When: 7pm on Friday 11 February 2022
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, due to the current ongoing Covid 19 situations and the complications this causes for international travel, Vetiver and Josh Rouse have had to cancel their February 2022 tour as it is not possible to reschedule this co-headline run. Both artists look forward to returning to the EU/UK next time. All tickets will be refunded at their point of purchase.

We’re delighted to present this exciting pairing of two Hey! Manchester favourites, Josh Rouse and Vetiver!

You don’t have to work hard to enjoy Josh Rouse’s music. His songs present themselves to you with an open heart, an innate intelligence and an absolute lack of pretension. They are clear-eyed, empathetic and penetrating. Without pandering, they seek to satisfy both your ear and your understanding. The verses draw you in with telling detail, both musical and thematic, and the choruses lift and deliver. They resolve without seeming overly tidy or pat.

Rouse was born in Nebraska, and following an itinerant upbringing he eventually landed in Nashville where he recorded his debut Dressed Like Nebraska (1998). The album’s acclaim led to tours with Aimee Mann, Mark Eitzel and the late Vic Chestnutt. The follow-up – Home (2000) – yielded the song Directions, which Cameron Crowe used in his film Vanilla Sky.

‘Every time I’ve made a record, I’ve tried to make it different from the last one,’ says Rouse. ‘I always became fascinated by a different style of music. But at the end of the day, no matter how eclectic I try to make it, it’s my voice and melodic sensibility that tie things together.’

For his 2003 breakthrough album, 1972, which happens to be the year he was born, Rouse decided to cheer up a bit. Noting that he’d earned a reputation for melancholy, he says, with a laugh, ‘I figured this is my career, I might as well try to enjoy it.’ While the Seventies are often identified with singer-songwriters, Rouse was primarily attracted to the warmer sound of albums back then, as well as the more communal feel of the soul music of that time. The follow up, Nashville (2005), continued the hot streak and expanded his audience further.

After relocating to Valencia, Spain with his wife Paz, Rouse has released a steady stream of high quality songs and albums. Subtitulo (2006) contained the international indie folk hit Quiet Town. On El Turista (2010) he even experimented with writing and singing some songs in Spanish. In 2014, he won a Goya Award (the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar) for best song for Do You Really Want To Be In Love, from the film La Gran Familia Española.

The Embers of Time (2015) was one of his strongest albums – self-described as ‘my surreal, ex-pat, therapy record’. He followed that up with 2018’s Love In the Modern Age, which took its musical inspiration from the thinking man’s pop of the eighties: The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout and the Style Council. And in 2019 he tackled the Christmas album on The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse but instead of well-worn carols or classics, he wrote an entire record of original holiday themed pop songs.

Vetiver is the long-running stage and recording name of San Francisco’s Andy Cabic. Up On High is his seventh studio album and the first since 2015. Vetiver has toured around the world on headline tours and supporting artists that include Wilco, The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, Bob Weir & Phil Lesh and Vashti Bunyan. Vetiver craft nuanced, understated songs that reward careful listening, building a rich duality; a space where sunshine is only a chord away from melancholy, an introspective lyric underlies an extroverted chorus and subtlety tries to be outgoing in an effort to connect the dots of life’s ellipsis.

Up On High was recorded with longtime collaborator Thom Monahan (Neko Case, Bedouine, Fruit Bats, The Donkeys, Peter Bjorn and John, Beachwood Sparks, Little Joy). Instrumentation comes from an all-world cast that includes Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats, EDJ), Gabriel Noel (Kendrick Lamar, Father John Misty, Tyler the Creator), Dan Iead (Kevin Morby, Cass McCombs), Josh Adams (Bedouine, Wild Nothing) and Tim Ramsey (Fruit Bats, Little Wings).

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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