here to impress each other we're try to try to be coexisting or something so let's see you harm yeah let's do harm I mean you know you spend majority of your life here I think we're just a couple of times maybe even just once we had a crack somewhere else I mean in the back here yeah I had a crack in North Carolina it was pretty hot for me yeah and I think about like you know writing music and recording here and though I know you went to El Paso to record the record but this is where the inspiration comes and I think about like the old memories and the new ones and and how it is to sort of remain inspired in a place that you know so well mm-hmm the more you know it I mean just you have it start to have intimacy with the place you're from you're like I've been on this road 5,000 times you know I've driven by this old house that I used to live in 3,000 times or whatever in that familiarity is like helps me personally I think it just that that comfort I guess there's something about being a tourist maybe you have to be rooted to the ground or you are rooted to the ground that's definitely me you said it's changing a lot in certain areas as well as sure that mean things just change but you get to contribute to that you get to be a part of that as opposed to go away and come back 10 years and be like gross point blank and my old house into no I get to see other stuff happen in real time we're catching up at a point with the album's end you be not a few hours and you've already surprised us with that was it always the plan to kind of to ruts us of get to get the record out ahead at the time was it always a little bit of a troll I think so no I mean I think we put that day August 30th date out there we wanted people to you know order with their record stores yeah and there is a sense of frustration sometimes you make a record and can't come out because manufacturing cuz it takes time you want to realize it takes a little and again we're using probably 10 different vinyl pressing plants to just get our record done and people are working around the clock to do even get it done by August 30th and but we also we have this sense like we wanted people that still support their record stores and do those pre-orders but you know being able to have the music out a few weeks before our tour I just you know I'm very nostalgic about like the albums that came out in September or August for when I was a kid is like they would always give me memories of the of the Ottoman and I just wanted to be people to know the songs before coming to the gigs you know I just didn't want to be all a surprise it's really cool you think seasonally in terms of the way you remember rec Lizabeth reaching you yeah I never thought of it that way and I mean I'm real reflective on music and I never thought of the way that made me feel in relation to the seasons I think there's just some nostalgic stuff I mean like what like what do you have the fondest memories like listening to for the first time of his time here this is pretty far out but I listen to Allison chains jarrah flies every fall like so ever heavy rotation that's a record and I listened to Hornsby's the way it is still like in cold January like daytime drives the records that fulfill these little you know nostalgic points I guess yeah super important um so you put out a wrinkle for the autumn someone already pointed out that you've put out a record now for every season so obviously the conspiracies have started that now you've covered all four seasons it's over yeah I know it's no people already saying it's the end right now no one can sit in the positive moment for too long it's like it's got to be over now no I you know it's an adjustment going from being from here and not really having a lot of exposure or a ton you know just to being pretty hyper exposed as an individual took a long time to kind of get through that had a lot of personal anxiety about it and it's there's been some rough patches because I thought in 2016 this wouldn't have been possible me neither but I put myself in the right positions and and you got a lien on your friends and you got to not be afraid you have to be vulnerable to get better - like heal yourself and I think I've always known that but I think I needed some encouragement and like like usual if you're gonna make it through something you're you're gonna have your friends there to help you do that and I think I think it happened relatively quickly when I knew what I needed to change it how to how to accept all this stuff better and as a process but I think it very much led into making this this album and this feels like a clearing for me personally and and all of us the morale has never been higher with the band and the end the project and now I'm feel like more excited than I've ever really been it must be tough for them at times to not that that's a consideration when you're going through something like that but the idea of you saying like I don't know where I met with this right now and this is a precious experience that they have and you all have together when someone who's instrumental is not quite sure if they're really committing to it it's a non colleague oh yeah I mean that's it's believing me I mean I love the people we work with so much and I ultimately feel sometimes responsible or the last buck yeah if that makes any sense and if I'm not there we all lose or something so that that kind of pressure can get to you if you if you're not happy daily or something you know what I mean and so I've just sorted myself out I guess and wasn't around the 20 to a million tour was at the back end or what man it was rough personally in the years leading up to 22 million and it was still rough a year into it and it sort of bottomed out I had to cancel a tour because I I don't know if people who have other people have this I know other people I have anxiety and stuff but it's just something I feel like it's so important to talk about because I couldn't move like I couldn't leave the house it's so strange I was sick yeah it's just I still have it yes I actually wanted the other day I was thinking about this the other day because I watched other people close to me and people younger than me who were close to me you know my family and stuff as Stein's develop these traits and I and I I thought to myself like did my grandparents had panic attacks bill yeah right right or is this something that is kind of we've almost as society self imposed upon ourselves in each other through the nature of what we built around each other right exactly like I was saying before you have to be vulnerable to to show or to share that like you're feeling an extreme discomfort and you don't know why that's a pretty weird place to start a conversation but holy hell is it super important it's the only way out yeah did you I mean I loved it but did you do therapy yeah things were quiet I did therapy I was I tried I did the SSRI meds I think I've gotten away from those now you know which I'm happy about which could be dangerous to go on and off of those things but the one-on-one therapy was insanely helpful just to unload with somebody that is you know doesn't necessarily love you or hey you know it's like they get you just they are