The commercial video for ‘Calgary’ and a film of a corridor filled with smoke and lasers or lit by a slowly creeping light on the floor to accompany ‘Lisbon, OH’, shot by Isaac Gale and David Jensen, as was the final video for ‘Beth/Rest’, which brought the video project to its climax. Simple, static shots of spotlit trees at night swathed in smoke were mirrored in a similar style to ‘Perth”s video to create woodland images resembling dry-ice flooded stage sets, echoing the song’s Eighties arena rock style.
The deluxe edition of the album wasn’t the only on-screen project Justin indulged in towards the end of 2011. For the September 5 release of ‘Holocene’ as the album’s second single, he oversaw a new video directed in Iceland by Nabil Elderkin, featuring a young boy walking the Icelandic landscape, playing with seabirds and climbing stunning rock formations. And, on a somewhat more off-the-wall level, a short video clip of Justin playing basketball, lifting weights, running up and down stairs and talking about his daily fitness routines appeared online on December 8. At first the internet thought it was a spoof video, but Huiting, the film’s director, claimed it was part of a full-length Bon Iver workout video he was producing.
“It’s a legit workout DVD,” he said, also claiming to be working on a feature-length documentary on the band. “Straight up, for real. [It’s] 45, 50 minutes. Literally, you can work out to it and have music from all the bands we like: Bon Iver, S. Carey, Megafaun, We are the Willows and a couple others that escape me. It’s like a workout mixtape. You can work out to cool music instead of something stupid … It’s in Justin’s yard, where he grew up, and it’s them doing these three circuit exercises. Obviously, I can see how people will think this is a big joke … and technically, it’s different from what you expect. But the dudes are dead serious about their health. Exercise is informing all of his other stuff, including his music. I toured with them for a month this summer and it’s not like a heavy party situation. Their catering is healthy food, their rider is healthy food. They put an effort into keeping in shape on the road, unlike myself.”11
With the deluxe edition film project an artistic success, Justin even allowed himself, strictly on his own terms, to dip a toe into flagrant commercialism. That autumn Justin would accept an offer to be photographed for a campaign called Friends Since Way Back, his image and endorsement to be used on poster advertisements for Bushmills Irish whiskey. The campaign, Bushmills’ press release explained, was themed around “the lives and brotherly relationships of artists and influencers across the world” and intended to “celebrate the close friendships and camaraderie shared between lifelong friends”. The stars appearing in the ads – including Elijah Wood, Theophilus London, Chromeo and Bon Iver – would, the release claimed, be creating “custom pieces of music and art” for the campaign and, indeed, 12 months later Justin, with luthier Gordy Bischoff, would model a limited run of four guitars out of white oak wood from a Bushmills whiskey barrel, add volume and tone knobs made from bottle caps, infuse the wood with whiskey, call it the 1608 and auction one of them for over $7,000 to raise funds for the Eau Claire Confluence Community Arts Center.
But, initially and most prominently, Justin, Nate, Kyle and Brian Joseph would stand on a white backdrop in a photo studio in late 2011 and be snapped clinking whiskey glasses and holding the whiskey out to each other, symbolising the product because, according to a Bushmills spokeswoman, they were as “unique and discerning” as the whiskey.
“I owe everything to the creativity of my friends and neighbours who have all influenced and supported me along the way,” went Justin’s quote in the release. “Bushmills approached Bon Iver about collaborating with them on ‘Since Way Back’, and I didn’t hesitate when I knew all of us – Nate, Kyle and Brian – could be involved. The way the campaign was presented to us, as a program that rewards groups of friends who have built success around what they love, made it feel right and appropriate for us to participate. The founders of Bushmills developed a recipe that lasts. We hope to do the same with our music.”12
Justin toed the PR line outside of the photo studio too. “To be honest with you, man, it was more about people working in the field of advertising that weren’t assholes,” Vernon told Billboard. “It’s interesting, being part of Bon Iver, it’s like a band that started out as nothing and became something and in the process seeing how quickly to become that something has merit … And for something like Bushmills, it’s been around for 400 years and has traversed centuries of alcohol laws and lobbyists and global corporate whatever. The fact of the matter is they’ve somehow figured out a way to still manage a small get-together in New York City and have it be about what it is about. It’s an advertising company, but at least it’s advertising something that I tend to believe brings people together.”13
“Our friend Jeff [Rogers] who works out with us as our trainer,” he said in an interview for whiskey trade website Refinery29, “he tries to make us exercise and we try to get him to drink whiskey. We trade off – the day time is his time, the night time is our time.”14
What Bill Hicks would say we can only presume. But what long-absent sample-based rap troupe The Avalanches would say, we know only too well.
