Bosco and Peck members Paul Bosco, Jason Peck and Matt Coslop (front) are pictured at the Right Coast Recording Studio with studio owner Dave Natale. (Photo courtesy of Bosco and Peck.)

A local band is making a whole new kind of cover album, and in the process is winning over a slew of fans.

The traditional cover song is a tribute, or remake: one band plays a song that was popularized by another band. What soul-rock band Bosco and Peck has done is to take that concept and make the coverage mutual: on Bosco and Peck’s Song Swap podcast, the group gets together with another indie outfit and they cover each other’s songs in their own styles.

The band has put out a new Song Swap podcast on iTunes once a month since it began in May 2010. On the podcast, band members Paul Bosco and Jason Peck chat with the band they’re trading with, and play the results of their song swap.

Paul Bosco, Titusville resident and one third of the band, said the song swap format allows their band to tap into the fanbases of other bands, and vice-versa.

“We can share fanbases,” he said “They’re invested in it because they know the song that we’re covering.”

In the first season of the podcast, Bosco and Peck swapped songs with Sounds from Atlantis, Jennings and A’s Rage. Two of those bands play in styles that are reasonably similar to Bosco and Peck’s melodic rock soul sound. But electronic techno artist Adrian Silva, aka A’s Rage, used sampling, distortion and electronic sounds to warp one of Bosco and Peck’s songs, “As much as I want,” almost beyond recognition. In turn, Bosco and Peck gave a melodic makeover to Silva’s tune, “Born in the Ghetto.”

“His version of our song is completely amazing,” Peck said. “Not because we wrote it, but because he did something with it we never would have thought to do.”

Bosco, 33 and Peck, 32, have been playing together since 2000, and established their band in 2004. Peck and Matt Coslop, the drummer, live in South Jersey, where the band has their own recording studio in Pittsgrove. Peck works as a self-described “computer jerk” and Bosco is a carpenter at Hopewell Township’s Double Brook Farm.

In the early days, the duo hoped to find success as is traditionally known in the music industry, by creating a sound that would appeal to a label, getting signed and using the record company’s resources to promote themselves into fame and fortune.

As time went on without the elusive recording contract, they decided to try a different course, by building a fan base from the ground up rather than the top down.

“We built up a great resume for a record company, but we hadn’t built up the fan base that would stick with us for years,” Peck said.

The band is trying to find success recording and selling their music directly to fans. The podcast is part of that fan base building strategy that includes reaching out directly to music lovers with social media like Twitter. Peck said it seems to be working, as they’ve been selling more albums and songs on iTunes.

The podcast gives music fans a reason to listen beyond just hearing one new song from a band they might already like. Bosco and Peck have a laid-back, humorous interviewing style that Peck said was influenced by the comedy podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself.

“We’re pretty edgy,” he said. “We don’t like boring conversation.”

The edgy comedy and language has earned the Song Swap an “explicit” tag on iTunes.

Bosco said he doesn’t know exactly how many people listen to the podcast, but he gets plenty of feedback about it.

Bosco and Peck often perform at local venues. On the web: boscoandpeck.com