professionals at helping you sort out what's wrong I really loved it and it gave me the tools and also gave me perspective to look back on even the toughest times when I was at my lowest point and actually look at them with a sense of gratitude yep because I think you come out the other side in them you pull the blinds back and wear the drapes and you see the world for what it is all of a sudden it's like thank God when you look back I can't I can't actually feel the pain I felt and I was like wow I must have felt really bad I had to lay down on the bathroom floor like I did but I'm so glad that things do feel sweeter on this side yeah I just been like crying them cotton commercials again you know like to touch the feel the cotton that's when you know your happy person your chronic your emotions are in the right place yeah so you come out the other side of that and you start to you start to move forward into a new space and and the spiracle begins mm-hmm I suppose the first question because every journey has a start is winded well first of all the title III which has got everybody in spins which I love you little oppa does but I didn't personally I'm gonna show you with you I just had a figure like you can be I and that's all very self self-important and it's what we going but you put another little comer another eye next to it and it's like you're facing each other you got to face whatever is going you have a brand new responsibility that's rightly existed or other people exactly that's why it's hurt from it so um so when did it stop when did you start actually making it well actually some of the the music predates even 20 to a million and it's the first song Yi and IMI is sort of was seven years old now and so but it was way too bright of an entry point for anywhere on twenty-two million the song faith is also from that era so in a way there's some nonlinear time jumps going on but really just right after 22 million took those two songs and a couple other ideas and just started very very slowly writing and so for this three years since 22 million we just kind of spent that whole time getting new ideas and then we went down to Sonic ranch after those two years and I just like spent six weeks down there and like brought it all together and made the record when did you realize it was working and how did that feel when you realized that it was working because it sounds like was part of the process of you extricate yourself from this dark place so I'd imagine that when the music start to click with you everything else died to click with you and it was like all this is kind of an overwhelming experience was it like that yeah there's well there's three things going on there's like Brad cook who produced the album like he was also very instrumental friend he did a lot he's done a lot of heavy lifting with me over the years as we all are there for each other but I don't know if I can point to one moment where it just like clicked like that but when we were down in Sonic ranch the perspective was very wide and and high and just everyday we just like look at each other like yeah you know we got we got it we got this this is so good no and we weren't ever like oh no I mean there were days where it was hard to chase down what we're trying to accomplish but it was never like oh I don't know if we can do this which in a vein at times in the other places right there in Italy let's think about for Emma Forever Ago isolated yeah in every way yeah and then self-titled I felt like you were sense that it was a very sensitive record well listen to their thematic aliy I think you what we talked about before they're recognizing what other people are going through and absorbing it's and then in your in 20 to a million which we've already discussed her in a bad place this is kind of first-rate could you probably being able to actually enjoy making and kind of been able to free myself 100% from from distractions or from ego stuff or you know it's all yeah there's a lot of a lot of knots that are untied right now and you come out of that recognizing that you know you're not being drawn into this kind of superficial ego driven competitiveness as you call it and then you put an arena tour on sale and you make your most ambitious statement as a band yeah which I just love that well it's like it's a brad again to the coach of this whole situation was the last couple years is he's like be generous you guys are very good right now be is giving as you can and and let as many people as you put a thirteenth song on the record like let as many people see you as possible don't be afraid you know we maybe could have tried doing arenas earlier on but if so sort of felt like we wanted to earn earn it - and don't you want to enjoy it what you wouldn't have done yeah exactly you're at exactly exactly that's now I just feel much more yeah able and and willing to be generous and to go into those situations and enjoy them and like know that we're worth it or whatever you know and and enjoy it yeah do you think is a kid that this was a new TV this ambition to kind of play arenas was and you do you think if you go back and be honest with yourself yeah I probably don't think about arenas I was probably like I want to play first Ave in Minneapolis you know like that's where I well that's where I want to get to so with all any like dreams I think I've been totally smashed gone to plan why did you decide to record an El Paso why did you what did you move out of Eau Claire cuz you've kind of always kept that around here mm-hmm always there's this console down there this Neve 5088 I think it's called forty eighty eight and we knew it was a console that we're interested in working on me and Chris Messina and my partner and we decided to give it a shot we'd never really been there but we'd heard a lot of good things about the vibe the staff the Mexican ladies making breakfast every morning and there was a lot of space we could sleep there we could be focused we could eat we could make music and that's all we wanted to do and you didn't give yourself any time restrictions mm-hmm we're just like six weeks let's go to six weeks and we generally just work 10:00 to 10:00 every day yeah and how many songs do you think you went through it was it kind of is it are they all on the record yep we did not cut any songs that once we went down there decided what we were working on we didn't cut me so it's just the case of being faithful to each song getting it to a point where you're happy with it as possible yeah but a lot of people you trust in the room yeah it sounds like the best band camp ever it was absolutely stunning I mean we brought our dancer friends these professional dancers that we'd do some art projects with just to come down and like create with us and and just like we'd send our artists out to Eric and Erin just go like video tape them and to the music and just like it was literally just like let's get as much of this good energy we've we've all been able to be around all in one place it makes total sense if you think about a normal recording experiences they're so linear and so intensely focused to the point where it's like OCD levels and you know to be able to bring inspiration constantly and