Issue 518

Jebediah "Bob Evans is dead, man," Jebediah guitarist Chris Daymond tells me. "He's dead!" Frontman Kevin Mitchell pipes up: "Bob Evans is, like, tied up in the basement with a gag." Laughter erupts around the group. Mitchell, of course is Bob Evans. Or, at least, he is sometimes - for now, the project is on hold (read: not dead) while Mitchell reunites with his bandmates in Jebediah, who in the late 90s carved themselves a significant chunk of the Oz rock landscape with hits like Leaving Home, Harpoon and Animal. After going on hiatus in 2006, they're preparing to release their fifth album, 'Kosciuszko' - their first full-length since 2004. I spoke with the band about their return - a return which inevitably means interviews, touring schedules, and a new record label in Dew Process. "Well, we were the steak knives with the Bob Evans package," Kevin's brother and drummer, Brett, jokes about signing with Dew Process. "It's like, 'yeah, I've got steak knives already, but I guess I'll put 'em aside and we might use them as a gift or something.' " Kevin is more philosophical about things. "Everything seems really fresh and new now. We've had such a big break and we've made a new record in a completely different way, and working with a different label and different management, so it does really feel like a clean slate. Which is refreshing, and I think really crucial to it working. This is our fifth record, and we've been doing it for a while, and in order to remain kind of vital and for there still to be a point to it all, there has to be some new ground explored." There certainly seems to be groundswell for a comeback for the Jebs - last year's short tour proved they could still cut it live to a rabid crowd, and shining new single She's Like A Comet has been fervently picked up by Triple J. But as much as it might seem like a long time between drinks for Jebediah, the band themselves don't really see it that way. "I can totally understand why people would have that perception," Kevin says, "but the reality is, that the longest period that I went without seeing these guys was the first six months of the break. From 2006 onwards, we've been in constant contact." "What was the longest time we went without a show, then?" Brett asks. Bassist Vanessa Thornton is quick to reply: "It was two years." "Yeah, I can remember when we played that first show in two years that first song felt really weird," Kevin notes. "But by the end of the set, everything felt completely normal again. I honestly don't think that there's been such a big issue of having to reconnect and all that kind of stuff, 'cos I don't think we ever totally disconnected." 'Kosciuszko,' in fact, has been in gestation for a number of years, a process that has lead to what the band promises is their most varied and sonically ambitious album yet. "It was just a very casual approach to recording," Thornton explains. "With no deadline or pressures, we could take our time." "I guess when you're busy, things don't seem to be dragging on, you're always busy doing something anyway," Daymond continues. "We would finish a two-week session, and think, 'when's it possible that we've got another window?' And it might've been five months down the track, so we'd schedule it then. And then that five months would go just like that, and we'd be back in and working on it again. That just rolls over." "It's actually a bit of a shock that all that has changed so suddenly," Brett admits. "That we now do have schedules and a manager and a label and all that stuff, which was really quite liberating to operate without. So I'm a little concerned about how I'm going to adapt to that." The wheels are well in motion, now - with national tours lining up, Jebediah are well and truly back in the saddle. "We'll try and pick up as many odds and ends as we can, in the mean time," Brett explains. "Odds and ends? What does that mean?" Kevin replies. "Odds and ends, like odds and ends shows," Brett retorts. "I don't play odds and ends shows," Kevin grins. "I play fucken' events!" Matt Vesely