Big Red Machine have already released a handful of singles from their upcoming album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, including one of the best songs of the year, “Renegade,” a collaboration with none other than Taylor Swift. But as much as fans love Taylor collaborating with, you know, just about anyone, there’s a lot more going on with Big Red Machine than the Swiftian angle. Other previewed tracks include Fleet Foxes And Anaïs Mitchell joining in on “Phoenix” and Aaron Dessner unexpectedly taking over lead vocalist duties on “The Ghost Of Cincinnati.”
Of course, every song here includes Dessner and Justin Vernon, but today they’ve shared “Mimi” which features yet another collaborator, Ilsey, and both artists shared a bit about what the song means to them.
Aaron Dessner said he named the song for his youngest daughter:
“I named this song Mimi for my youngest daughter… I was thinking about how grateful I am for my children and how they light up even the darkest days. Justin, Ilsey and I wrote words and melodies to this in isolation and we decided to interweave them, like characters in a book, full of longing and gratitude. Later James Krivchenia came to visit and brought the song further to life with his drums. Musically I feel like maybe we were seeking the open air and road of a Tom Petty song, just accidentally in an odd meter. So grateful to Ilsey for joining this collaboration — it felt so natural and joyful.”
And Ilsey shared that the song mirrors the way it was created:
“This song is almost a mirror to the process of how we made it. Aaron, Justin and I wrote and recorded all of the parts separately. The lyrics of the chorus reflect a longing for closeness and connection, but that longing is made to feel safe and less pained next to Justin and Aaron’s lyrics which have this strong theme of gratitude. All of this to say, what could have been a lonely chorus was made hopeful, and what could have been a lonely process was made joyful in getting to work with these two wonderful people.”
Check out the new single above.
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is out 8/27 via Jagjaguwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.