Justin Vernon is “taking it really slow” with Bon Iver, says big U.S. festivals are “the fucking same”

Justin Vernon recently went on record as saying that Bon Iver was entering its “new cycle”, but he didn’t explicitly go into what that would involve.

Turns out, at this stage it doesn’t translate to an awful lot. Vernon has spoken at greater length about the project’s current state, saying that he’s working on a new live show but the idea of a record hasn’t taken shape.

Speaking to Grantland around his very own Eaux Claires Festival in Wisconsin, Vernon also spoke out against the rotating but repetitive line-ups of major U.S. festivals.

Referring to new Bon Iver music and his output as a whole, Vernon said: “I’ve been taking it really slow.”

“I don’t mean to get all cerebral about my art, but I’ve been trying to collect improvisations and collect moments. Like, real moments, [and] put them in a pot and serve them up. I’m thinking more, I guess, like a painter or a sculptor, like Danny Goldsworthy or something, in the way I’m putting songs together. To be clear, I’m not doing that to try and be fancy. I just think maybe I ran my course with being able to come up with new moments on the guitar,” he said.

When asked about a record, he said: “I don’t really know what’s happening.” He added: “Our show is our main focus. We don’t have anything booked after this. We don’t have any plans. We’re not being secretive — we just don’t have any plans. It’s just about, Play the show and put all of our energy into one show— for once in my life, let’s just play one fucking show and care just about this one show for a goddamn change. It’s better than, All right, we’re going out on tour and we’re going to hit these markets and this, that, and the other. We might play some new stuff. I don’t know, we’re going to figure it out. I go home next week for two weeks of rehearsals and play with my boys.”

As for those U.S. festivals, Vernon didn’t mince his words. “Fuck Lollapalooza. That isn’t rock and roll,” he said.

“I’m not going to sit and pretend that we aren’t charging people money to get into our festival. But I don’t know, man. You can see it every year: Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo — the lineups are the fucking same. It’s about numbers, it’s about bottom lines, it’s about measuring groups and cultures of people and the numbers that they represent on a bottom-line agenda. All the lineups are becoming more and more the same, the same fucking headliners.”