BON IVER + KANYE WEST, Finding Your Voice

Without Kanye West, Bon Iver might have never made 22, A Million. Here’s why.

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Written, Voiced and Edited by Frank Furtado

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Justin Vernon’s story is nearly a cliche by now. His band broke up, him and his girlfriend broke up and to top it off he got sick with mono before escaping to an isolated cabin in the winter. There a broken human poured himself into his music and crafted a critically-acclaimed, platinum-selling, emotionally-dense folk album. Then he proved it wasn’t a fluke with his Grammy winning follow up, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. But his third release is where we witnessed an unexpected shift - a reinvention. Complex called 22, A Million Bon Iver’s “most Kanye-sounding album yet.” Kanye West’s influence is definitely there - that is if you know what you’re looking for. And Vernon even takes it a step further. But what if I told you 22, A Million wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for Kanye West?

Vernon’s relationship with Kanye West began with the track “Woods.”

It features only Vernon’s vocals but they’re completely soaked in auto tune. Hip-hop’s favourite plug-in at that time.

It’s where Vernon was inspired to use the audio tool. The year before, Kanye released 808s and Heartbreak - where auto tune was heavily used. But unlike T-Pain, West’s use of the plug-in serves more purpose. The auto tune removes Kanye’s individuality from his vocals, helping to produce a hauntingly personal album. 808s focuses on themes of loss, feelings of alienation and self-reflection. Themes Vernon was well acquainted with.

(Canadian writer Stephen Marche viewed that West used "the shallow musical gimmickry of Auto-Tune, a program designed to eliminate individuality, and produced a hauntingly personal album.)

And on “Woods” Vernon was in isolation, still “down on his mind” distilling his feelings into song but obscuring the emotion with auto tune. The effect was something Vernon could hide his vulnerability in. Kanye liked “Woods” so much he featured it on his next album. “Lost In The World” On a track about feeling lost and searching for fulfillment. Again Vernon could relate.

Following his sophomore, Justin needed time to focus on his mental health and wanted to remove himself from the overwhelming attention the new album brought. So he fled to the Greek islands alone in search of himself. But he didn’t find what he was looking for in Greece. Believe it or not, it was Kanye’s words that helped remind Vernon to look after himself.

After hearing what he needed to, Vernon set forward to finish his next album. West recruited Vernon’s voice again for his album Yeezus before the two collaborated with Francis Starlite on the song “Friends." The track used a new voice effect created by Starlite, called the Prismizer. You can hear it’s first use on Chance The Rapper’s Colouring Book Mixtape. Using the Harmony Engine, the plug-in takes a lead vocal and splits it into multiple harmonies, like light through a prism. Francis created a beautiful electronic choir effect that could map vocals to a keyboard and manipulate it with the melody.

Already a fan of auto tune, Vernon wanted to adapt the Prismizer for 22, A Million. But the effect could only be applied after the vocals were recorded. So Vernon and his engineer Chris Messina got to work on creating something that could generate the effect in real time. The final product was the Messina. A combination of hardware and software capable of producing the Prismizer’s effect on the fly.

On 715 Creeks, Justin strips everything down to just his voice and The Messina. And it’s a testament to what Bon Iver does best on this album. And that’s celebrating the human voice.

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Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the videos or music used in this video. They are used for education and discussion purposes.