Wisconsin’s Justin Vernon is one of the biggest musical artists to come out of the state in the past 20 years. For most of his career, most notably with Bon Iver, he has shied away from the media and chosen to quietly work out of his April Base home studio in Fall Creek. But on his new record, “SABLE, fABLE,” it’s clear a lot has changed.
In a rare interview, Vernon talked with Wisconsin music reporter Justin Barney about the new record, which was released April 11.
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“I think sadness is one of the easier emotions to access,” said Justin Vernon, also known as Bon Iver, whose uncharacteristically happy album, “SABLE, fABLE” just came out. “I just feel a lot of feelings. I’ve got my feels, right?”
As a young man with a lot of emotions growing up in northern Wisconsin, Vernon sought connection. He went to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he majored in Religious Studies.
“When I studied religion, I was always curious as to what made people connect. What made them feel connected to the spiritual, to the sacred things in being a human being?” Vernon said. “I think anguish and sadness was one of those things that connected people.”
Justin Vernon of Bon Iver with a basketball. Photo by Graham Tolbert
In the winter months of 2006, he went to a remote cabin in the woods. Isolated, he chopped wood, hunted deer and wrote a masterpiece of an album: “For Emma, Forever Ago.” People really connected to his sadness. The cabin had lore and created an entire mythology. Vernon went from relatively unknown to indie music’s folk icon in a matter of months. It was a connection far greater than he intended.
“My dream growing up was like, I’ll just tour the Midwest and sell CDs out of the trunk of my Chevy Blazer and I’ll be happy. I’ll have a wife and kids … And it just exploded to such a weird degree that is still very surprising to me sometimes,” Vernon said.
“I don’t think I’m not talented or worthy or something, but I generally was just sort of laughing about it,” he added. “The second record was just me being like, ‘Whatever, I’m free, playing with house money.'”
And that money hit.
That second album, “Bon Iver, Bon Iver,” helped him win two Grammy Awards in 2012 and solidified Vernon as indie rock’s favorite sad boy.
“After a while, this thing that sort of happens is you’re expected … it becomes part of your identity. Then it becomes your entire identity. Then it’s really hard to shed it,” Vernon said.
‘AWARDS SEASON’
That’s where this new album, “SABLE fABLE” begins. In late 2024, Bon Iver released the first part of the album as an EP called “SABLE,” that ends with the song, “AWARDS SEASON.”
Though often cryptic in his lyrics, Vernon clarifies the metaphors, starting with the figure of “the Spaniard”:
“I can handleWay more than I can handleSo I keep reaching for the handleTo flood my heartAnd the SpaniardIn song that I have pandered toIs always handing me the anvilSaying, ‘That’s for you'”– Bon Iver, “AWARDS SEASON”
“The Spaniard — to me — it’s the sad guy from ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ by Bob Dylan, the saddest song of all time. He’s just sitting across from me saying, ‘Here. Keep being sad, homie, it will turn out good,'” Vernon said.
In the song, the Spaniard hands him the anvil, Vernon’s axe on which to grind.
“It’s the weight. The weight of being the guy from Bon Iver for all these years,” said Vernon. “Maybe I got stuck on that sadness thing a little much. Or I just needed to work through a lot of it to find the next step which is to really self love and to look up. I think I was Bon Iver for too long.”
“SABLE, fABLE,” starts with this bit of self-awareness. And “AWARDS SEASON” is the preamble to a changed man.
“It’s nice to feel like I’m Justin and that I can observe Bon Iver from my vantage point and sort of see it for what it is,” said Vernon.
‘Everything is Peaceful Love’
Until this point, Vernon struggled with fame and retreated to his studio in the Northwoods, which only intensified his mysterious sadness.
But this new album, it’s downright joyous.
“For once, we’re having fun over here,” Vernon said.
The difference is simple. Vernon fell in love.
“A person came into my life and it changed everything,” he said.
New love provided perspective for Vernon.
