so try to be somebody.

When I was living up north I wrote a letter. I’d come across a story about this Alaskan town that the people, the first snow of every year, they come out of their houses and gather in the town square. They hug and kiss each other and they say “Bon Iver.” I was like, “whatever that is, that’s cool!” So I would write it down. I signed off my letters as that. I went down to North Carolina to go on tour with the Rosebuds. I played them the record and they were huge supporters of it. I was like, “I don’t know what to do man. I don’t know if this should be a band. I don’t know if I should put this out. I’ve never been on a label. I’ve never toured. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on.” They were like, “Dude, don’t worry about it. Bon Iver— that’s your name.” I was like, “alright, let’s figure out what it means.” I already knew what it meant to me— it was whatever those people said to each other. Then I found out it was French and I was like, “Ohhh.” I’m not French, I don’t want to bastardize this. Then I found out how it’s spelled and it was sort of disappointing. I didn’t like how it looked. It didn’t have any emotion. Looking at it didn’t make any sense. I wanted to look at it and feel something.