Bon Iver Interview! How Justin Vernon Got Happy (It Took a Lot of Work)

Popcast

The New York Times

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Music

3.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A conversation with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon about how the band’s surprise success led to unexpected opportunities, then emotional depletion, and now a new album of reinvention, “Sable, Fable.”Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Somebody once told me that, you know, false modesty is kind of ugly on you.
0:04.2	I was like, wow.
0:06.7	I was like, speaking to a whole Midwest.
0:07.8	Shots fires.
0:08.7	Yeah, exactly.
0:09.3	That's how we operate.
0:10.4	We get attention by, you know, going like this.
0:12.7	You know, it's like, you know what?
0:13.6	I can work on that.
0:18.6	Welcome to the New York Times Popcast, your Venison Scrap sausage of music news and criticism.
0:24.3	I'm John Caramonica, a critic at the New York Times.
0:26.7	I'm Joe Cascarlli.
0:27.7	I'm a reporter at the New York Times.
0:29.2	And I am Justin Vernon from BoniVare.
0:31.4	I mentioned Venison scrap because many years ago, I'm almost embarrassed to say how many years ago this was, because I feel like
0:38.4	it's going to make both of us seem old. And as everybody knows, no, no, I, well, speak for yourself.
0:44.8	In 2010 into 2011, we spent quite a bit of time together for a New York Times Magazine profile.
0:49.6	One of the things that we did in that story is went to a, I want to say, a meat processor where your
0:57.3	father had left a deer for you that you were then picking up the process.
1:04.0	Yes.
1:04.4	In Wisconsin.
1:05.8	In Wisconsin.
	...

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