Taylor Swift was inspired by Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner‘s work for Big Red Machine when she made Folklore. In an interview with Apple Music, the Bon Iver frontman shared the story of how he and Dessner came to work with Swift on the pandemic era-defining album.
“All the glory goes to Taylor for hearing, as a songwriter, what music she wants to make,” Vernon said of Folklore. “But those songs are Big Red Machine demos.”
Vernon explained that in early 2020, he had asked Dessner — with whom he forms Big Red Machine — to join Bon Iver on a European tour as a replacement guitarist and to “dick around” to play some of Big Red Machine’s songs during shows. But then, the pandemic happened, and everyone was forced to quarantine.
“Aaron was going on Instagram Live and just playing stuff he’s been working on because I think we just needed to share. And Taylor heard it,” Vernon explained of the demos. “And her genius was working with the genius of Aaron Dessner on making the strongest set of lyrics and songwriting that she’s ever had, really.”
Vernon said he was just watching Swift “enter our whole universe” to make the record, and that Dessner told him he had been using some of their Big Red Machine songs and writing Swift tracks to them.
“Of course, there’s no one bigger and we all bowed down to her. But to see her come into that, it was almost like I couldn’t stop blinking,” Vernon said. “It was like, this makes so much sense. The love and community that Aaron had shown me over these years and what we’d done with Big Red Machine and people and all the events that we had done, Taylor was just stepping right into it and flawlessly taking it.”
During the process, Dessner actually hit up Vernon to share that Swift wanted him to join her on what would become Folklore standout, “Exile,” which he has co-writing credits on with Swift’s ex, Joe Alwyn, under the pseudonym William Bowery.
“I ended up adding a couple of little bits, but that’s how Aaron and Joe and Taylor wrote the song and I just sang it on an SM7 in my little makeshift studio,” Vernon explained. “And it felt level to everything else. It’s an exceptional song and an exceptionally popular song for a good reason. But it felt just so natural and I’m so thankful for that opportunity just to have worked with such an amazing artist.”
Vernon ended up joining both Folklore‘s “Exile” and Evermore‘s title track with Bon Iver. The pop star was also featured on Big Red Machine’s How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last single “Renegade” in 2021.
From Rolling Stone US
