It's fairly safe to say that since the release of Justin Vernon's home recorded album under the name of Bon Iver, the praise being heaped in the man's direction has grown from local praise to international acclaim. Originally recorded as a bunch of demos, the set of songs that make up For Emma...Forever Ago have taken on a life of their own, appearing in TV dramas, talk shows and bedrooms the world over.

Vernon will make his Australian debut in January while here for the Sydney Festival. He also plays a round of solo shows in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. We spoke to him while at home in the US and on the eve of another European tour.

Hey Justin where are you?

I’m at my house in Fall Creek, Wisconsin.

You must be happy to be home.

Yeah it’s extremely nice to be home and resting for a little while.

Have you gotten sick of people calling you Bon yet?

(Laughs) People do call me that. But I’m not mad about it or anything. It’s just…I correct them. It’s the name of the band y’know.

Was that something you’ve always thought? That it would be a band and not a solo thing?

Well I mean...I don’t know what a band means. Y’know? It almost feels like these days that there aren’t bands and there aren’t solo things. It is what is is you know?

There’s a sense over here – and I suspect elsewhere – that your record is seeping into peoples lives just through osmosis. I always hear it in bars and cafes and shops and that sort’ve thing. It must be unusual to have a record that has it’s own life.

Yeah I mean. It’s unusual for me to be in the position that I’m in and, yeah you’re right, it does have it’s own life at this point. I’m just sort of watching it happen man, it’s pretty fun. No matter what happens in my life it’s never going to be quite like this moment right now, watching this happen. It’s pretty exciting.

For such an intimate record is it weird to be almost disconnected from it in that way now?

I don’t feel disconnected from it but I do feel detached from the progress of the record. I feel very much attached to the record from a personal experience . But it’s also very cool to be able to let that go into the world. And see what it does all by itself.

If anything it seems the people who are enjoying finding it for themselves. People are used to having music shoved down their throats and it’s nice that this is bubbling up to the surface purely of it’s own life.

Yeah it’s refreshing for me that I get to be that guy.

A lot of what’s written about you tends to reference the Unabomber lifestyle that you apparently recorded For Emma...Forever Ago in. Do you think it’s necessary to have a myth attached to where an artist comes from?

I don’t think it’s terribly important. It doesn’t bother me or anything but it’s a part of the record for me so I guess if it’s a part of the record for other people then great. That sort’ve thing in any entertainment industry when you’ve got the 'word' industry going on, you’re going to have things associated or exalted in different ways that might not be appropriate. But none of that stuff gets to me or bothers me.

Is that mythmaking part of other artists that you like?

Of course there’s a romance to all that. And I definitely think I like bands more sometimes, than maybe I would've if I didn’t know a story about them or something. But usually the things that last and are good - for however many years - and that stay with people, you don’t need stuff to hoist it up like that, in that sense.

You released it independently before it came out on Jagjaguwar (in February this year), was there a sense of something happening for you even then?

It started happening really, really early and happened steadily. And there’s no question in my mind that when Jag signed on that that was the biggest step that we took. But in general it was just a thing, y’know. Constantly going and stuff.

I’ve seen videos of you playing live and you’ve got a strong and confident voice – and I’ve wondered why you double-tracked it so much on the record?

It was just a sound I was looking for. I dunno. People ask me if there were choices that I made on the record like ‘Why did you choose to sing high?’ and things like that.  But I don’t know if it can be really looked at as choices. There more just like inclinations and instincts.

And is that a Dobro guitar you use?

Yeah it’s kind like a Dobro. It’s called a National Steel. It’s a really old guitar, really wonderful to play.

And did you record it to computer?

Yeah I mean, most of it yeah. There’s a pretty strong sense of using the computer and how it works building my songs and so I’ve just gotten used to it over the years. I prefer the sound of tape but there’s things you can do in the digital realm that you can’t do in the tape realm so it’s give and take.

I watched your La Blogoteque videos from Paris recently, where you played ‘Skinny Love’ in that tiny room with people sitting on the floor. And I saw you wrote afterwards that it was one of your favourite shows. It seems that that’s the ideal situation for you, that intimate performance.

Yeah it was really fun and for me it makes a lot of sense. But at the same time the bigger shows are special too. It’s just different. And the more different each show is the more unique the experience will be for everybody. Both me and the audience.

Is it a concern to start playing bigger shows? For example the two venues you’re playing here in Melbourne are traditionally used for big rock shows.

We’ve played big rock clubs, small rock clubs, big theaters, small theaters…bedrooms. It’s kind’ve ‘whatever’. No it’s cool for us.

The other thing about those videos in Paris was the acapella video with your band mates on ‘For Emma’. When people combine voices live it usually translates as a celebration or a union. Which is in contrast to what the record is about. Is that interesting for you?

Yeah well the record…I’m still figuring out what the record's about you know? (Laughs). In a lot of ways there is a lot of contrasting stuff y’know, I agree with what you’re saying. On the other hand there’s a lot of redemptive things [about group singing] and the chance to have gone out with these particular guys and play it, it’s just been really special. So it is a celebration in a way.

Are those same guys coming to Australia?

Yep. They’re just guys I know from the local area. Mikey (Noyce) actually is a lot younger than I am, and was a guitar student of mine. When he was in high school. And Shaun (Carey) is a jazz guy from in town and we just got together.
 
So you used to teach guitar?

Yeah I used to teach guitar when I was in college. Sort’ve one of the many things I did to pay the bills.

When you do the next record there’s going to be an inevitable anticipation around it now, which is opposite to the way the last one was recorded.
 
I don’t think about it that way. But it’s going to be different you know, it’s going to be a completely new spot. A completely new excavation. It’s going to be different so the anticipation is exciting but it’s not going to worry me or shift me in a new direction.

Is there already a sense of the form it might take?

I think there is a sense but that’s all it is. It’s not even formed into ideas at this point.

It’s enjoyable how here it seems to be becoming a part of the fabric of this moment in time, this summer that’s happening here at the moment – and I can only assume that’s what’s been happening in the rest of the world slowly.

I was going to say, for some reason man...this record has been doing well down there from as soon as it came out, and it’s really exciting. I could not be more excited to have Australia be our last place that we go on this tour. This whole year I’ve just been counting the days. We’ve still got a tour to do in Europe before then so…we’re really looking forward to it so thanks for saying that.



Bon Iver - 'For Emma'


BON IVER - AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Thursday 15 January - Fly By Night, Perth
Saturday 17 January - The Tivoli, Brisbane
Sunday 18 January - The Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Monday 19 January - Forum Theatre, Melbourne

BON IVER SYDNEY FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES

Tuesday 20  + Thursday 22 + Friday 23 January - The Famous Spiegeltent
Wednesday 21 January - City Recital Hall, Angel Place

For Emma, Forever Ago is out now on Rogue Records / Inertia