 Justin Vernon 's involvement on the song stemmed from being approached by West directly . West first got into contact with Vernon when he directly phoned him , with the intention of sampling his song " Woods " . The two talked on the phone for about 40 minutes , where West explained some of the concepts for the project , and invited him down to his studio in Hawaii . West is a big admirer of Bon Iver 's album For Emma , Forever Ago , and was impressed with Vernon 's unique use of auto @-@ tune . The two artists became friends while playing games of basketball together , and West introduced him to Jeff Bhasker , one of his main producers . 
