Big Red Machine is led by Aaron Dessner (The National, producer for Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten and others) in collaboration with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? features over a dozen marquee collaborators, including some of the biggest names across mainstream pop, indie, folk and other genres. It features Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Howard, this is the Kit, Anais Mitchell and more.

Ever since childhood, learning to play various instruments in a suburban Cincinnati basement alongside his brother Bryce, Aaron Dessner has consistently sought an emotional outlet and deep human connection through music — be it as a primary songwriter in The National, a founder and architect of beloved collaboration-driven music festivals, or collaborator on two critically acclaimed and chart-topping Taylor Swift albums recorded in complete pandemic-era isolation at his Long Pond Studio in upstate New York, among many other projects. Through it all, Dessner has brought together an unlikely community of musicians that share his impulse to connect, celebrate and, most of all, process emotion and experience through music.

This generous spirit and desire to push music forward has never been more deeply felt than on Big Red Machine’s How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, the second album from Dessner’s ever- morphing project with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.