Vetiver, with special guest Johnny Irion

Vetiver is what singer-songwriter Andy Cabic has been calling his songs and recordings since about 2003 or so. He's lived in San Francisco since 1998 and while the touring band and musicians he's played with over the years have changed over the years, the one constant has been Thom Monahan who has engineered and co-produced every Vetiver album, the most recent being Complete Strangers.

The album came together slowly over a couple of years. Once we had the basic arrangements we jumped in the studio with Bart Davenport, Gabe Noel and Josh Adams for a few days to put down rhythm tracks. That’s when the album really took shape. Thom & I fleshed everything out with a few more musicians in San Francisco & L.A. and eventually Complete Strangers arrived.

The songs on Complete Strangers bear some resemblance to the album’s title. They share things in common but come from different places, different times. “Stranger Still” is an anthem for insomniacs, illuminating the hours when the world exceeds our grasp. “From Now On” rings out some emotional tinnitus, the moment a night runs away from you, when freedoms turn into responsibilities. The album builds around dualities, the way people pair at parties. “Current Carry” percolates with the confidence of love, while “Confiding” reveals how vulnerable we are chasing love. “Backwards Slowly” and “Edgar” are vignettes of transition, more ebb than flow. As with many of Vetiver’s better moments, sunshine is only a chord away from melancholy. An introspective lyric underlies an extroverted chorus. Subtlety tries to be outgoing, loneliness familiar, in an effort to connect the dots of life’s ellipsis.

Andy's still figuring the album out, saying "It feels like someone I’ve just met yet known for a long time."

We're excited to have Vetiver performing as an acoustic trio.