How many of you have come up with a million ways to revolutionise the world over a boozy weekend with your mates? Sure, we’ve all been there. But have actually ever done something about those ideas?
If your name is Justin Vernon, frontman of indie folk group Bon Iver, the answer is a resounding yes, as it was revealed that after a whiskey-fueled weekend in Wisconsin the frontman and his friends recorded a new hip hop album.
The unexpected collaboration came about after Vernon and rapper Astronautalis, real name Andy Bothwell, were having a chat and realised that both of them would be having a creative break from their primary musical projects at the same time.
Vernon and his group Bon Iver have been busy conquering the world for the past year, after their sophomore album Bon Iver, Bon Iver, reached #2 on the charts here in Australia as well as on the Billboard charts in the United States, becamoming an unexpected international sensation.
Not bad for an indie folk band from Wisconsin who at the beginning of this year took home not one but two Grammys, first for Best Alternative Music Album, and then upsetting the likes of Skrillex, Nicki Minaj, The Band Perry, and J.Cole by winning Best New Artist.
Working with Astronautalis, Bon Iver drummer S. Carey, and producer Ryan Olson, the group of friends spent the weekend in Vernon’s April Base studio to create blow off some creative steam and create something unique to all of them.
“There were several times during those three days where I couldn’t believe that a sound just fell perfectly into place,” Bothwell revealed to the Minneapolis City Pages. “Often times you get one of those when you make a record, or two of those, over the course of weeks and weeks and weeks.”
“This process was exhilarating, and it drove us further. We were originally going to be down there for a day.”
“By the time I got there, they had about eight pieces of music done, or roughed out into song form,” he recalls. “Then I just got down there and freestyled for eight hours over everything. When I work with Ryan, it’s the exact opposite of how I work on my own records.”
“I just give him tons and tons of material. He takes it back to his house, and dangles a cigarette out of his mouth, and works for hours on end.”
“A lot of my fans are like, ‘Oh this is going to be amazing: Astronautalis rapping and Justin singing choruses.’ It’s not going to be that,” Bothwell stresses.
“I’m sure that all of Justin’s fans are going to be like ‘Oh, it’s a new Bon Iver record and there’s these other guys.’ Everyone’s fans respectively are going to expect certain things.”
So when can we expect to hear some material from this new group?
“All of us are hell-bent on getting it out really quickly, and hopefully to find the time to play some shows for it as well,” Bothwell says. “I think you’ll hear it sooner than you think, and I kinda just wanna leave it at that.”
“It’s such a far stretch for a lot of us musically. I think everyone should abandon their expectations of what it’s going to be, because it’s probably going to be very far off.”
But just because they’re excited doesn’t mean they aren’t realistic about their weekend project, with Bothwell shrugging off the label ‘supergroup’.
“I think you should reserve supergroup qualifications for it until you decide if it’s super or not. I think it’s a band, a pretty cool band.”