On December 2, in the wake of Vernon’s four Grammy nominations, The New York Times posted online a snippet from an interview its reporter had conducted with Justin early in 2011, before his nominations were announced. “I don’t think the Bon Iver record is the kind of record that would get nominated for a Grammy,” he said, when asked about his feelings on Arcade Fire winning an award at the 2011 ceremony. “[But] I would get up there and be like, ‘This is for my parents, because they supported me’, because I know they would think it would be stupid of me not to go up there. But I kinda felt like going up there and being like: ‘Everyone should go home, this is ridiculous. You should not be doing this. We should not be gathering in a big room and looking at each other and pretending that this is important’. That’s what I would say … 98 per cent of the people in that room, their art is compromised by the fact that they’re thinking that, and that they’re hoping to get that award.”15
The Avalanches responded to these quotes, alongside Vernon’s appearance in the Bushmills campaign, on Twitter: “a musicians ‘art is compromised’ if he/she desires a grammy .but endor$ing a product with proven devastating health risks is ok? a product which kills 100k p/a in the US alone..man kids look up to you. # rememberwhenitwascoolNOTtosellout”. The Tweet storm escalated – Justin replied “talk about ‘desire.’ do u drink whiskey?” to which The Avalanches rebuked “actually vodka is more my thing, but this aint no rock n roll pissing contest. i have seen alcohol destroy many families … including my own.. and you are making money off this shit . dont try and justify it.”. Vernon responded “I’m not. I was asking questions. Fucks sake. Glad I get to play guitar tonight” and, later, “literally not upset at you or anything. Was kinda into a talk”. A conciliatory “same here …” from the Avalanches camp and the online spat sputtered out.
“I would’ve said the same shit,” Justin later admitted. “That’s the only fucking thing pissed me off over that whole thing is that a whole bunch of people tried to make it out to be like it was a thing. But hey, people are just trying to get shit off their breastplate you know what I mean?”16
So after a year of standing fast to his integrity, his creative vision and his decisions on how best to handle his business and public persona, he was in no mood to bend over backwards for such a flimsy edifice as the 55th Grammy Awards. He told the organisers he would be happy to perform his songs at the Grammys ceremony before a televised audience of 39 million people, but when word came back that he could only play live if he collaborated with one of the other nominees, Vernon refused.
“We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn’t play,” he said. “We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage, we’re getting nominated for this record that we made. Me and Brian [Jo
seph] and a bunch of our fucking friends and we were given accolades for it, and all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that. We kind of said ‘fuck you’ a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don’t think they wanted us to play … [they suggested] awesome people. People that I would love to play a song with. But you know what? Fuckin’ rock’ n’roll should not be decided by people that have that job. Rock’n’roll should be the fucking people with guitars around their backs.”17
As if scrubbing himself of the philosophical filth of Bushmills and the Grammys, the coming months saw Justin embark on some achingly cool and credible endeavours. As his headline slots at Sasquatch! and Latitude were announced at the start of February 2012, he stripped back his band to just himself and Sean Carey to prepare for a 4AD session on February 17, an intimate set of five songs* they’d play on two pianos, facing each other across Lyndhurst Hall at London’s AIR Studios, a stunning converted church. And on February 4 he appeared on US late-night comedy institution Saturday Night Live to play ‘Holocene’ and ‘Beth/Rest’, his first of two appearances on the show in a fortnight. Sort of. His second ‘appearance’ was in the form of a spoof by Justin Timberlake in a skit about a variety of movie and music stars arriving at the mansion of Jay-Z and Beyoncé to pay their respects to their new baby, Blue Ivy Carter. After comedy visits by actors impersonating Prince, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Brad and Angelina, the butler announced “we have one final visitor … Bon Iver” and Justin Timbalake entered boasting a convincing comb-over and an acoustic guitar.
