Big Red Machine

A collaborative art pop project helmed by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and the National’s Aaron Dessner, Big Red Machine took seed in 2008 but re-emerged fully formed ten years later on an eponymous album that paired Vernon’s soaring vocals and impressionistic lyrics with Dessner’s patchwork loops and melodies. They followed the debut with a star-studded sophomore effort, 2021′s How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?, which featured the likes of Taylor Swift and Fleet Foxes, among others.
The idea for Big Red Machine — named after the dominating baseball teams of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s — was born in 2008 when Dessner sent Vernon an instrumental track of the same name for a charity compilation. After resuming work with their better-known bands, songs using the Big Red Machine moniker eventually began trickling out online in early 2018, culminating in the release of the project’s eponymous full-length debut that August. It arrived by way of Vernon and Aaron and Bryce Dessner’s PEOPLE digital community, an art collective and streaming platform, in partnership with the Jagjaguwar label. Big Red Machine reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s Alternative, Americana/Folk, and Independent Albums charts.
Three years later, the project returned with a collaboration-heavy sophomore effort, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? It included contributions from Fleet Foxes, Taylor Swift, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Ettan, and more. One of a pair of tracks to feature Swift, “Renegade” debuted in the Hot 100 prior to the album’s arrival in August 2021. ~ James Christopher Monger & Marcy Donelson