Big Red Machine (the duo made of Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon and The National‘s Aaron Dessner) have been quickly revealing singles from their upcoming album How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? The newest is "Renegade", a collaboration with Taylor Swift (who collaborated with the duo for her two most recent albums). It follows the lead single “Latter Days” featuring Anaïs Mitchell, and Wednesday's release “The Ghost of Cincinnati”.
Dessner spoke of the collaboration saying, "While we were making folklore and evermore last year, Taylor and I sometimes talked about experimenting and writing songs together some day for Big Red Machine. Making music with your friends just to make it—that’s how Big Red Machine started and has grown—and that’s how “Renegade” came about too. This song was something we wrote after we finished evermore and it dawned on us that this was a BRM song. Taylor’s words hit me so hard when I heard her first voice memo and still do, every time. Justin lifted the song further into the heavens, and my brother [Bryce Dessner]’s strings and drummer Jason Treuting add so much. The feeling and sound of this song feel very much at the heart of How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? I’m so grateful to Taylor for continuing to share her incredible talent with me and that we are still finding excuses to make music together."
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is set for release on August 27. Watch the video for "Renegade" featuring Taylor Swift below.
