Bon Iver
Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Vernon had originally formed Bon Iver as a solo project, but it eventually became a band consisting of Vernon, Sean Carey, Michael Lewis, Matthew McCaughan, Andrew Fitzpatrick, and Jenn Wasner.
Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon spent three months isolated in a cabin in western Wisconsin. In 2012, the band won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for their eponymous album Bon Iver. They released their third album 22, A Million to critical acclaim in 2016. Their fourth album, I, I, was released in 2019. The album was nominated at the 2020 Grammy Awards for Album of the Year. Their fifth and most recent album, Sable, Fable, was released in 2025.
The name "Bon Iver" derives from the French phrase bon hiver, taken from a greeting on 1990s TV series Northern Exposure.
History
After the breakup of his band DeYarmond Edison, the ending of a relationship, and a bout of mononucleosis hepatitis, Vernon left Raleigh, North Carolina, and moved back to Wisconsin. He spent the oncoming winter months at his father's cabin in Dunn County, Wisconsin. According to Vernon, it was during this time that the "Bon Iver" moniker first entered his mind; while bedridden with mononucleosis, he began watching the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure on DVD. One episode depicts a group of citizens in Alaska, where the show is set, emerging from their homes into the first snowfall of the winter and wishing one another bon hiver. This was initially transcribed by Vernon as "boniverre"; however, when he learned of its proper French spelling, he elected not to use it, deciding hiver reminded him too much of "liver", the site of his illness at the time.2006–2010: ''For Emma, Forever Ago''
Vernon did not intend to write or record any music during the time but rather to recuperate from the events of the previous year. Eventually, however, a record began to evolve during this cathartic time of isolation. He had recently finished helping the band The Rosebuds do some recording and had with him some basic recording gear when he made his move to the cabin in late 2006. Vernon played all the instruments during recording and each song was heavily edited with a large number of overdubs. Vernon wrote the lyrics for the album by recording a word-less melody and listening to the recording over and over while writing words according to the sound of the syllables of the melody. In an interview, Vernon said, "Words like 'decision' and 'intention' aren't words that float in my head because I just went." Vernon explains, "I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn't know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold." In another interview, Vernon describes what he used to record the album: "I had a very light set-up, a basic small recording set-up: a Shure SM57 and an old Silvertone guitar. I had my brother drop off his old drums... some other small things—things I would make or find lying around."The record was almost not released and was originally intended as a group of demos to be sent out to labels and potentially rerecorded. But after getting very encouraging reactions from a number of his friends, Vernon decided to release the songs himself in their present state. According to his manager Kyle Frenette, an initial run of 500 CDs were pressed. The original CD release show took place at the House of Rock in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Justin played an earlier "all-ages" show and an evening 21+ show to release the original pressing of the album in its card stock CD case. Of the 500 copies issued, 17 were sent to press, mainly blogs. The first significant attention the album received was from My Old Kentucky Blog in June 2007, after which point "it snowballed," according to manager Frenette. Another further breakthrough came when, in October 2007, the album received a very positive review from influential indie internet publication Pitchfork. That exposure in turn led to a performance the same month at the industry showcase festival CMJ Music Marathon. The appearance attracted much label interest and Frenette later told HitQuarters that they subsequently spoke to various record companies, both independent and major. Out of all of them they decided to sign with the indie Jagjaguwar because their ideals most resembled their own. The signing was confirmed on October 29, 2007.
For Emma, Forever Ago was given an official release by Jagjaguwar. Vernon has said that he will continue to make albums without engineers and producers because he is capable of doing it all himself. Since being released by Jagjaguwar on February 19, 2008, For Emma, Forever Ago has garnered critical acclaim. The album was released in the UK and Europe by iconic indie label 4AD on May 12, 2008. When released in the UK, For Emma, Forever Ago received 5/5 and "Album of the Month" reviews in both Mojo and Uncut magazines. It was the seventh highest rated album of 2008 on review aggregator site Metacritic, with accolades from publications including The Village Voice, The Hartford Courant and The A.V. Club. Pitchfork Media gave the album 29th place in its "The Top 200 Albums of 2000s" list, while Stereogum placed the album at 11 on its "Best Album of the '00s" list.