see how your music is working with movement I mean how your music is working with people reacting to it or how you're being inspired by that putting it in their sleeve that's cool it is cool that's like a cool vibe a projector in there and stuff like that holy God we have projector in every room playing all sorts of weird like what we play movies and old movies curling championships you also have this video so this song was inspired by the killing championship I mean yeah it's gotta be on the record I don't know I gotta make we got like video synths to that like respond to the audio signal in the room that would be very psychedelic weird shapes and changing whatever there's we definitely bought some lava lamps like there was a vibe for you hi yeah yes sir you know when I think about the music that you've made it sounds like the most kind of like wide like you say spirited warm end warning there are lots of warnings in there to happen so now I'm thinking about you I'm a kid I just want to know what song on their record you were highest when you made well they were made so over such a long period of time over so many times of being totally stoned that it would be impossible to calculate like that would you push record no no no it's the most collaborative record you've ever made because I guess you're in the most kind of open place right mm-hmm and it doesn't feel like you have to go through that singular torment in order to make a record like you know the door for people hmm what is the most important part of the process when you're in a collaborative space for you what's really important this front and center at all times when you're being open and evolving your craft with others great question then I've been lucky enough to have some set of skills to choose really trustworthy individuals to be around me and they just as they've chosen me as well we found each other but when you're ready to do something you don't want somebody to be doubting you or to have some body language that's weird like you just want to tell people tell people that are like their only goal in life is to make this song better that nobody's in there trying to like gain something or like get songwriting credit or like everyone's just there this for the same reason I am and when you have the power of others around you and they share that energy you can get you can get a lot done you must have learnt that from collaborating with others too and being in that room and you must have seen the flip side of it as well when you've been in awkward rooms and rooms where others don't get that I usually don't hang out in those rooms very long do an alley exit like wait Justin go ahead it's either like two hours he's halfway back to Oakland it's happened before yeah I feel like you had a fast track through the collaborative space in a weird way working with Kanye no you know because I mean I've spoken to so many people who've been lucky enough to work with him and it just sounds like every room is moving in in tandem with every other room and best idea wins yeah and it's kind of how it goes yeah how did that how did you apply what you learned from that into into it into an environment like way you can make it Rick or like this now I definitely witnessed you know how you can you can have music be cooking still like over here and you can respond to it if you're if you're like Kanye you can wait and there's cooks in all sorts of kitchens and they're gonna show you all sorts of stuff and you get to react to a lot of things you get to say no to a lot of things until you're like very sure you like something that was very stunning to watch him just a here at all and like have the bandwidth to to communicate that well with that many folks there's such a thing as too many folks in the Arun Wyoming we're out there and there's one time where was really just four of us and then there's another time whether it has to be forty five of us like in multiple houses remember we had a small conversation we're just like it's like I don't know he was even here he said you know like I think there may be too many of people here but you know so there's there's all sorts of drawbacks there but I mean for me it's like it's funny because as an individual who walks through life with this kind of people sort of he's driven by his ego type type thing and yet when he's were when he's creating everyone tells me that it's the opposite he's walking around letting everybody had this base do what they want and only all he really wants is the ability to be able to conduct and arranged accordingly and move around yeah design he cares about music a lot you know you don't get to have made the music he's made if you don't and he puts it very high up I can see the way that you've approached this record in an egoless way and you've talked about how that you have no interest in their side of things I mean the first voice that's on the record official is not yours yeah it's James no it's not no I was even on the plane going I'm gonna let that hang and he could tell me who it is and all agree and I flew it's all right no it's actually quite funny because people have been definitely thinking that it was like him yeah he there's one half a second of James's voice in the in the end of that song but that that voice you hear and the first song is actually it's got my key noise and he he used to be in the band he used to be my guitar student he's just a one of my favorite singers and he recorded that song seven years ago or ever recorded his vocals and they just never deleted them and that same day we did that actually we made another song with his same vocals which one it was called noise too until last two weeks ago Francis called me it was like chance phones to chop up that that one mp3 that you sent me like four years ago and so it's called town on the hill on chances record and that's the same Christ voice Mikey be j-bird and doing the drums and I'm playing keyboards wow that's a good vocal tape yeah it's him improvising you know it's like what's this okay as someone who's used that in one of the two songs what is so special about that piece of audio is traveling and that chance loves and you love want to use I think I don't know Mikey's voice really trips people up like we used to get hoots and hollers more than anyone in our band when he would rip a lead line of his voice he just got one of those crystalline those crystalline voices just cuts right through it's pretty much a way to start the record yeah I want to talk a little bit about Francis because he's popping up in all the right places at the moment John said the most wonderful things about him when I caught up with him recently about his record he's just saying that you know he was instrumental in helping chance ready find his way through the album and you know just gave him such a creative confidence and space to move I feel like he's an artist in his own right he's incredible but he's also this amazing collaborator yeah what's the unique about you and his relationship because you've worked on each other's music and it's obviously deeper than just music yeah man I mean he he came out to live here and all clear for a few years when he was kind of not exactly sure where he's