Justin Vernon feels he and Taylor Swift would have been 'close friends' if they met in high school

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Justin Vernon, the frontman of the indie folk band Bon Iver, recently told The New Yorker that he believes he and Taylor Swift would have been close friends if they met as teenagers.  

The two collaborated on the pop star's critically acclaimed 2020 albums, 'Folklore' and 'Evermore', but interestingly, they didn't meet until the release of 'Folklore'.

Justin Vernon recalls meeting Taylor Swift

During the interview, which was published on Wednesday, October 16, Justin Vernon recalled meeting Taylor Swift and noted that he "wasn't starstruck."

He instead thought, "Wow, you’re somebody that I would have been very close friends with in high school. You’re real and you’re here."

Vernon went on to say, "To see what she’s been up to, the propulsion, the expansion . . . I don’t know, it’s just unlike anything anyone’s ever seen. And yet there she was, this person who made a lot of sense to me." 

He collaborated with Swift on 'Exile' from 'Folklore' as well as the title track of 'Evermore'.

The pop star has worked with Vernon's other band, Big Red Machine, which also features The National's Aaron Dessner. She featured as a guest vocalist on the tracks 'Renegade' and 'Birch' from their 2021 album, 'How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?'

Justin Vernon talks about upcoming EP 'SABLE'

In the same interview, Justin Vernon discussed Bon Iver's new three-song EP, 'SABLE', set to release on October 18, as per People. He revealed that the project is an homage to the band's 2007 debut album, 'For Emma, Forever Ago'. 

Vernon further shared, "From 'For Emma' until 'i,i,' it felt like it was an arc, or an expansion—from One to All. 'I,i' was very much me trying to talk about the We—the Us, outside of I. And when I got to these songs, the obvious thing was, well, people might think this is a return to something."

He described the project as a "raw second skin," adding, "I think about time in cylindrical, forward-moving circles. This feels like a new person, new skin. A new everything, more than a return."

"But I did feel like it was important to strip it down to just the bare essentials and get out of the way, to not hide with swaths of choirs. Just get it as close to the human ear as possible," expressed Vernon.