bow hunting music

Bon Iver Comes Out of the Woods

The story of the artist left alone in a cabin in the woods, seeking solitude and clarity, is one that’s been told many times before. Since the beginning of mankind, poets, painters, writers, musicians, and thinkers have retreated to the cold darkness of nature and isolation to explore their minds and try to find peace with the world. In worst case scenarios, they die or go crazy. In the best cases, they emerge from the brush a bit skinnier, maybe more lucid, a touch disheveled but clearheaded, with a work of art in tow.

courtesy of ambledown.com Bon Iver—a purposefully misspelled moniker which means “good winter” in French—has his own version of this story to tell, and he emerged from the brush in which he retreated with one of the most affecting, poignant records of this year. His departure from the hustle of the daily grind didn’t initially summon this wave of inspiration or need to create. Regardless, he ended up with an achingly self-aware but universally appealing musical portrait. And the story of how this album, titled For Emma, Forever Ago, came to exist is a heartening one. Genuine human experience has been channeled into this raw but complex album, and Bon Iver never extricated himself with the intention of writing a record. He just needed to check out for a while.

Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) is the kind of guy you can relate to—you see him in yourself, in your first crush, in your brother or friend or classmate, and that accessibility makes his music all the more engaging. As a guy whose mom wears homemade Bon Iver shirts to his shows, whose parents support him “more than anyone has ever supported anyone,” and who admits to an affinity for air drums and air bass, Bon Iver is likeable.

Vernon grew up with music in his life, and he is proficient in most musical roles. “I play guitar mostly. I tinker on most instruments… or at least, I try. I think about drums and drum parts more than anything. I took music classes in high school and was, proudly, part of one of the best high school music programs in the country at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, WI. I didn’t take away mastery of an instrument so much (I played baritone saxophone), but I came away with a serious understanding of arrangement and what makes a good band a good band. I refused to study music anymore, after taking a theory class my senior year. Not that I don’t believe in it, it just nearly destroyed my relationship with music that I had created and cultivated to that point.”

For Emma, Forever Ago’s instrumentation is made up of an acoustic archtop Silvertone guitar that he bought for $171.00 dollars, his brother’s bass drum, an SM57, a Gretsch baritone guitar, and an ebow, and he played every part with a few exceptions, clarifying “My friends John DeHaven and Randy Pingrey played horns on one song, ‘For Emma.’ My friend Christy played drums and sang on one song, too.” That’s Christy Smith, from Raleigh-based country-rock band Nola.

While his roots are in rustic, old country, blues, and folk, Vernon has a wide appreciation for all sorts of music and draws inspiration from bands that span decades and genres. “Growing up was John Prine; John Prine and Jackson Browne; blues records, Champion Jack Dupree. My dad loved that stuff. Neil Young, Charlie Mingus…Tom Waits tapes. The Indigo Girls are my favorite band. Swamp Ophelia is my favorite record of all time, probably. Then it was Fugazi—changed my life—still does. Dylan too. Still Dylan… Rickie Lee Jones, Springsteen, Steve Reich, Nina Simone, Patty Griffin… Richard Buckner. Tons of people. Those are, maybe, the most notable.”

Vernon is a geographically conscious person who is heavily impacted by his environment. Growing up in the land of beer and cheese was naturally a great influence on his outlook of the world: “Hills and lakes have shaped my context and emotional connectivity in just about every way.” Despite his kinship with the northern Midwest, a few years ago Vernon moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he became part of the town’s thriving music scene as a member of the indie rock band, the Rosebuds. Eventually, he abandoned his life there and moved back home. When asked about the process of leaving behind the warm, easy world of North Carolina for the chill of a Wisconsin winter, Vernon explains, “Here’s the short story version: I had a ton of things that I had never taken the time to figure out—how to deal with it all. So, I left my path and started a new one. It was the best thing I ever did. That’s not to say it was the best time of my life. It was lonely and wasn’t this magical fix, at least not at the time. It was just really important that I did it.”