supposed to be and he was here for years and we just became very again the friendship things became even more important than the music he didn't move out here cuz of you he moved out here anyway no I mean we I was like where are you I think he was living in a mail truck and I was like you should come live here that'd be cooler and like I saw he's a little beat-up when he got here and and he just kind of got healed a little bit not just by me or by being here he just took the time to be a nature and make music away from some of the distractions and you know he met DJ Burton out there when we were all living out there anything up making a lot of music together and it's just about sharing time that's the reason me and Francis have ended up on so many records together like I think Francis and I have like the production credit on the last song in the NAS record and I don't even remember making it that you don't even you can't even confirm that wait do I have a credit on the nos out that's cool but it's you know I think it's a credit to we just spent a lot of time together we enjoy each other's company and we're also both musical so that's why there's been so much that we've done together cuz we're just all you know we like to spend time together and it moves and that's what's cool like you see it I mean all of a sudden the vocals it was he been sitting there for seven years finds its way onto a song on your record and someone else hears it yeah I love that thing about music that you make it and you get it as defined as you possibly can but if by no means has taken the shape it's gonna take no no it's always like a big giant rock out in the in the field you have to go and like chip away at it until it actually exists in this true form it must've been tough for you as pure and amazing as this experiences but to have people tell you how much they meet your music means to them when you were in a bad place a real difficult thing to swallow yeah it's a difficult thing to swallow any time I feel like that's the worst trade for a musician the hope is that you make all this amazing stuff we love and you don't get to acknowledge or accept and in a real way what it means to us sure I mean I I know that music means a lot to people and I take it really seriously obviously but I also there's something that just kind of just feels odd when when when people say that I'm Justin as the one responsible for this music you made this music and I can't this is another thing with the album Title III and I is it were really not alone and and we all we each have our own vision and we each have our own ego that can you know bring us to sometimes very great places but if you you know you can't do anything on your own and so I get I get distracted or kind of tripped up by like yeah thank you for everything you've done I was like but what about everyone who helped me do me and also everyone else that did everything is always doing everything around me in it it's just a little you know it's like likes microphones and attention it's like I didn't do it for this I'm not gonna sit here and like aren't I awesome you know like it's just it's an odd that's my job yeah yes it's just it's just like that's not why we do it I think uh you know I'm a not non religious person but I think they studied religions and and it's obviously I'm into music and I think that there's actually there's something still in music that we're still learning about what the power of it undoubtedly and what it can do and so that's why I take it so seriously but at the end of the day it's like I don't want it to be all somehow reflected on me like I was responsible for is like I think we're all digging digging the earth up to try to find meaning and to try to find you know solace you're a collaborative from the very beginning in fact it was probably way looking back on it now that your first breakthrough record forever forever ago was you isolated in a cabin on your own because that's not how it's supposed to be was it right well I mean I was in bands since I was 12 years old as always with my dudes yeah Brad I mean Brad and I started being the band together when we were 16 you know like now we're still working together we didn't speak for a year like when we kind of had to go through this tough breakup but in many ways it was my it was a rebirth that album and and it really was better than anything I had done before and it was the first time I had really stepped out on my own and that was an important process but then it everything kind of really started going I mean who honestly goes through a tough breakup like that and has to go and find someplace in order to heal themselves and puts them in the most isolated part during toughest season of the year yeah I have an incredible presence of mind or your no mind at all and I don't know which one you had at that moment in your life well it's a good question I don't think I had I don't think I had anywhere else to go you know at that point I wasn't wouldn't say I was anxious or even depressed I was just kind of clueless I didn't know what to do this band was breaking up I was working on these tunes but it I didn't have no agent or nothing you know I I didn't have anything nice so I decided I should finish this album and apply to school to go back to school for music teaching or whatever so it was really it was really not a beginning of in a way it was and that was the road you we hated on that was an ending mm-hmm and today it was just like I'm gonna do this record and I got asked to go play a guitar and this band called the rosebuds who were very instrumental helped me name the band and everything and just while I was playing guitar and that my first tour ever as a 26 year old like mild Kentucky blog like writes about us and because I just put my album on myspace you know and like sign to two months later you know you know so it's it's funny when you when you get to that last stage in like hope for something I definitely give enough and I think I needed to give up the dream that I've sort of created my whole life I wanted to have music be my job so badly I was holding on way too tight and when I finally I was like maybe I can't do this and maybe I'm not built for this and maybe I should be able to accept my you know my nature and go back to school and teach music it just happened right in that moment when you let go and I don't think there's like that's not coincidental I don't know I just been a huge amount of my time thinking about the meaning of life but as I grow older and I have children I have all these things I'm looking to try and narrow it down and focus and distill it into something that's simple mm-hmm and I do you think those are two very important words and they can be applied across the board which is let go mmm right it's pretty constant yeah definitely I mean you you just can't hold on to I mean if you are mad driving around in your car and you are so angry at someone you really gotta chill the photo and you've been there no I haven't I haven't but you know I've been angry about things I used to get angry about the industry you're like angry about the Grammys they're like it's just not worth it you know it's just when you're holding on to all these things