Biography

     Bon Iver Is a Grammy award-winning American indie folk band founded in 2007 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. The band also includes Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, Colin Stetson and Matthew McCaughan amongst others. Vernon released Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was recorded while Vernon spent three months in a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin. Bon Iver won the 2012 Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album for their album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. The name Bon Iver is derived from the French phrase bon hiver (French pronunciation: ?[b?n?iv???]), meaning “good winter”, taken from a greeting on Northern Exposure.

History

After the breakup of the band DeYarmond Edison, a relationship, and a bout with mononucleosis, Vernon left Raleigh, North Carolina, and moved back to Wisconsin to spend the oncoming winter months at his father’s cabin in Medford, Wisconsin. According to Vernon, it was during this time that the “Bon Iver” moniker first entered his mind; while bedridden with mononucleosis, he began watching the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure on DVD. One episode depicts a group of citizens in Alaska, where the show is set, emerging from their homes into the first snowfall of the winter and wishing one another bon hiver (pronounced: [b?n?iv???], French for “good winter”). This was initially transcribed by Vernon as “boniverre”; however, when he learned of its proper French spelling, he elected not to use it, deciding “hiver” reminded him too much of “liver”, the site of his illness at the time.

The band announced their intent to take a break from performing indefinitely after their last event of their 2012 tour in Dublin on November 12, 2012, confirming previous speculation and rumours by fans that began circulating in September 2012. Their label asserts that the band has not broken up, however.