BON IVER & origin myth

origin stories

Good origin stories are intriguing, succinct, and irresistible. They leave plenty of room for the creativity of others who are looking in on the world you’ve created.

Bon Iver is a grammy-winning, international music sensation with a simply iconic origin story. I named the project, edited the story, and provided unconditional creative support as this artist launched his wonderful career.

Backstory:

Justin Vernon subconsciously presented the name for his next musical project to me when he mailed a letter from the deep north woods of Wisconsin, where he was holed up in his dad’s hunting cabin, recording some demos. The letter was completely unburdened by any artifice; the realest voice of a man outposted, alone, longing for kinship. At the bottom, he signed off, “Bon Iver (Good Winter). Love, Justin.”

The week he returned to my little cottage in Raleigh, North Carolina, I’d been listening to the burned CD-R of this new demo, songs he’d mailed only days after sending the letter from his roost up at his dad’s. This demo was something he didn’t yet know was already perfect. He asked who I thought should produce it. “It’s done,” I said. “This is the statement.”

The time signature of the room shifted, and we began speaking in faster, higher ways. We were thinking the same thoughts, and quickly now. He didn’t want to go by his own name—that felt “too singer-songwritery,” he said, and I agreed. The album was made exactly how it was made: in solitude, in a cabin, by one person both embracing the fact that he was, while wishing he weren’t, so alone. The name for the project needed to come from that same place.

“What should I call it?” he asked. The answer had arrived to me as pure sentiment, from the cabin weeks prior.

Bon Iver. Good Winter.