you can get so distracted into just we always talk we always say it's like dying on a mountain it's like you're gonna die in that mountain well if you like wait for the next more important conversation yeah to like get angry with someone above I'm glad you brought that up because it didn't feel at the time like when you won those Awards and you're coming off the back of that that that's safe and Bon Iver up and which is you know like all your herbs amazing and rightfully look depending on how you feel about awards and trinkets and glories it rightfully deserved to be acknowledged in whatever room and whatever capacity as an incredible body a word and that clearly didn't sit right with you and it's sort of where things started to kind of like get off kilter a bit yeah it made me mad I think I was mad because I had totally PTSD from being by myself on that can stage you know I thought I had my head screwed on tight but if there's no way I could have prepared myself for the change in lifestyle and the change of attention I never once was somebody that would need to be away from people I was always down to be with people always always always and now I have a thing where I can't just you yeah I have to have to get away from from the attention it just feels like a waste of time or something but I'm not angry anymore and I think that's part of what you go through and you have anxiety you're wrapped up too tight you're worried about the wrong and all of a sudden you're ill and you need help getting on ill from holding on to those things and so I'm not angry about it's it's a pretty silly thing to get angry about like music or are things that are pretty you know these aren't changing cultural landscape of of things it's like the award show or not it's like these aren't the things to get really bent out of shape about like look like if you don't like an album maybe just don't say anything anyone or just like I'm not to do it it's like why do you gotta hate other than a see that's not the one way though is it because everyone has access to actor tools now into into channels of communication within which we can all be heard if we really want to very good things about that no one sitting here I'm not sitting here going like shut it down I get it I understand it it goes on in my house all day long but it does make it difficult if you're going out there trying to do something pure we're facing that I mean you've had a pretty interesting relationship with social media you probably hit up a few times and this isn't pretty funny what's your genuine feeling about the way we communicate these days I don't like the people can be verified or not verified I don't like being I don't to be verified I just find it out it's all pretty funny listen to a podcast where they're like you know like 75% of retweets are like people don't read the articles they just like they just like oh yeah that's a headline I can I can like get with right and I do the same like oh yeah with that social platform yeah yeah retweet you know it's just like we're all we haven't had after do this I mean like I didn't have a cell phone or the internet really even in high school no you know and so we're all adapting and it's it can get pretty ugly like I I made that huge mess out of the Eminem song and I was just in a car wash like I just tweeted I said what was I like I should have just probably chilled out and like actually just said please don't put this song out can't a private exactly it was very rude and I felt I felt really bad about it then I think people like don't have not figured out how to calculate how easy it is to say something on their with how much you should say it - congrats on I'm just gonna call it our childhood dream you told me one of the album's that you remember from a season was Bristol is being arranged holy SH he's on your help um yeah playing piano yeah such a Bruce Hornsby line it's ridiculous well it's just his song I mean he came out and it's just his track that he just had an instrumental track called fanfare and I was like what is this Bruce he's like I don't know I just wrote it just look are there any vocals he's like no it's like can I think of it and can I have it for my album yeah so we we just basically just kept Bruce's home recording and just add added layers and added the bassline and melody and Moses and it's so beautiful that song thanks I just we were playing it today and it's definitely a different I'd ever moved and we've ever had it's kind of like kind of angry joy for angry joy it is because lyrically you're saying a lot of real stuff I mean you know and it's always a real it's a great experience going through what you're saying because you never make it obvious it's never an obvious intimate you've got a really search for the meaning and apply it and how you take it what I took from that was that you know you're sort of addressing us a sense of kind of quote-unquote blissful denial and it's going on in society right now that we're not staring at what's really going on around us and very close to us as well that's like kind of what the general gist of it is mhm absolutely there's another line in the song John Moore where it's like how long will you disregard the heat it's like really truly we might we have no idea what's gonna happen and it could get really bad and we need like we don't need like bureaucratic 15 20 year plans we need like the plans that should be happening now is this the first time that you've made it obvious enough for me to recognize those themes in a Bon Iver project probably I mean again that with letting go and not being angry like not dying on the Grammys mountain or like you know like just shedding yourself with things that aren't ultimately viable for like the long-term existence unearth you know you end up having more gratitude you end up having you get more out of life and you're able to look beyond your own the question of your own survival you know what I mean you can you can start to look at the other and and our you know organism that we live on and to start to treat it with the same respect that you've managed to treat yourself but if we don't get this right there under Grammys and there are things to get mad at and none of it makes any sense there's no sweetness to me there's already a lack of sweetness for a lot of people on earth and you just you it's a life is a very beautiful thing if you can be safe and you can and that's not what everyone has and I think that's when you are safe and and you are you can be vulnerable and you can feel lucky to be alive it makes you want to share that and to make it more possible for the people that don't have those possibilities I was thinking when I was on my way over here that you went to El Paso to record the record the record is really focusing at times on this kind of pain that's going on this desire to try and mend and to find a way for us to heal each other and I and that's an area in the world that's going through a lot of pain right now I mean we were three miles from one of the camps the sonic ranch one of the detention centers what there's just an awful awfully light name I'd say for what they are where the studio is situated 40 miles east of El Paso town called Tornillo