For someone who once rewrote the indie playbook by holing up in a Wisconsin cabin to grieve and falsetto his way through For Emma, Forever Ago, Justin Vernon sounds surprisingly well-adjusted these days. “This album fixed me up,” he says of Sable Fable, Bon Iver’s latest record. “Not like I’m good forever or anything—there’s always another challenge—but for now, yeah.”
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Sable Fable might be the rootsiest thing Bon Iver has released in years, but it’s not a pivot. “It’s not about reinvention,” Vernon insists. “It’s about stripping away the layers. Less mystery, more clarity. Fewer effects, more humanity.” Which, for Bon Iver, is like announcing you’re releasing a punk record and then showing up with brushed cotton and a harmonium.
The song “Everything Is Peaceful Love” was the linchpin. “It came out really natural,” he says, “and I thought, ‘You know what? I want to build around that.’” As the rest of the record took shape, Vernon realized what he was making: cowboy songs. “They’re a little alone at times, a little regretful. I kept getting this image in my head—like a man riding off alone. This one has more of a visual story than anything we’ve done.”
That arc—Sable to Fable, as he puts it—moves from solitary cabin man in black to “shiny California,” both literal and metaphorical. “It’s really about that man making a decision to change his life,” he says, as if describing a Clint Eastwood biopic scored by Arvo Pärt.
And that word—change—is everywhere. “I feel changed,” he says plainly. “You meet someone, love comes into your life, and you get changed. But then you have to accept it. That’s the hard part.” At 43, he’s leaning into that midlife clarity. “I’m definitely digging my 40s more than my 30s. Feels more sturdy.”
Vernon is quick to cite influences, from Jeff Buckley’s thoughts on the subconscious (“That’s where everything pure comes from”) to his deep affection for Rickie Lee Jones. “Her first two records are desert island for me,” he says, but it’s The Magazine that wins top honors. “She’s part of my story now.”
Speaking of personal history, Vernon still has fond memories of Bon Iver’s cover of The Outfield’s “Your Love”—a move that somehow managed to be both ironic and deeply earnest. “That might be some of our best cover work,” he says. “Very Sun Kil Moon. That sound was a big part of the first record.”
But if there’s one track he won’t touch again without a very specific condition, it’s “Exile.” As in the Taylor Swift duet. “We only ever played it once—when Taylor came to a show. I can’t do it without her. It’s her song.” He’s proud of it, sure. “It probably introduced a lot of people to us,” he shrugs. “I’m happy the Bon Iver name is on it. It feels very correct.”
And if those fans came through the Swift pipeline or even, god forbid, Twilight? “That’s real,” he says. “If they stuck around, they fell in love with the music. And that’s all that matters.”
As for Sable Fable’s standout collaboration with Danielle Haim, that happened the old-fashioned way: cabin fever. “We got snowed in at my place,” Vernon says. “She’s on ‘If Only I Could Wait’ and ‘I’ll Be There’ too. Honestly? She’s one of my favorite people. And probably my favorite American musician. Hands down.”
Vernon may not call it a pivot, but something’s shifted. There’s warmth, clarity, and yes, even a cowboy or two riding off into the sunset.
Listen to the full interview above and then check out the video below.
