[News] Astronautalis and Bon Iver Form Band, Recording Collaborative Album

This morning, Minneapolis music blog Gimme Noise revealed that Minneapolis rapper Astronautalis, aka Andy Bothwell, and close neighbor and Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon turned a whiskey-fueled weekend into a series of intense, creative recording sessions. With the help of Bon Iver member and multi-instrumentalist S. Carey as well as producer Ryan Olson, the group took to Vernon's April Base recording studio and got to work.

When speaking on the process of recording at April Base, Bothwell said, "[b]y the time I got there, they had about eight pieces of music done, or roughed out into song form. 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." He went further to say, "[w]hat sparked this was that he and I are obsessive and lose our minds working on albums. Stressing out over lyric choices, and getting one word right and worrying about it for weeks on end. Whereas, Ryan is this amazing personality who motivates people to enjoy the process of making music. You just do it, and if it doesn't work, it'll get cut out."

For those who are fans of either Bon Iver or Astronautalis separately, Bothwell teased what the album will sound like, saying, "[a] lot of my fans are like, 'Oh this is going to be amazing: Astronautalis rapping and Justin singing choruses.' It's not going to be that. I'm sure that all of Justin's fans are going to be like 'Oh, it's a new Bon Iver record and there's these other guys.' Everyone's fans respectively are going to expect certain things." In regards to the album's sound and possible release date, Bothwell went into greater detail, saying, "I think you'll hear it sooner than you think, and I kinda just wanna leave it at that. It's such a far stretch for a lot of us musically. I think everyone should abandon their expectations of what it's going to be, because it's probably going to be very far off."

Expect to hear more regarding the Astronautalis and Bon Iver collaboration in the coming months.