The last few days I’ve been in South Carolina on vacation with the band–a retreat of sorts. We took the time to get some sun, golf, eat a lot, drink 100 beers, write, and record.

[audio:Just_Like_Anyone.mp3]

Between working on our original material, we decided to record a version of the Aimee Mann song, “Just Like Anyone,” a short and beautiful piece in tribute to Jeff Buckley. If you’ve listened to our music, it’s easy to hear Jeff’s influence. Aimee, without question, is another one of our musical ideals. “Just Like Anyone” is what came of these two beautiful minds intersecting, and for that reason holds a special significance to us.

Aimee Mann on “Just Like Anyone”

“This is a song I wrote when Jeff Buckley died…

I hadn’t known Jeff extremely well, but we kept bumping into each other here and there. One night we met for a drink at a pub in NYC, and started writing messages to each other on a paper place mat that was there, instead of talking, because the music in the bar was really loud or something. An interesting effect of that was that we found ourselves writing things that we would never would dare to say to each other out loud. I remember thinking that he seemed to be sort of lost and sad although he outwardly was very funny and lively and confident, and wrote something about that, among another things.

I didn’t talk to him for a long time after that-I went to England to live for a while and we talked once or twice and then nothing for over a year. Then one night I got a voice mail message from him that said, “I just realized what you were trying to tell me that night”. I tried to call him back but the number I had for him was old, and then I got his new number but I was out of town again and it was difficult to call, and then I heard that he was missing, and presumed dead.”