Entertainment

BON IVER’S ‘EMMA’ PAINFULLY GOOD

AFTER an egregious breakup with his girlfriend, a subsequent split from his former band and mononucleosis that attacked his liver, it’s hard to believe that Justin Vernon mustered the motivation to create a hopeful, critically acclaimed debut album.

“I had a pretty rough year,” admits the 27-year-old musician. “I ran out of money living in North Carolina, got really sick, and had two serious breakups. I just realized I needed to find a place to deal with and materialize all the stuff in my life.”

The epiphany prompted Vernon’s three-month wintry hibernation in his dad’s remote northwestern Wisconsin cabin, where he plunged into writing and recording his first solo album, “For Emma, Forever Ago,” under the name Bon Iver (the intentionally misspelled French phrase for “Good Winter”). He got the phrase from an episode of the old television show “Northern Exposure.”

“It was supposed to just be a way to be in the snowy woods, alone, and think about the things for a few months,” says the Eau Claire native, who’s pretty Zen about the adversities. “But it turned out that the setbacks and the stay were a key thing for my music.”

The nine-track album, which has drawn comparisons to folk rocker Iron & Wine, is an eccentric collection of songs featuring soft yet soulful multilayered voices against a backdrop of acoustic guitar, drum and horn arrangements. The only clarity in the enigmatic lyrics is the irrevocable, haunting presence of Emma.

“There are some people in your life, who after a breakup, you can’t get over, and after a while that longing becomes something other than that person. My relationship with ‘Emma’ created this place where all that pain sat, and this is me breaking that pain down for what it was.”

The album has earned Vernon much praise from critics and fans alike. It caused a stir online and on college radio as a self-released project before getting picked up by Indie label Jagjaguwar. It has since been named one of Pitchfork’s Top 50 albums of the year, and tracks have been featured on “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House” and “Chuck.”

Still, he’s sheepish about its success.

“I don’t know how much I’m responsible,” he says. “At a certain point the album grew its own legs.”

More importantly, though, the album started as his.

“This is the first album where I got through the entire process of writing it without feeling like I was copying something from someone that I love,” he says, adding, “I felt like I cultivated my own land, so to speak, and it felt great.”

Bon Iver plays Town Hall tonight and Thursday and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday.

marina.vataj@nypost.com