The creator of Bon Iver’s ‘22, A Million’ artwork has opened up on the process

The striking artwork for Bon Iver’s new album ‘22, A Million’ all stems from Justin Vernon’s obsession with numbers, apparently.

In a new interview with Minneapolis museum Walker Art Center, artistic collaborator Eric Timothy Carlson has gone in-depth on the process that he and Vernon shared in Bon Iver’s hometown of Eau Claire.

“The songs were all numbers from the start, multiple numbers at first,” he explains. “So we would listen to each song, talk about the numbers, talk about the song, watch the lyrics take form, makes lists, make drawings. Real references and experiences are collaged in both the music and the artwork. I was able to interview and interrogate each song—digging into weird cores—and by the end of each visit, each song would develop a matrix of new notes and symbols.”

All sounds a bit Matrix, to be honest. Read more on the collaboration that led to ‘22, A Million’’s artwork here. There’s also a new lyric video doing the rounds, linking up with recent clips for other tracks from the record - this one’s for ‘8 (circle)’, and you can view it below.