which is a lot of it's a high action zone between Juarez Chihuahua and West Texas Sonic ranch has said on like three three thousand acres of pecan trees it's like farm they have there and then they in the haciendas they built these studios and everything but on this old pecan property this guy Tony owns from the family it butts up against the Mexican border so he's got you know maybe he say it's like three four miles rectangle and he's got like three miles of frontage on the Mexican border and they used to have people coming through everyday you know they weren't putting them up or anything that they just would come through their property 20 30 a day for decades and so the Border Patrol put up this wall but what's so is that they put up this wall on Tony's property it only takes up about this much and then you can just go to a point and look and there's this little creek and there's birds flying back and forth and then you're just like there's no wall it just ends and it's just still on private property and there's a Border Patrol guy sitting like 600 yards away you know it's just a gross symbol we walk down there all the time just to get just to look at it and be like this this is what blindness gives you I think it's some of the guiding principles that are really kind of dividing the nation right now you talk about the mass shootings that are going on everything is going on right now and I wonder how you kind of translate that information in the modern world coming from the heartland where a lot of these principles you know this is a Republican state no yeah I mean information is really easily manipulated and be on the left side of things you can you can end up being angry about both the rhetoric that gets put out there but that's also not where we really need to start from either you can't anger yourself and to change you're not gonna anger someone into changing their policy and I think that if there's anything I wished and it's it's I'm not gonna wish harm on anybody on the right I don't I don't actually believe that they're like hey I think they just believe with what they they they believe in and I think that it's you know very harmful and I just wish that there was there's better leaders younger leaders in the in the left leading more than reacting to this whole thing yeah true I want to ask you I've always want to ask you this question and giving us the first chance we've ever had to really chop it up long-form how do you and what's the process behind naming your songs hmm well the last couple records it's been kind of a game you know but maybe a second record I've always liked songs called nice names and it just ended up kind of being a theme when you're saving a song and it really did in that instance you know it really did come from when Heath Ledger died it happened to be just had just met one of his dear dear friends that day and so it was a really explosive bizarre our kind of witness to intense grief but that's kind of when that song Perth came out and that's where he's from and it was just sort of like didn't you clean the deck since I stay with us yeah yeah we just had him stay well he also couldn't go back to his house because that's where Heath was and that was the investigation since but so there's this intense thing is like where maybe he's home now they were maybe he's back like in this dusty field like riding his in his field or something but I've always liked song names that were place names excuse me and so that element kind of came together is this like what our places what are these things Minnesota Wisconsin or it just became a fun theme so then you have to kind of like bend some songs like I don't know if this song is supposed to be called a number but we're gonna just stick with it anyways you know it's the 22 million ended up being this the number 22 is like my number you know just like follows me everywhere it's kind of a lucky number I guess you'd say but I dunno I like I like the themes and this one being all people's names probably done with the themed naming now I think I spent a little too much time thinking about it but it's just fun I like I like it when there's bizarre themes you can that can take you through a thing and be thinking about people's faces and making things up are these people's these people that are close to you are they just people that they conjure up in your mind when you think you know like hold it Hollyfield like yeah Holyfield's is with an S at the end so it's like a surname so I'm thinking about packs of families and not not anything too specifically but faith I just think about like a nice 55 year old lady driving a debts then down 53 in Wisconsin I don't know a lovely name and it's actually you know what's funny though is that um you talked about studying religious that terminal just studies in your school and you have a song called faith but it's a name that's interesting because when I was going through the song and I was the same so I was searching for all these kind of little Easter eggs and ideas about what you were gonna say about religion and perhaps there's nothing to do that at all well it it is it is I like to play with it you know it's like I just think it's a little goofy that we have name called faith and I love but it's also very beautiful I also liked it faith you you can't define it as a religious faith it is it's a word that's definable outside of that do do you apply faith in your life even though you're not necessarily predisposed to one religion or another mmm I wouldn't hold onto it all the time I think like anything you sometimes you got to have faith but sometimes you can't sometimes you shouldn't have faith because then you'd be like we'll just can be fine I can just stay right here and not change anything and you know faith will get me through you know I just don't know if sometimes it can be dangerous is that a precursor to the last line on the record a second to last line on the record what's that there you go it's all fine anyway we're gonna be fine anywhere something that does I don't know how to take that on one hand I thought this is a really wonderful positive context of perspective upon which you've arrived at some kind of revelation some kind of resolution of what everything means but then I was also like it's kind of sad maybe it's just like a little bit cynical well it I think there's there's a playfulness too but I really feel uncynical I mean in that song I think the first lines of that tuner it's all just scared of dying but isn't this a beach and and it's just like hello what are what are you waiting for like this looking outside look at all these people like everyone is here we're here now like what is this idea of heaven like what about this incredible it's notice that you know like it that's kind of what it is and so like we're gonna be fine you know even if you don't get enlightened as like or you think like I do or like we're all here we're sharing it's happening we're here but it could all be what's the last line if we don't change it soon it could all be if you wait it can it can be undone yeah and so it's a little bit like yes we're we we might extinguish the earth we may but we all have to like know that that's what's on the line