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Listen to ‘Renegade’, Yet Another Great Collaboration Between Taylor Swift, Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner

Listen to ‘Renegade’, Yet Another Great Collaboration Between Taylor Swift, Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner

In what is proving to be one of the more creatively fruitful musical partnerships in recent years, Justin Vernon, Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift are back with another new tune, and it delivers on the same level of quality fans have to expect following Swift’s folklore and evermore.

This song will be featured on the upcoming album from Big Red Machine – Vernon and Dessner’s side project when they’re not busy at their day jobs as Bon Iver and the National, respectively. How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is the name of their upcoming release and it features two collabs with Swift. This one is called “Renegade” and was recorded in LA the same week that Swift and Dessner took home a Grammy for Album of the Year. These people just don’t take off days. Here’s Dessner’s statement on the song.

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.

Swift isn’t the only guest on the upcoming album. We’ll also be hearing from Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Sharon Van Etten and Anaïs Mitchell. “Renegade” is the second released single after “The Ghost of Cincinnati.”

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