![]() JV: "Calgary" really feels like an accomplishment to me. What are you proud of lyrically on this album? Pitchfork: You used to feel pretty cautious about yourself as a writer, but you seem to have grown in confidence. People can interpret them however they want, but at least we can agree about what they are. But if you're gonna do that, I want you to be able to have an opportunity to know the real lyrics because I really hate it when people put up wrong lyrics online. I've stolen music before, I don't know anyone who hasn't. You know, records leak, right? It's out there. You can't just say, "As long as it sounds good, it'll be cool." I really wanted to go deep- I went as far as writing-out words on the page and making sure they looked good, reading-wise. You can really fuck up by not caring about your words. That said, I worked harder than ever on these new lyrics. With this new record, I attempted to build odd landscapes that you could exist in that had weird feelings but also cool-sounding words. The images in that song are more mysterious, yet more visual to me. When we play live, "Flume" is still the song I can get lost in the most. ![]() The subconscious thing I figured out in "Flume" started giving me more meaning. After growing up in a Neil Young/ Bob Dylan/ Indigo Girls/ John Prine/ subjective-songwriter kind of world, I finally realized I didn't have what they had, or I couldn't do it as well, or I wasn't exploring deep enough. Still, I found these intense personal connections with those words because they flowed out a certain way.īob Dylan wrote good words, but the underrated thing about why he is one of the best, if not the best, songwriter is that his words always sounded good with his voice. ![]() In his song "Loaded at the Wrong Door", there are lyrics that are totally heartbreaking and beautiful and heavy, but you really couldn't say exactly what they're about. His words are just about a sound and barely about meaning, but I could find all these crazy meanings in there. JV: You know, the Richard Buckner vibe- and that is a big influence for me. What's appealing about that strategy to you as a writer? Pitchfork: The lyrics on the new album are impressionistic in the way that they wind around a topic, but you also add real details, as if to ground them. "When I made For Emma*, it was my last chance to see if I could sit down and make something, for myself, that was beautiful."* Given the songs you've written for Bon Iver, do you ever think you should simply apologize to friends in advance if your songs ever put them in an odd spotlight? Pitchfork: The writer David Sedaris has a story about eventually having to tell his family and friends that they would probably be exposed in his work one day, no matter how uncomfortable that might be. It goes to show that even the indie rock world- which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something- is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity. I just want to know that, no matter what the perception of me as a person is, I can live with who I actually am. But I find it funny that the stories are wrong. It's like a giant metaphor for high school- people think or say certain things, and those ideas get amplified via telephone and, all of a sudden, somebody's a dick or a racist. JV: Yeah, I began realizing that it wasn't important for me to concern myself with the perception of truth. Was there a point when you had to let go of the truth behind the creation of For Emma and say, "Fuck it"? For instance, when you were on "Jimmy Fallon" recently, he asked you if your dad's cabin was named Bon Iver. Pitchfork: Stories start with facts but, over the years, they can become distorted myths. ![]() Skinny love doesn't have a chance because it's not nourished. JV: I'm not afraid to talk about it, but how do you guarantee it's accurate? To say that "Skinny Love" is about Christy would not be entirely accurate. We dated and she's an incredibly important person that I lived with for a long time, but it's about that time in a relationship that I was going through you're in a relationship because you need help, but that's not necessarily why you should be in a relationship. It took you a while to mention people like Christy- and especially your ex Sara Emma Jensen- in public. Pitchfork: Christy once told me that she immediately knew "Skinny Love" was about her when you first sang it to her. I'd been working on so many songs that spring, but nothing really gathered itself until "Flume" came along. It was this new falsetto thing that I'd been working on but never landed. Justin Vernon: When I made "Flume" one afternoon at Christy 's house, it immediately felt insane.
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