Big Red Machine Releases New Album 'How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last'

Today marks the release of "How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?", the much anticipated sophomore release from Big Red Machine, the ever-evolving project from Aaron Dressner (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). The 15-song album features the contributions of luminaries from the duo's creative community including Taylor Swift, Anaïs Mitchell, Ben Howard, Robin Pecknold, This Is The Kit, Naeem, Ilsey, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond), The Westerlies and more.

Over the course of the summer, the band has released videos for album tracks "Mimi (feat. Ilsey)", "Phoenix" (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell)", "Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)", "The Ghost of Cincinnati", and "Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)". Earlier this month, Big Red Machine made an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where they performed "Phoenix" (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell) and debuted album track "New Auburn" as a web exclusive.

"To me, it's like a laboratory for experimentation and also a vehicle to collaborate with friends and try to grow," Dessner said of Big Red Machine. "And also to just reconnect with the feeling of what it's like when you first start playing music - what it's like when you're making stuff without really knowing what it is.

"I wanted it to feel much more inclusive and representative of all the extracurricular energy that we've been putting in over the years, trying to make the music industry a little more communist or something," Vernon explained. "And I got so tired of being lead singer guy, and I'm in another band. I was like, you've got so many connections. Let's reach out and see what other people have feelings on these tracks."

Collaborators and friends show up across the album, continuing the reciprocal exchange of ideas that has come to define their creative community. Swift's sister albums "folklore" and "evermore" were co-produced by Dessner, and her encouragement helped Dessner realize "how connected this Big Red Machine music was to everything else I was doing, and that I was always supposed to be chasing these ideas."

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