“Sorry I’m late,” ‘Bon’ said. “I was just wandering barefoot in the woods of Wisconsin. Fashioned this guitar out of a canoe, and I wrote a song for your baby.”
“But Bon Iver,” ‘Beyoncé’, played by Maya Rudolph, replied, “we were just about to put our baby to sleep.”
“Trust me,” deadpanned ‘Bon’, “this’ll help.”
Upon which he began playing an uncanny rendition of ‘Holocene’ rewritten to celebrate Blue Ivy before descending into unintelligible warbling from which the words “gravy” and “muggles” emerged and finally sending himself to sleep.
If being parodied on America’s coolest comedy show wasn’t sign enough that Vernon had broken into the mainstream’s eyeline, or the fact that YouTube was throwing up such novelty tribute acts as Bon Joviver, a comedy mash-up of Vernon and Bon Jovi, the Grammy ceremony on February 12 would thrust him firmly into the A-list firmament.
With Bon Iver theme parties raging the length of the Towers back at UW-Eau Claire, complete with huge TV screens and a red carpet, his hometown supporters went wild as Vernon stepped up to receive two of the four awards he was nominated for – Best New Act and Best Alternative Music Album.
In preparing his acceptance speech, Vernon had been acutely aware of the admiration he’d felt for Nick Cave the time he’d taken the mike at an MTV awards show to “respectfully decline” his nomination because, he stated, his music wasn’t about gongs and competition. Vernon’s speech, while of a similar tone, was rather more sanguine. “It’s hard to accept,” he said, eyes darting constantly to his notes, “because when I started to make songs, I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here. I want to say thank you to all of the nominees, to all of the non-nominees that have never been here and never will be here, all the bands I toured with, all of the bands that inspired me.” He cut out these further lines, for fear of sounding too confusing or self-reverential: “It’s hard to accept this award because of all the talent out there, but also because Bon Iver is an entity and something that I gave myself to. A lot of people give themselves to it, so it’s hard to think of Bon Iver as an artist. Bon Iver is not an artist. Bon Iver is an idea.”
In the wake of his Grammy success, Vernon’s media profile went stratospheric. News stations descended on Eau Claire, April Base and his parents’ home to soak up the celebratory mood, interviewing local fans and filming Frenette in his management office pointing out Bon Iver’s gold discs. “What I’m hoping for is to get one of those for the US,” he said, gesturing to his gold award for the UK. “That’s 500,000 there. We’re at 400,000 something here. It’s creeping, it’ll get there soon.”18
Justin himself seemed rather head-spun by the whole thing. “I feel like I know now,” he said after the ceremony, between gripes over the self-importance of the ceremony and the likes of Chris Brown miming their performances. “I know what it’s like. Whatever concerns or discomforts I have about the Grammys don’t matter. For the time I was there, I just enjoyed it. Now that’s it over I realise that I got pretty bent out of shape about it. I was proud to win, I was happy to, but I still think the whole thing is inherently flawed. Getting an award for music?”19
He’d held himself back in his speech, he revealed, not unleashed his inner anti-fakery fury. “In this last week I’ve realised that, whether I liked it or not, I’ve put up some walls and defences. I just couldn’t get up there and look all those people in the eye and say, ‘You suck.’ Because I didn’t think that at the time. I don’t think that now. Any of those feelings I had beforehand were probably a combination of those defences and doubt and scepticism about what all of this means. I also didn’t want to be rude. A bunch of people voted for me. I got myself involved. I said it was OK for the label to submit us for the Grammys. So, ultimately, I don’t think I was ready to get up there and try to take the system down. Because I realised that (a) it’s not going anywhere; (b) I don’t need the shitstorm to deal with afterwards; because (c) it’s just not that important. And because it’s not that important, I was able to enjoy it and understand its relative relevance, while also enjoying all of its irrelevance.”20