The digital download track "Skinny Love" was selected to be iTunes single of the week and was available for free during that time, as well as being featured as the track of the day on National Public Radio. Bon Iver was ranked number 8 on Last.fm's most-listened-to new music of 2008. Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was ranked number 29 in Rolling Stones list of the Top 50 Albums of 2008, and was also ranked number 92 on their list of the 100 Best Albums of the 2000s. In an interview, Vernon said: "I'm really humbled by everything and am keeping things in perspective." On May 19, 2008, "Blindsided" and "Flume" were featured in The CW series One Tree Hill. On October 6, 2008, "Skinny Love" was featured in the NBC series Chuck. 'Blindsided' also featured in 'Stairway To Heaven', the 12th episode of the 5th season of ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
On December 11, 2008, Bon Iver performed "Skinny Love" on the Late Show with David Letterman. On January 26, 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at No. 21 by the Australian national radio station Triple J in the annual Hottest 100 countdown of the previous year's best songs. In July 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at No. 92 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time countdown. Additionally, the track "Flume" has been used by the BBC to advertise their Jimmy McGovern-penned drama series The Street; the track "Blood Bank" was used in a 2009 episode of the NBC series Chuck and the track "Creature Fear" was used in another Chuck episode ; "Skinny Love" was featured in another episode of Chuck, as well as in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy; "The Wolves " was used in the first season of United States of Tara, the film The Place Beyond the Pines as well as in the final scenes of the film Rust and Bone; "Re:Stacks" was featured in the Fox drama House, as was "Flume" on May 16, 2011; "Re:Stacks" was also used for the closing sequence of the Silent Witness episode Death Has No Dominion, and "Woods" was used in the eighth episode of Skins' third series and appeared on the series 3 soundtrack.
In 2008, Bon Iver designed a T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project, with all profits benefiting the Interval House women's shelter in Toronto, Ontario. In October 2009, Bon Iver first appeared on the cover of the publication The Fader, in its 64th issue. Also in 2009, Bon Iver, along with St. Vincent, contributed the song "Roslyn" to the New Moon soundtrack. Bon Iver also contributed "Brackett, WI" to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization.
In 2010, Bon Iver collaborated with Kanye West on the track "Lost in the World", which begins with a sample of the Bon Iver track "Woods". Vernon also contributed vocals to the West tracks "Monster" and "Dark Fantasy", both featured on West's album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Then, in March 2011, Justin Vernon performed at SXSW with GOOD Music. This collaboration publicized him to a wider audience.
2011–2012: ''Bon Iver''
Bon Iver was released on June 17, 2011. On March 23, 2011, Justin Vernon told Rolling Stone that a follow-up of For Emma, Forever Ago would be released in December 2011. The album is composed of 10 songs and takes a new musical direction: "I brought in a lot of people to change my voice—not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project," says Vernon, who hired well-known players like bass saxophonist Colin Stetson and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz. "I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene." The second album is described as an "ambitious musical departure" from the first. Prior to the album's release, Vernon said that each song on the new album represents a place. The song "Perth" was described as a "Civil War-sounding heavy metal song," the song "Minnesota, WI" was described as featuring "finger-picked guitars, double bass drums and distorted bass saxophone," and the closing song "Beth/Rest" would be "horn heavy."The album was recorded in a remodeled veterinarian clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, which was bought by Vernon and his brother in 2008. It was converted into April Base Studios, built mainly over the defunct swimming pool attached to the clinic. Vernon's reason for recording in the location was that " been a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built. It's also only three miles from the house I grew up in, and just ten minutes from the bar where my parents met."
On April 20, Bon Iver announced details of the release through the official Jagjaguwar and 4AD websites. The artwork for the album was also released, painted by the American artist Gregory Euclide. Gregory also released two YouTube videos entitled the Making of Bon Iver Album Art. Over one month before the album release date, the album was accidentally made available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store on May 23. Apple removed the item from the store, but not before a handful of users were able to purchase and download it. There was no comment from Apple, the artist, or his label. However, the lyrics to the album were promptly uploaded to their record site.
In an interview on 89.3 The Current, main man Justin Vernon was questioned about current plans for the band and expressed their desire to take a break:
During the last performance of their 2012 tour in Dublin's The O2, Vernon announced that it was their last performance as a band, "... at least for a while..." At the time, these two events provoked speculation about whether this was a definite end to the band or simply a hiatus. A representative for Bon Iver's label, Jagjaguwar, issued the statement, "They are just going off cycle after two very busy years on this record."
Josh Jackson reviewed Bon Iver for Paste, saying, "It retains the beautiful melancholy of For Emma, but in nearly every way, it's just more. More layered, more diverse, more interesting. He brings in collaborators to do what they do best, but never at the expense of his sound and vision. It treads into new sonic directions without getting lost." He gave the album a score of nine out of ten. In an unfavorable review, Tim Sendra of AllMusic wrote, " style comes off more like sub-Enya with a beard than a true studio wizard... For Emma, Pt. 2 would have been far more satisfying than this overblown debacle."
In late August 2011, English post-dubstep musician and singer-songwriter James Blake uploaded a track called "Fall Creek Boys Choir", a collaboration with Bon Iver, to his YouTube channel. It was released as the first single from Blake's EP Enough Thunder and was also included on the deluxe edition of his self-titled debut album.
On November 30, 2011, the band earned four nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Best Alternative Music Album for their album Bon Iver, and both Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Holocene". On December 15, 2011, Pitchfork awarded Bon Iver the number one album of 2011. On February 12, 2012, Bon Iver won the Grammy for Best New Artist. Bon Iver also won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album for Bon Iver, beating out Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, Foster the People and My Morning Jacket. On February 15, a five-song studio session was released on YouTube, featuring Justin Vernon and Bon Iver drummer Sean Carey performing piano renditions of the tracks. The recording took place at AIR Studio-owned Lyndurst Hall in London, England.