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Jul 22, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Big Red Machine (aka Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner) are releasing a new album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, on August 27 via 37d03d. Now they have shared the album’s latest single, “Phoenix,” which features guest vocals Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and Anaïs Mitchell. Listen below via a lyric video.

“Phoenix” was co-written by Dessner, Pecknold, Vernon, and Mitchell, with a co-production credit for both Pecknold and Dessner.

Dessner had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Phoenix’ was one of the last songs we wrote for this record. I was thinking about The Band and the Grateful Dead…maybe imagining this Big Red Machine album was some version of The Last Waltz. Justin first heard it while driving and immediately the chorus melody came into his head. I shared the sketch with Robin Pecknold, who I’ve been a fan of forever and who I’d been dreaming would join us on this record. Robin wrote the verses and pre chorus as a kind of dialogue with Justin, recalling a conversation they once had backstage in Phoenix. Later Anais wrote words to the chorus and the Westerlies added their magic to the instrumental. JT Bates rumbles around in rare form on the drums on this song. I think it’s what I always imagined Big Red Machine would sound like.”

Pecknold adds: “It was a high, high honor to work on this song, and beyond that it was a really interesting creative challenge. Justin’s vocals and the beautiful chorus were already in place before I got my hands on it, so I felt my job melodically and lyrically was to set his entrance up in the best possible way. I felt like a pilgrim putting questions to an elusive sage, not needing clear answers, but happy for the chance to ask.”

Previously Big Red Machine shared the album’s first single, “Latter Days,” which features guest vocals from Anaïs Mitchell. Then the band shared its second single, “The Ghost of Cincinnati,” which features lead vocals by Dessner. That was followed by “Renegade,” which features guest vocals from Taylor Swift, who also features in the song’s video.

The album also features Sharon Van Etten, This Is the Kit, and others.

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is the follow-up to their 2018-released self-titled debut album. Dessner produced the album and it was recorded at his Long Pond studio in Upper Hudson Valley, NY.

Dessner, who sings lead vocals for the first time on three tracks on the album, had this to say about it in a previous press release: “This is all music I initially generated and feel emotionally connected to, but it has been very interesting to hear how different people relate to it and how different voices collide with it. That’s what makes it special. With everyone that’s on this record, there’s an openness, a creative generosity and an emotional quality that connects it all together.”

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