here because this is a pretty beautiful situation you know it's just being totally over how are you approaching putting a set of us together now when you're it's just like for album thing and it's pretty cool I'll be the funnest part about being in a band for this long is like holy SH we get the right to stick a setlist now for any comer first oh yeah you know I think it's pretty nice like and also there's stuff on this record that's maybe like a little bright and sometimes is like ham times you can kind of get depressed at a bond show maybe you know it's like not self-effacing lee but sometimes I'm seriously it's like why do we have this another slow sad song with a free jazz bridge in it you know so it's like nice to have new choices so you don't end up making those mistakes and also of course you know you've got all this other music you made with amazing artists too which one I guess won't be reinterpreted into a bon iver show but you know if so many amazing songs you don't get to play when you go and play with this band mm-hmm and it's kind of bittersweet in a weird way like I would love to hear some of the Big Red Machine songs like when you wouldn't don't even just let slightly tinted I mean you went with Bryce on this record and Aaron on the Stryker doesn't put like people's lullaby in there just for like a hot SEC I thought about that you know and it's actually funny that you say that then because I've been talking to Aaron about that lately is like well I'm releasing my ego from from needing to be at the center of Bonneville four to make all this sense and Aaron and we've been we've started some new Big Red Machine stuff I'm trying to encourage him to get a lot of other singers on and stuff like that but there's this one tune he wrote called wreath and it's like one of the best songs I've ever heard and I and I made up some really nice vocals and lyrics for it and I was like I've had this one day I was like why wouldn't I just make that a bunny bear song you know what I mean like put it out a minute like who cares who writes it it feels like it feels like part of this thing and so yeah that might be happening more often and we could get we can find ourselves in a time when you do decide to be to use this kind of current distribution error and the ability to put music out as and win and because you've been so free with other people's music and other projects and I felt like Bon Iver has come with this kind of weight behind each project yeah well I you know actually I'm a little tired of those big gulps yeah well I'm seeking more balance with that stuff and like right I'm really excited we've got I've got songs that when were writing I've been writing with Aeneas Mitchell and other people I've been like actually writing quickly and things are happening and I'm like I don't want to wait for another Elden maybe we just put out some singles this year or attic or whatever singles maybe but just like put out music rather you know because the the weight thing you know it's really fun like the putting out the elements seeing everyone's faces and like doing this with you and but it's a lot it's a lot like all the look at our album yeah again it's an unnatural amount of attention to virtual yeah exactly and I know you want people to hear that's why we do it you want people that you want to share your your prayers their or whatever so we ultimately do those things but yeah at the end of the day you don't want to just be like wearing a t-shirt of yourself when you go out for coffee or something and that's what it feels like sometimes you say no it's the you and three is time to be like wow this Lego thing really took on literally like I my name on the back of the jacket well I mean waiting to have this conversation with you for such a long time and I really just came for the learnings yeah I came fully curious what was the last conversation you had or what was the last conversation you can really you had we really learn something a really meaningful conversation mmm perfect you got a perfect answer for you my my friend Brad who the producer this record my oldest best friend and I was in this situation where I was really excited and I was talking to all these people we were you know a small gathering and I was saying all these things about how oh maybe you and me can do this and I was really getting excited Brad pulled me aside and was like hey there's such a thing as being too excited and here's why because you might not have the time to even call that person back and they that that's not a good look you know he's like it's not he didn't want me to be an excited person but I was like you know what I don't want to just like get so excited and think about what is all possible without getting too far ahead of myself sometimes you know you get into trouble and it's not like you want to run away from excitement but you there's such a thing as being calmed I've really loved it now I love catching up with you especially in this kind of amazing place question to say you've had a view of the size I mean you're very you're very handsome man he appreciates it uh that's better it's a nice it's a nice naked glance over at no it's it's important to talk about this stuff too and I get battered pretty quickly or like talking about music or something but it's so cool that you have a job like you have and because it may really like music it should be celebrated and it isn't all just like rock magazines on rock magazines like there's something happening with music that really truly of lifts people and I even think it's easy to forget that even when you're in it every day and I'm in and every day but the people out there there's a fans it's like this is Joan Lee talking about music we're not talking about like like a drug that makes you happy it's like literally vibrations and doing this stuff so I just appreciate you're out there showing about things that make you feel those things you know thanks man I took it's a great trade for me and all of us we get this record last question yeah you said before that you it was nearly the end and it wasn't a beginning it was really the end when you made for him her forever ago and you had a different plan and I wonder now being in this place where you've kind of taken over this entire and it's people everywhere who were just here collaborating with you loving this experiences process you're deeper in rehearsal you're gonna get paid biggest rooms but do you accept now that this is what you should be doing with your life yeah this time around I really do I can smile about it officially I'm scared man I got scared and that I can smile about it now and I feel lucky and even when it's hard like even when I get nervous and even when it's when I don't want to do something or you still I still I still feel that gratitude yeah it's a very very apt question I accept this I there it's not scary to me anymore to be a semi well-known person it's it's not the biggest deal it's not what's gonna Altima define me in my soul or my mind or my life you know it won't be the last defining thing but it gets to be something that I love doing and I feel like I actually am here to do and so I feel very grateful to be have that circuit closed very grateful

