When you write a song about a place, you are writing a song about a place that might be in a hundred years, or a place that has been, or that was - in your imagination. I think that also embodies the American spirit. You are looking for what you can call "a place."

Justin Vernon

Categorized in : Thinking Song Writing

The easiest thing to feel is sadness.

Justin Vernon

sadness feels

Our lives feel like these epochs, but really we are dust in the wind.

Justin Vernon

dust feels wind

I don't know why you'd spend any of your time trying to remake something that you don't actually like.

Justin Vernon

remakes knows trying

No matter how much you care about a person, you have to be able to know that you can sit down at night and be happy with who you are without that person. That's really hard when you're a lonely emo kid.

Justin Vernon

emo lonely kids

But in any situation with long love, I don’t think it ever goes away fully. You just sort of learn where to keep it.

Justin Vernon

long-love long thinking

There's that whole thing that happens in relationships - you can love someone but, as soon as they stop loving you so unconditionally that they stop being themselves, it can be so dangerous.

Justin Vernon

love-someone loving-you dangerous

I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind. I'm building a still, to slow down the time.

Justin Vernon

woods building mind

A lot of people are like, "How are you going to re-do it?" I'm not worried about what people are going to say because you know people are gonna be like, "It doesn't sound like this... It sounds like this." I'm just going to make music that I know I'm supposed to make.

Justin Vernon

worried sound people

At once i knew i was not magnificent.

Justin Vernon

magnificent

The weird thing is I feel like I'm shedding skin so fast and I'm growing and I'm becoming a new person so quickly at a rate that I'm comfortable with, yet it seems faster and more steady than an other time in my life except 16, 17, 18. I just have to sit down and listen to the ideas I'm having. And I'm not worried.

Justin Vernon

growing skins ideas

I do think that our culture or our psyche as a country I guess, the world or whatever, we're due for a huge event. We're due for a little bit of a revolution or a spotlight or a movement. Something that feels large, something that feels like the 60s. Some sort of unification.

Justin Vernon

events country thinking

I think if you feel weird and self-conscious about that kind of stuff - which happened to me at some points - that means your ego is really kicking in. You can understand how people get to be assholes in music business because it's like you're getting pumped full of your own thing so much, you get ungrounded. That's a dangerous place to be.

Justin Vernon

mean people thinking

I am generalizing, of course, but in hip-hop, it's like you get this shine for using the word "pussy" a billion times, and I think that that's weirdly healthier than not doing it at all - even though I really hope it ends soon because, you know, how many decades can we do that?

Justin Vernon

hip-hop shining thinking

I've stolen music before, I don't know anyone who hasn't. But if you're gonna do that, I want you to be able to have an opportunity to know the real lyrics because I really hate it when people put up wrong lyrics online.

Justin Vernon

hate real opportunity

I'm trying to think about stuff like that: How can a show not be just a whining guy with a guitar.

Justin Vernon

guitar guy thinking

It makes sense that that's part of the story and everything, but that's part of any story of any record - where was it record and how long and what were the people doing. I think people want to know where these events are made. That's why I like the word "record."

Justin Vernon

long people thinking

I don't want to get myself in trouble - and I don't think I'm super important or anything - but I think it's so funny that when you look at the business and the way that people make decisions in their lives, whether they're in art or music or they're in industry, they forget that being unique is the answer.

Justin Vernon

unique art thinking

Even the indie rock world - which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something - is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity.

Justin Vernon

indie-rock independence rocks

Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.

Justin Vernon

indie-rock rocks people

My favorite idea is doing an all-night tent show starring my friend's band Marijuana Deathsquads, where everyone would wear super-loud headphones, and there would be tons of subs and lights. It'd be really dope.

Justin Vernon

marijuana dope night