“You see yourself in new light,” he said. “They see you in a way that your old friends and family don’t see you and it gives you a new chance. There is a new chance in that renewal. You can live again. You can be remade.”
One person that came into his life on this album is Danielle Haim, part of the indie pop trio HAIM. Though, the musicians have known each other a long time.
Vernon said he met Danielle when she was 19 touring with Bon Iver as part of Jenn Wasner‘s band.
“We played a show with Jenny and young Ethan Gruska was the merch guy and he lost all the money that night,” Vernon said, laughing. “I don’t know if I am supposed to tell anyone that story but it’s hilarious. So I have known Danielle for 16 years, technically.”
A few years ago, Haim was working with Bon Iver collaborator Jim-E Stack and he asked if Vernon would ever want to collaborate with Haim on a recording.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, Right now. When can you guys come?'” Vernon said.
She made it out to Eau Claire on Feb. 2, 2022. Being Wisconsin in February, they got snowed in. For four days, they couldn’t leave Vernon’s home studio, so they started making this album. Vernon describes their dynamic as complementary.
“Her musicality, her drum feel, it’s everything I don’t have,” he said. “She grew up listening to The Police and Earth, Wind & Fire. I could never play any of that stuff. I wasn’t funky enough. I’ve got a soul thing and an introspection thing going on, but that’s what hit me so hard about her music and why it was a successful collaboration in so many ways.”
‘Day One (feat. Dijon and Flock of Dimes)’
Even though Vernon has the man-alone-in-the-woods mythology, he has long embraced collaboration as a source of connection.
On “SABLE, fABLE,” he has become a mentor to fellow reclusive musician Dijon, whose 2021 album “Absolutely” blew up. The artist signed a record deal and has been silent since then.
“Dijon and I have become really good friends,” Vernon said. “The stuff that I was struggling with early in my career, it’s some stuff that he has talked to me about. Getting attention can be a distraction. I understand why he doesn’t want to overexpose. He wants to cook the right song up. He’s being conservative. I was like that, too. I didn’t talk to people for a long time. I’m just a little more accepting, a little older now.”
They come together on the song “Day One”
“I wanted Dijon’s timbre,” Vernon said. “I’m not gonna lie, I just wanted to get Dijon on my record any way possible. He’s my favorite artist in the world.”
In addition to welcoming in new artists, Bon Iver also shows respect to artists he’s always loved. On “Day One,” he breaks out the slide guitar.
“I love playing slide,” he said. “I think Bonnie Raitt is the most underrated guitar player, my favorite guitar player. I just try to sound like her. I’m just trying to be in whatever emotional space that she creates with her voice and her guitar playing. I’m just trying to copy it. Straight up.”
Justin Vernon of Bon Iver holds a salmon. Photo by Graham Tolbert
‘There’s A Rhythmn’
Though he’s one of the biggest indie artists in the world and could live anywhere, Vernon has proudly remained in his hometown of Eau Claire his whole life. But with this record and these changes, he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. He writes about it in the penultimate song on the record, called “There’s A Rhythmn.”
“‘There’s a Rhythmn’ is my favorite song I’ve ever written. It just tells the whole story of where I’ve been and where I’m headed,” said Vernon.
“From when I was a kid I was like, ‘I love Eau Claire. I love it here. I never want to leave. This is who I am,'” he said, adding that over time he felt stagnant.
“I couldn’t experience the town like my friends, or it was hard to make new friends without anybody knowing who I was. So going to Los Angeles and kind of being kind of more anonymous out there — you know it’s not like I’m a household name — it’s been good because it’s gotten me to disconnect with the identity,” he said.
“You don’t have to hang around Wisconsin. Just because you love it doesn’t mean you owe it something or you should stay somewhere and not grow or try new things … It’s about taking a chance and stepping outside your comfort zone,” Vernon added. “So it’s made me deeply fall in love with Eau Claire again. I am extremely privileged to be able to go between this beautiful city of Los Angeles and then come back to my home.”
“I think the most I’ve ever loved Eau Claire, is right now,” he concluded. “This is home.”
