Leaves of Grass

STATUS Magazine
 August 2011

Note: This was published in STATUS Magazine's August Issue with--yup!--Cassie on the cover. Check out her cover story written by Loris Pena on STATUS Magazine's website under their Features section (http://bit.ly/qwnYbI). And if you didn't know, frontman for Incubus, THE Brandon Boyd was also in the issue! Interview by--die hard fan and was over the moon when she found out Brandon was her assignment--Reena Mesias (http://bit.ly/oO06SM). 
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As VETIVER's music teems with acoustic instrumentations and lyrical themes of travelling, the songs from their fifth album, The Errant Charm, are just as balmy and intoxicating as the scent of their namesake grass itself.

Andy Cabic has been pulling on the reigns of Vetiver in playing a big role in today's contemporary folk era along with the likes of Davenport and Sean Hayes.

(L-R) Daniel Hindman, Andy Cabic, Otto Hauser,
Bob Parins, and Sarah Versprille.
Via  myspace.com/vetiverse

Formed in 2004, the band has had members come and go, but that didn't shake Andy to think of abandoning the project. Performing with Andy onstage nowadays are Otto "Big Baby" Hauser on drums, Donald Hindman on guitars, Bob Parins on bass, and Sarah Versprille on keyboards.

Their eponymous debut album in 2004 had them collaborate with other fellow freak folk musicians like Mazzy Star's vocalist Hope Sandoval, My Bloody Valentine's drummer Colm O'Ciosig, contemporary folk music godmother Vashti Bunyan, harpist/pianist Joanna Newsom, and his long-tome friend Devendra Banhart.

Juggling Vetiver in between performing with Devendra every now and then, Andy reveals that working with the legendary folk singer-songwriter is like "[kneading] cookie dough with Alpaca mittens on." Their friendship brought about the birth of Gnomonsong--a record label bent on nurturing the folk music industry rather than just managing bands.

Via artinbase.com

"[It's] just grass, a scent," Andy candidly says about their band's name. "I like words with two v's in them and felt that it suited our sound." True enough, the band has been producing music that have--as mot fans and critics would say--a "summery" vibe, reminding us of riding through lush green fields and camping out in the summer heat. More so with the release of their fifth album, The Errant Charm.

Working and experimenting with new sounds between a 3-year gap from their last release, Tight Knit, Vetiver produced something more fashionably risky. "Where Tight Knit was boot cut, [Errant Charm] is like capri pants with some sparkly socks," says Andy.

"Where Tight Knit was boot cut, [Errant Charm] is like capri pants
with some sparkly socks."
Via citylife.co.uk

Vetiver's signature riffs and dips aren't present this time, making it less cowboy, and more garden. the album was, according to Andy, "recorded in L.A. and Hoboken, with a dash of Sacramento," and he felt no pressure at all when he entered the studio--to the point that he had absolutely nothing to work with. It took him long walks along San Francisco's Richmond District, earphones in, listening to mixes just to think up of materials for this album--that, and having "lots of sandwiches from Fiore's and played Angry Birds too much, [with] some Valley feral cat energy, and [a] drawing of Sonny & Cher staring at me most of the time" are just one of the many moments they shared when they "hemmed the musical pants off [The Errant Charm]."

After its completion, next for Vetiver is an impending summer tour around Europe. While backpacking to another continent sounds like the ideal summer trip, Andy, true to Vetiver's itinerant fashion, has something else in mind: "Hanging out in Dew Drop Inn with Demi Moore or snorkelling in the north shore of Kauai."

vetiverse.com

As seen on STATUS Magazine's August 2011 Issue.
P.S. I wrote the sidebars too!

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Hurrah! It's my first ever full-pager! For me, writing one full page for a magazine was way different from writing one full page research paper. I was always intimidated by that fact and would have chosen to write a five-page research paper instead. Even in my days as a staff writer for DLSU's monthly English publication, I always felt the need to grab a co-writer to help me along. Well, there's a first for everything, right?