Big Red Machine

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner of the National joined forces on the art pop endeavor Big Red Machine, which first took shape in 2008 before surfacing as a completed entity a decade later. Their self-titled debut album wove Vernon’s expansive voice and abstract words through Dessner’s layered loops and melodic fragments. The follow-up arrived in 2021 as the densely populated How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, drawing appearances from Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, and additional guests.

The project’s name, borrowed from the Cincinnati Reds’ powerhouse squads of the 1970s, originated when Dessner forwarded Vernon an instrumental piece titled “Big Red Machine” for a charity compilation. After both musicians returned to their primary bands, tracks issued under the Big Red Machine banner began appearing online in early 2018 and coalesced into the full-length debut that August. The album emerged through the PEOPLE digital community—an art collective and streaming platform founded by Vernon alongside Aaron and Bryce Dessner—in association with Jagjaguwar. It climbed into the Top 20 on Billboard’s Alternative, Americana/Folk, and Independent Albums charts.

Three years afterward the duo issued their second effort, again built around outside contributions from Fleet Foxes, Taylor Swift, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, and others. “Renegade,” one of two selections featuring Swift, entered the Hot 100 ahead of the album’s August 2021 release.