Indeed. His decision to relocate spawned the lean but richly textured For Emma, Forever Ago, and the remote setting certainly invited the sort of reflection that is a presence in Vernon’s songwriting vision. Vernon says of the sound of this record, “Being in the woods; being surrounded by silent sound. It just gives you a huge canvas. Really, I was able to access places that really wouldn’t have been able accessible in a city or around people. So, part of the sound is a combination of those feelings, when you get to those places: pain, different senses of joy, etcetera.”

For Emma is a source of solace, of warmth and inspiration to discover that it is, in fact, possible to emerge unscathed from the forces of modern society if you only allow your instincts to govern your actions. It may even, as in Vernon’s case, tap into a source of emotion and generate a striking piece of art. His haunting falsetto vocals, at times, echo threads of Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio (check out “Creature Fear”), but they are also entirely grounded in an organic simplicity—For Emma has a very understated but distinctive feel. It’s a warm but hypnotic cast of quiet moments, an audible reflection into the mind of a young man who found his way back to the innermost source of his own pain and creativity. His confessional words are pulled from the darkest recesses of his heart, the kind that only surface when your mind is calm enough to draw them out. His lyrics are poetic accounts of love, of life, of turmoil, exploration, and growth; from “Lump Sum”—“Sold my cold knot / A heavy stone / Sold my red horse for a venture home / To vanish on the bow / Settling slow” and the opening lines of “re: Stacks”: “This is my excavation and today is Kumran / Everything that happens is from now on / This is pouring rain / This is courtesy of ambledown.comparalyzed.”

Because the entirety of For Emma, Forever Ago was recorded inside the walls of a cabin over a three-month period, it has a rustic, homemade feel that is essential to its aesthetic. This bucolic quality is the stamp on Bon Iver’s signature sound. “I think professional studios kill records—they’re stale, they’re clean; the wires aren’t all over the floor. There are usually people there that may know too much about something.”

Now that For Emma has broken into the underground, Vernon has emerged from the woods and is currently living in Montreal. He says, “I’ll be here for a while with stints in the woods back home for deer hunting, and Thanksgiving. I lived in Raleigh, NC and loved it, but I need the cold like people need food.” And despite an obvious fondness for solitude, he misses having a band and would like to create a new one in time. He also wants to take his sound on the road. He adds, “I plan to tour and play for as many people as possible. I plan to build a trio for this mostly.

“Music is my trade. I will work hard, harder even than some people work at their respective jobs, but love and family is the most important.” He’ll also be out there catching shows of his own; he produces Montreal-based Land of Talk and is a big fan and supporter of North Carolina duo, Bowerbirds.

While For Emma, Forever Ago is making subtle waves across the expansive land of music seekers, Vernon is an artist that’s currently relegated to word of mouth and the internet. I found out about him via a link that a friend sent me from a popular mp3 blog. Certainly the merits of an artist like Vernon will be spreading word of mouth (and have already rapidly begun to do so in the past few weeks). Of the distribution available through the internet and MySpace, and how he embraces this availability, Vernon says, “It’s the only reason you know about me. I read somewhere recently that the internet and things like it are moving us toward globalization and mono-culture, but that it was also the only reason we could take some of the power back. To me, it’s always the responsibility ratio of things that is important.”

The haunting threads in For Emma, Forever Ago, lyrics that rip your soul open, and a man who conceived it all in the solitary darkness and chill of the winter Wisconsin woods, have shaped some of the most refreshing music released so far this year. Thank god for Vernon’s good winter, because his cathartic journey gave rise to a glowingly beautiful portrait of himself and the world around him. Apparently, it is possible to step back and catch yourself in the midst of all this madness.

And if nothing else, this unique songwriting process allowed one lone musician to find a way back to his source. Vernon concludes, saying, “All it did was get me back on the crest of my time. I had fallen behind for so long. It got me back to the current version of myself.”

About the Author

I am an editor at Crawdaddy! Magazine, the first magazine of rock journalism that was brought back to life online in May 2007. I grew up in Maryland, moved to San Francisco after college, and have found my sanctuary incorporating my passion into my profession.

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