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"Pride is not how I would typify my response to my music" |
Vetiver
Andy Cabic is the man behind Vetiver. The California-based group who craft gorgeous, fragile melodies rooted deeply in American folk music traditions. Their fourth album is called Tight Knit (out now on Sub Pop and Bella Union) and we spoke to Andy just before the band head off on their European tour.
How are you?
Doing well, thank you.
Are you looking forward to the European tour? Any particular city that stands out for you?
Very much looking forward to travelling overseas. Very excited to visit Ghent in Belgium, a city that's come up quite a bit in conversation with friends, but which I've never been to before.
Do you notice a contrast between how you are received by a European audience and an American one?
Not especially, no.
I know that the band is quite a loose collective. How many people are coming on the tour with you?
Four people are joining me on this tour: Otto Hauser on drums, Sanders Trippe on guitar, Sarah Versprille on keyboards and Dan Hindman on bass.
Vetiver have been going for quite a long time as a band, right? Do you feel you are slowly beginning to get the success and recognition you deserve?
I don't feel we 'deserve' anything, but it's nice to be rewarded for hard work. I've been touring and performing with Vetiver since around 2004.
Tell me a little bit about how you recorded 'Tight Knit'. Was the recording process similar to your previous albums?
Yes, fairly similar. I worked with the same group of people, in the same studio in Sacramento which we recorded Thing Of The Past in. As always, Thom Monahan engineered and helped produce the album. Tight Knit was worked on there, live with the band, and then finished in LA at Thom's home studio. A leisurely process.
Are you more proud of this album than your previous ones?
This is an odd question, I think. Pride is not how I would typify my response to my music, but I wouldn't release an album that I was less than pleased with, so...I'm happy with the way the album sounds.
Was the writing of this album more of a solitary thing than the previous ones?
The writing of this album was as solitary as any other, though I was writing with the musicians who performed on the album in mind, which I did not necessarily do with earlier albums.
Do you think there had been a neo-folk renaissance over the past couple of years, or do you think this is more of a media invention?
I'm sure there's been greater exposure to more uncommon music through the ease of sharing media encouraged by the ubiquity of computers and the internet, but I'm not certain the quality of music being created now is any greater than at any other time.
Living in California, you must speak pretty decent Spanish, right?
Unfortunately I do not speak Spanish. I live in a neighborhood filled with Russian and Asian families, but I don't speak Russian or Chinese either.
So, no plans to do an album in Spanish?
No plans.
What is your favourite Bob Dylan song?
I don't have a favorite Bob Dylan song, though I like the recording of "Lay Lady Lay" off Nashville Skyline quite a bit.
You can catch Vetiver on tour at these fine music and drinking establishments
19 Feb - Paris, France @ La Nuit des Alligators Festival at La Maroquinerie w/ Dear Reader & Xavier Plumas
20 Feb - Neuchatel, CH @ La Case a chocs
21 Feb - Tourcoing, France @ Le Grand Mix w/ Chairlift & Kill The Vultures
22 Feb - Brussels, Belgium @ La Botanique
23 Feb - Ghent, Belgium @ Vooruit
24 Feb - London, UK @ Roundhouse w/ Fleet Foxes
25 Feb - Manchester, UK @ Dulcimer
26 Feb - Glasgow, Scotland @ Stereo
27 Feb - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hound
28 Feb - London, UK @ Cecil Sharp House w/ Hush Arbors
2 Regents Park Road, London, NW1 7AY
8pm, £9 adv: We Got Tickets
more info: milesofsmiles.co.uk
