As a followup to Thing Of The Past, psychedelic San Francisco folk-rock troupe Vetiver, aka Andy Cabic & Co., is releasing a companion covers EP called More Of The Past. Accompanying the release is a two-song 7″, which finds More Of‘s “Hey Doll Baby” backed by the vinyl-only “Miles Apart.” Well, vinyl-only until we premiered it in this week’s Drop. We asked Cabic about he and his band’s take on A.R. Kane’s original.

How did you decide to cover “Miles Apart”? Why didn’t it show up on Thing Of The Past or More Of The Past?
I’m a fan of A.R. Kane — much like all the other artists whose songs we performed on Thing Of The Past — and this was a song in particular of theirs that I enjoyed a lot and thought would be fun to try our hand at. It didn’t make the album because I wanted to keep Thing Of The Past concise, and “Miles Apart” didn’t seem to fit alongside the others.

Any significance in its pairing with “Hey Doll Baby” on the 7″?
Not really, no. They are both songs I personally wanted to have available on vinyl.

How do you go about making a cover song your own?
I’m not sure you do anything different than perform it sincerely, with your own sense of style and abilities, right? I’m not setting out to “own” the song. Ownership is determined by the ear of the listener I suppose. All the songs we performed are significant to me, personally, in how they’ve played a role in my life through their melody, their lyrics, their style, what they suggest. They already are personally significant … We just recorded them because it was fun to do, to present these songs in a new but not dissimilar way to people who may not have heard them before.

///

More Of The Past is out 11/11 via Gnomonsong.