Bon Iver Reveals the Secrets of New Album 22, A Million at Eau Claire Press Conference
Last night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Justin Vernon did something that’s very rare in this day and age, particularly for an artist that isn’t a Rolling Stones-level global superstar: held a press conference. It was to debut the new Bon Iver album, 22, A Million, the follow-up to 2011’s Bon Iver, which is out September 30 via Jagjaguwar.) Although the album was performed in full at the Eaux Claires festival last month, this was the first public airing of the recorded version. Writer Steve Marsh was on the scene.
The press conference was held at the restaurant in the unopened Oxbow Hotel, a property that Vernon has invested in, and promises to be “Eau Claire’s first boutique hotel.” Twenty-seven journalists with credentials ranging from the alternative paper and radio station in Minneapolis and newspapers from smaller Wisconsin towns to Uproxx and a German magazine gathered in the hotel bar along with various members of Bon Iver’s team.
The Bon Iver press conference. Photo by Graham Tolbert.
Eaux Claire’s poet laureate and Bon Iver’s “band uncle” Michael Perry stood up just before 8 p.m. to introduce the record. Following the album being played in full over the restaurant’s speakers, Vernon came out in a hoodie and a Timberwolves cap and sat at a table with his laptop. He apologized for “blasting the music at us,” but added, “I know it’s a strange thing, but it’s actually kind of fun.” He then embarked on a Q&A that lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
Vernon said the sound of 22, A Million originated in a drum loop created by BJ Burton on a Roland drum machine. “I was feeling a lot of anxiety,” he said. “The beat got me up and out of my seat and made me want to break it down. It was finished right when we made it and we had to sit on it for three years.”
The Bon Iver press conference. Photo by Graham Tolbert.
He later elaborated on what he was going for with the sound of the album, which is a departure from previous work:
I think it’s that thing of wanting to bash things apart a little bit and break through some stuff. And I needed it to sound a little radical to feel good about putting something out in the world. For me, it’s not embarrassing, but the old records are of this kind of sad nature—I was healing myself through that stuff. Being sad about something is okay. And then wallowing in it, circling though the same cycles emotionally just feels boring. For this one, there’s still some dark stuff and whatever, but I think cracking things, making things that are bombastic and exciting and also new, and mashing things together, and explosiveness and shouting more, I think that was the zone. I think shouting. Whispering was maybe the thing before. But this time—[hits his keyboard and makes a loud robot sound]
Vernon also talked about a misguided solo trip to an island off the coast of Greece that he embarked on last year, and how he was inspired by it. “Don’t go to the Greek Islands off season by yourself,” he said. “Trying to find myself and I did not. I felt really poor. And I just heard this chorus in my head, ‘This feeling might be over soon.’” That ended up turning into the opening line of the album’s first song, “22 (OVER S∞∞N).”
When asked about the importance of collaborating with other artists on this album, Vernon said, “I almost quit on it, in January of this year, I almost hung the album up. Sort of tired of it, and tired of working on it, and my friend Ryan Olson [of Gayngs] slapped me and said “uh-uh.”
He added:
After we did the Gayngs album, when Ryan put that whole thing together it was the wildest fun times around a lot of people making music. Around the same time Kanye West asked me to go out to Hawaii and record around a bunch of people. Felt the same. Just a bunch of people sitting around making songs. I think about Ryan and I think about Kanye, and they can show you how to be yourself more. They’re kind and they can tell you that this can be better. See what kind of mayhem you make when everybody’s in a room together. It lengthens you. It makes you stand up taller and improve yourself.
It was revealed that the album is dedicated to singer/songwriter Richard Buckner and Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Vernon explained why:
Richard Buckner has 13 albums and every one of them is perfect. Lyrics can be more flowing and more impressionistic. Found myself falling into a land or a dream and suspending disbelief more listening to his lyrics. Sound things out and find out what it means later. Gave me the courage to write like that. With Bernice, I’ve cared about her singing for so long. Hear her voice on the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series. Singing a black spiritual song and being a choir by herself. How she internalized it all and how she got to be all those singers. She was able to change her voice so radically. Mike Patton has nothing on her.
When asked why his face is obscured in the new Bon Iver press photos, Vernon said,
Really don’t like to see pictures of myself. Like when you listen to Pink Floyd you don’t think about what David Gilmour looks like. Pictures and music go hand in hand. But I am not trying to do that. I don’t really love meeting too many people, because I don’t have time to be their friend. Faces are for friends only. That’s what I think.
The Bon Iver press conference. Photo by Graham Tolbert.
Vernon also described how another unique sound on the album came about:
I have this friend Francis Starlite [of Francis and the Lights]. Staying at my house for a long time. I saw him doing this thing with this harmony engine. This plug in. Taking a trumpet line and playing it after the fact. I was like “holy cow that is amazing.” Talking to Chris Messina [studio manager at Vernon's April Base studio], my confidant through this entire process. Trying not to get stuck in any ecological toilet bowl. How in the hell could you do that at once at one time? Why you can’t do that exactly is that CPUs don’t have the capacity to do that live as it’s happening. Chris Messina figured it out. We’re calling it “the Messina.”
I don’t know why, we made a new musical sound. We made an instrument. Roger Troutman and Messina and Lewis and Francis made an instrument together. Making music as freely as possible.
There is also an uncredited Stevie Nicks sample on “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⊠ ⊠.” Vernon explained:
She requested that we not talk about it in the liner notes. I respected her wishes. Mostly didn’t want to get asked about working together when we didn’t work together. And I totally get that. It’s from my favorite YouTube video of all time. It’s just her warming up in 1981 getting her hair did and singing her song “Wild Heart,” which in my opinion was never properly recorded. There’s this beautiful YouTube of her singing and someone offstage singing harmony. It’s just the best piece of music. That little bit “wild wild wild heart,” that’s that sample.
Vernon also took a minute to helpfully break down the phonetics of the song names for all the radio DJs. “29 #Strafford APTS” is pronounced “29 hashtag Strafford apartments.” “666 ʇ” is “666 upside down arrow.” “____45_____” is just “45.”
Read “What’s Justin Vernon Been Up to Since the Last Bon Iver Album? A Lot” on the Pitch and Pitchfork’s live blog of the first 22, A Million performance.
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