“They just don’t sound anything like each other,” Cabic said. Vetiver owes much to the latest freak folk and naturalismo movement shaped by San Fran artists like Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, both of whom have toured and worked with Cabic. His music is gorgeously melodic and accessible, but fragile and complex at the same time. The careful attention to detail paid throughout his latest album, Tight Knit, is noteworthy, from the gentle sizzle of the cymbals on the ethereal “Rolling Sea” to the Worrellian funk flavor of “Another Reason to Go,” though Cabic hears more indie rock band the Raymond Brake has remained a stranger. Cabic still finds himself out east regularly with Vetiver (www.vetiverse.com), a psych-folk collaborative that he founded nearly six years ago. Though he has moved on from playing Raymond Brake material some time ago, Cabic still considers those experiences a part of who he is now. “Songs that I was writing with Raymond Brake were the kind of songs that were mine or felt like mine at the time,” Cabic said. “The new stuff is still a collection of songs true to my feelings and my abilities as I write them.” If his life parallels the lyrics of a certain Willie Nelson song, it’s purely coincidental. While Cabic spends months out of the year on the road touring profusely, he dedicates plenty of time to making music with his friends.
Guitarist Sanders Trippe, an old friend from Cabic’s days as a political science major at UNCG and DJ at WUAG, might still be a Greensboro local, but he’s been a fixture on Cabic’s tours since Vetiver’s second album, To Find Me Gone. Drummer Otto Hauser is another of his good friends that have stuck around for some time, continuity on it than any of his previous releases.
“It sounds like a summary of different aspects of prior releases,” Cabic said. “I think it’s the best-sounding record I’ve made and it’s a little more uplifting and sunny than the last couple.”
It was also his first release on the Sub Pop label, the home of the early ’90s grunge scene and currently the label at the forefront of various indie movements. His previous three albums came out of his own label, which was under the umbrella of Revolver. Despite moving to the larger label, Cabic says it hasn’t affected how he writes in the slightest.
“I have a great working relationship with them, so I was pretty much able to do what I wanted,” Cabic said. “More people are hearing my music now, but this is my fourth record so I’d hope that that would be happening anyway.”
Vetiver plays the Werehouse on Friday and is supported by Distrails and Jew(s) & Catholic(s).