Justin spewed on, high on the rush of the acclaim, bruised from back-slaps, somehow stumbling upon a fresh vision and intent for his band as if the penetrating plastic glare of the Grammys had illuminated his very soul. “I want to do what’s best for us and be creative. This has opened my eyes to what it’s going to take to do this band the way I really dream it could be. It’s going to take changing bandmates, changing sounds, changing instruments, changing voices, growing into myself, making tough decisions … How do I garner the sort of peace and harmony in my life that I don’t have now? I don’t write songs right now. I’m not worried about it and I’m being patient and I know they’re going to come. But I’d be much happier if they were just around all the time and I was able to breathe and feel a flow of things … I wonder if there will be another record, if there can be. One of the things that I feel happy about is that I have it within me to make the call, to say the show goes on or the show doesn’t go on. I won’t let Bon Iver fail itself. So far, it’s succeeded, so if we never make another record, it’s OK with me. I’m still going to do something else. But I’m a romantic, I care about what it is. I care that it came from a pure place. Maybe it’s some weird, psychotic brainchild and I’m overly protective … If it gets to the point where that purity is so vulnerable, I wouldn’t be afraid of opting out of that world. I don’t want to get it too scraped-up in that scenery.”21
He caught himself. “To rewind to five minutes ago, where I said I might not put out another record: Fuck that, I will always do this, no matter what.”22
And, just a few months down the long, open road, a far more satisfying world of acclaim awaited.
One drizzly summer evening, out in the wild flatlands of Norfolk, England, Bon Iver became true kings of the night.
The hanging nets transformed into mountain ranges, meteorological maps and forest glades. The crimson tide sweeping the stage for ‘Blood Bank’. The tremulous lanterns lighting the intimate moments of For Emma…. Headlining Latitude Festival on July 13, 2011, Justin Vernon proved a master of the grandest outdoor ceremonies. “The visual spectacle is also something to behold,” wrote Virtual Festivals’ reviewer, “yet in spite of this inexorable growth, this is a man (and a band) about understatement an
d collaboration as much as anything, all plaid shirts and humble mumblings of gratitude … ‘Perth’, the album’s opener, blasts its authoritative snares out into the crowd, highlighting the contrast between this and the more well-known, sparse and introspective Emma tracks … the band surprise in the sheer noise they create, especially on slow-build tracks like the sublime ‘Holocene’ [and] the highlight, and finale of all Bon Iver shows, is when the audience joins in to sing the chorus of ‘The Wolves (Act I and II)’, building to a joyous climax. The sheer enjoyment this communal singing reveals tonight, as the rain falls softly on the Latitude crowd, that we are as important to the experience as anyone.”23
This visual feast of a show – merging the pastoral with the technological to blazing effect – had been touring the world since its opening nights in New Zealand and Australia in February and March, scheduled around the release of ‘Towers’ as the album’s third single and including stop-offs at the 25,000 capacity Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and three nights at the Syndey Opera House. Then, returning to the US to play at Coachella on its way towards Sasquatch!, the tour continued into arenas holding anything up to 12,000 people per night and venturing into outdoor venues in Vancouver, Red Rocks, Alpharetta, Georgia and Salt Lake City in May and June. Then the summer festival season had kicked in in earnest, Bon Iver paying Bonnaroo, Roskilde in Denmark and Heineken Open’er in Poland before hitting Latitude, and Belgium’s Dour festival and Switzerland’s Paleo as part of a subsequent European tour of major theatres.
Not everyone was as overawed by the expanded Bon Iver show as the Latitude reviewer, however. “It’s weird,” says Stephen M Duesner. “I like that album a lot and I really rated it high when it came out, and then I saw him live in Chicago at a sports arena. He had obviously gotten out of these smaller venues and it was very weird to see him in that kind of setting, turning these songs into rock songs. I really did not like it, in fact I left early. In my review I said it was not a good look for him. There’s gotta be some conflict because what else can you do with that space except fill it, and those songs don’t naturally do that. I can see the predicament, but after that it kinda ruined the album for me.” It wasn’t an entirely blissful jaunt for Justin either – somewhere amidst his heavy touring schedule of 2012, he and Kathleen Edwards split.
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