Fans of Bon Iver are fairly confused at this point in time as to the future of the beloved outfit. Just yesterday main man Justin Vernon questioned the future of his solo project, confirming again today that he has “no plans” for Bon Iver, but his record company have waded into proceedings to make sure that they keep fans on the hook.
Speaking to triple j’s Zan Rowe yesterday while announcing his other-other band Volcano Choir’s appearance on the Harvest 2013 lineup, Vernon said that he was “really honoured” that Bon Iver gives him the freedom to do what he wants but that he’s “not in a hurry to go back to that temperature”.
During a Reddit AMA session, again on behalf of Volcano Choir, Vernon again confirmed that he had “no plans” for Bon Iver, adding, “I’m not sure what I or the world needs from that perspective anymore. We’ll see. VC [Volcano Choir] is where my heart is at these days.”
Of course, after all these iffy statements, all hell broke loose amongst Bon Iver fans, prompting the band’s record label Jagjaguwar (who also signed Volcano Choir) to issue a statement explaining that, while Vernon isn’t currently concerning himself with Bon Iver, it doesn’t mean he’s tapped out all together.
They told Consequence Of Sound:
“Bon Iver is not over by any means. Justin isn’t currently writing Bon Iver songs, but that doesn’t mean he won’t write them in the future. Bon Iver is off-cycle, and that is not new news. Right now Justin’s concentration is on preparing for the Volcano Choir tour, the first date being in Chicago on Friday.”
This does seem to match comments from Vernon himself during a recent interview with Pitchfork, where he explained that while the band isn’t fussing about releasing a new album, with the right context, timing and location it could be a possibility for the future:
“There’s a large opportunity for Bon Iver to be a special thing, even from a business standpoint– just trying to do cooler things. Every band sells t-shirts and plays certain auditoriums, but I’m sick of being like everyone else, because I’m not. I think I need to take a long time. In the last month or so, I started to get some musical thoughts that agree with the future of what that project can be. I don’t want the big flashing lights and red carpet, like, ‘Here comes another Bon Iver album!’ I just want it to be my bedroom-y thing. But that’ll take a while to figure out.”
So there you have it, rumours of Bon Iver’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Volcano Choir are currently touring hard and will be bringing the show Down Under later this year for Harvest Festival 2013.
(Via Under The Gun Review)
