“I didn’t write any of these chords or anything – this just came straight from a sample”: Bon Iver and Jim-E Stack break down the making of Day One

Released back in April, SABLE, fABLE was Bon Iver's first full-length project in five years, a surprisingly uplifting cocktail of pop, gospel, soft-rock and R&B that featured contributions from Dijon, Mk.gee, Jacob Collier and Cory Henry, among others.

Justin Vernon sat down with producer Jim-E Stack to discuss the making of album highlight Day One in a recent video with Billboard. Discussing the genesis of the track, Vernon reveals that the foundations of the song actually came out of a demo he was sent by another artist, Samuel Tsang.

“I didn’t write any of these chords or anything, this just came straight from a sample from Sam," Vernon says. Tsang is a UK-based producer and songwriter that records solo material under the alias Congee and has previously contributed to music from Ed Sheeran, Griff, Fred Again and The Script.

While Vernon doesn't reveal how the two originally connected, he says that he received the demo several years before work on the album began and almost instantly came up with the idea for the central melody. Despite this, it took Vernon and Stack two years to work out how to build this essential idea out into a fully-fledged song.

Bon Iver - Day One (feat. Dijon & Flock of Dimes) [Official Video] - YouTube

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"It took us a good two years to figure out how to supply it with oxygen, and support it with all the things," Vernon says. "But then again, as soon as I got that demo sent to me, I just knew the melody. It was just there.”

Vernon says he left the original sample mostly unchanged, layering parts from multiple collaborators together with drums programmed by Stack and a bassline from the Prophet-600, an instrument that Vernon admits is his "favourite synth ever".

Featuring both Dijon and Flock of Dimes' Jenn Wasner on guest vocals, Day One concludes with a triumphant slide guitar solo that Vernon says was originally intended to be performed by Bonnie Raitt.

“I wanted to try to get Bonnie Raitt on there, and I wanted her to play a slide solo," Vernon says. "But then Was [Jenn Wasner] crushed it too hard, and I wanted to do my best Bonnie Raitt. It was so fun. There are so many great classic slide solos and I wanted to try to make the best one we could make.”

Vernon has previously described Raitt as his "favourite guitar player" and a major source of inspiration, telling Wisconsin Life: "I just try to sound like her. I’m just trying to be in whatever emotional space that she creates with her voice and her guitar playing. I’m just trying to copy it. Straight up."

The interview also sheds light on the role played by two respected musicians buried in Day One's credits: pianist Cory Henry and bassist MonoNeon. Vernon recalls a late-night studio session with the pair that led to a new version of the track prominently featuring the harpejji, an unconventional stringed instrument played by Henry that has fans in Stevie Wonder and Jacob Collier.

"It was like the coolest session of all time, just hanging out and smoking weed in Cory’s little studio," Vernon says. "There was a point where we were just learning the chords and they just started playing, Cory’s playing harpejji and Mono’s playing crazy bass and I’m singing the song, and it’s in a totally weird tempo and feel.”

While we may never hear this jazz-inflected, marijuana-fuelled version of Day One, some of Henry's harpejji playing did ultimately make it into the final cut, despite some difficulties in the mixing stage. "The harpejji was a really hard thing to pare down," says Stack. "There's so much happening in there, and the harpejji was so good, but it was like: 'how do we preserve any of this?' So we had to go one way or the other."

Watch the full interview on Billboard.