Channel: Bon Iver

Views: 340,767

Keywords:

Id: hGFndAXtnro

Length: 48min 10sec (2890 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/sonofsohoriots]

Not last album confirmed.

[u/anotherent]

‘Sometimes you can get depressed at a Bon show, maybe....like why do we have another slow, sad song with a free jazz bridge in it?’ -Justin

[u/knopparp]

Really great interview. I think I have a bit of a man-crush on Justin. Dude is just so chill and had some very wisdom stuff to say. Just as i,i was released, I was bottoming out, burn out from the job, anxiety, all the rest so I relate to a lot of the stuff he's saying. Turning to other people to lean on has helped me and the message of this album came along at just the right time for me. Inspiring stuff.

[u/FriedCammalleri23]

“were you high?”

“yeah, yes sir, the whole time”

lmao i love Justin

[u/Cornball32]

Literally would've thought pigs would fly before we'd get a long-form video interview with JV.

[u/skyfighter72]

This video was fantastic. I never dreamed he would ever do a long form interview. Back when 22 AM came out I scoured YouTube to watch every interview JV had ever done and there wasn’t much. Seeing him happy and in a good headspace is energizing. It’s such a tangible difference from a few years ago.

His vulnerability both in the bands music and when he talks publicity is a big part of what makes him so appealing to me. He isn’t here to make music for the masses to accumulate fame and wealth. He makes music because he loves it and it’s his life. Never change JV.

[u/NeutralGlasses]

Halfway through the interview, all I can say is that I'm just so happy to see Justin in such a good place, he deserves all the love in this world.

(Also, iMi and Faith are leftovers from 22AM, suddenly I'm not so surprised those songs are in my top-3 from i,i!)

[u/joedickin]

Wow, teasing a possible Big Red Machine or Bon Iver track called 'Reese' penned by Aaron Dressner! Mad. (42:20 when discussing potential setlist for the i,i tour)

[u/powerful_lb]

I love this sub