Local Newswire Justin Vernon, Astronautalis drink whiskey, record mystery album

Justin Vernon wasn’t the first guy to make music in a cabin. Long before the Bon Iver frontman recorded his first album with his Grammy-winning outfit, there were people playing banjos around campfires, swilling the hard stuff and charring hot dogs over open flames. But with Vernon, the very mention that he is making music at his cabin now sends media outlets to issue investigative exposés, interviews, and news alerts, such as this one: Alert! Alert! There’s some cool shit happening in a cabin in Wisconsin, possibly.

According to an interview with City Pages’ Gimme Noise blog, Vernon, Gayngs mastermind Ryan Olson, drummer S. Carey, and rapper Astronautalis converged upon Vernon’s cabin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, this past weekend and made something Astro believes is very different: “I think everyone should abandon their expectations of what it’s going to be, because it’s probably going to be very far off.” So, there it is, a warning to Justin Vernon fans: Don’t be disappointed when the result of incorporating Astronautalis’ freestyling into music involving Vernon doesn’t equate to Bon Iver II. According to Astro, working with Vernon (who was undoubtedly the biggest name of the music-heads assembled in what has been called a “whiskey-fueled weekend”) was a convention-less affair, where he spilled his guts without worrying too much about the end product:

“By the time I got there, they had about eight pieces of music done, or roughed out into song form,” he recalls. “Then I just got down there and freestyled for eight hours over everything. When I work with Ryan, it’s the exact opposite of how I work on my own records. I just give him tons and tons of material. He takes it back to his house, and dangles a cigarette out of his mouth, and works for hours on end.”

The name of the project is shrouded in secrecy, but, as is usual with both Olson’s and Vernon’s projects, slight glimpses at work—like this one from Astro—pique interest. One day we might even witness the end-product of so much swilling and verse-dropping, and maybe it will be like something none of us have ever heard before. As of now, the plan is to release the work quickly, according to Astro: “Ryan’s goal is for it to be made faster than the Polica record, and that was made in just a few weeks. All of us are hell-bent on getting it out really quickly, and hopefully to find the time to play some shows for it as well.” [City Pages]