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Mar 16, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Ethan Gruska and Graham Tolbert

Bon Iver (the project led by Justin Vernon) and Ethan Gruska have teamed up for a new song, “So Unimportant.” It is the latest release in the singles series from Psychic Hotline (the label founded by Sylvan Esso). Will McClellan engineered the song, which features strings from Rob Moose and percussion from Blake Mills and Matt Chamberlain. Listen below.

Gruska (who produced Phoebe Bridgers’ two albums and has also worked with Paul McCartney, John Legend, and others) had this to say about “So Unimportant” in a press release: “Around March 10th of 2020 Justin was supposed to come to LA and we were going to spend a few days making some stuff. Obviously, that didn’t happen… We all went into lockdown shortly after. About two weeks into deep quarantine Justin and I connected and decided it would still be fun to send each other files and try something remotely. ‘So Unimportant’ was the first thing that came to fruition. Justin and I passed this song and session leisurely back and forth for a while to get it where it is now.

“The fact that I now have a song with Justin just completely blows my mind. He’s been my pie in the sky. I’d do anything to collaborate with artists for a really long time and having this song together is one of the most special things that has ever happened to me in my musical life. Life in general!

“Justin is my favorite pen pal, person and artist, and I’m so grateful to have made this together!”

Vernon had this to add: “My dear friend and great drummer, JT Bates, showed me the music of Ethan Gruska a number of years ago. It’s not often that something IMMEDIATELY grasps you where you stand like his music did. It only happens a few times in one’s life. Ethan’s musicality and touch has magic in it. We have not yet met in person, but have exchanged the longest, flirtiest texts in history. I hope to be near the mine of his mind for as long as possible. This song is just the first thing I threw at the wall. He scraped it off that wall, and turned it into a song I’ll appreciate forever.”

The most recent Bon Iver album, i, i, came out in 2019 via Jagjaguwar.

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