focusinterview.
JEBEDIAH festival of the sun 2015
It’s been twenty years since Jebediah first hit our ear drums with their contagious riffs and those one of a kind vocals of Kevin Mitchell (aka Bob Evans). Headlining FOSTUN this December, drummer Brett Mitchell caught up with FOCUS to reflect on some of the band’s achievements …
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e are super excited to have you on the bill at FOTSUN in your 20th year of doing Jedediah! What are you guys looking forward to about this gig? Well, it’s been an interesting year for us. We celebrated our birthday, which is quite a big one, and we’ve just been kind of quite blown away really, by the response from the show we’ve been playing. It’s been a little bit humbling; we have those little reflective moments where you’re sort of thinking back on things and how you can kind of fit into the whole scene, and you don’t really have the answers to the questions. We’ve played only just a handful of bigger shows over the past five to eight years. Shows like this are a rarity for us now; so it’s always a little bit special. With countless hits and singles to boot, what can we expect from your onstage vibe at FOTSUN? We’ll try to please as many people as we can; it’s always a little bit hard to know. Normally for a festival type show we try to include a good range of singles and songs that we feel like people might want to hear, and then we’ll chuck in a few other ones from over the years that are slightly more obscure. Normally a festival slot is 45 - 55 minutes, so with 20 years of material it’s a little bit difficult to work out what to play. We normally play it pretty safe for those shows, because we know it’s a broader audience and we want people to hear at least a few songs that they came to see.
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Over the years between the band there’s Not only is it your twenty year anniversary, you’ve also released an album to been solo gigs, alter egos, collaborations celebrate, titled Twenty. Tell us about the and more. How did it come about to join process behind that and how you came together and do this tour and album? up with the song compilation ... In more recent times where we’ve not I suppose, probably a similar menplayed as regularly, its been a bit of tality to what I was speaking a part-time endeavour, only of before. We operate as a doing a handful of shows a pretty democratic unit; we year. It really doesn’t take We’ ve played basically get together, that much for us to get only just a will throw around ideas together - we still enjoy er handful of bigg and it will go back and each other’s company st pa e th shows over forth until it gets fia lot and it’s all a very s; ar ye t gh five to ei a e nalised. Twenty songs familiar feeling. That ar is th e lik s show , so w seemed to be a good aspect hasn’t changed, no us r fo ty ri ra bit number; it sounds like so it’s something we do it’s always a little quite a lot, but once you treasure. You couldn’t special. ” put in most of the singles ask for much of a better and some favourite B sides, excuse than that to have a there is really no room left birthday party. after that. It came together relatively You’ve played with some incredible big name bands and toured quickly - probably for that reason. extensively throughout your career. Looking at the tracklist of this album, What have be some of the most memorawhen writing songs such as Harpoon ble moments? or Leaving Home, did you ever think it I’ll be frank - some of it’s just a bit of a blur would take off like it did? over the years. I don’t know how much I can Who at 21 can look 20 years ahead? Nobody ... And even less so when you’re talking really trust my memories of a lot of things. I about something like the idea of a career in certainly look back on it all with great fondthe music industry; it’s pretty absurd in a lot ness, but I think that’s just human nature to of ways. In the early days I think we were block out some of the s**tier bits! I will probreally just hanging on for dear life and trying ably always remember, we did the Big Day to keep up with the momentum of it all - as Out tour a couple of times, and one of them for whether we thought we’d be able to have was in 2000 - Channel V were taking footage a 20 year celebration and particularly have it of the show. We had these crazy tracksuits received so well and so warmly, it all seems on. At the time you do it, its a bit crazy and pretty unreal to me. it’s a bit rushed, and you’re just kind of glad
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to have done a reasonable job. I remember seeing some of the video footage from that summer, and we were just really struck by the scale of what we were involved with. You do have little moments where your perspective gets shifted, or you get a bit of a shake up; I’m sure this is the case for most of us, regardless of what we do in our lives. It’s often the little things, little moments, with people that stick in your mind; it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else … What advice would you give to a band who’s fresh on the scene and trying to find their feet? It’s fun how much of a perception there is that you’ll be able to give all this advice or experience. In the end, it’s not really about rules or formulas; it’s indefinable really. It’s not about tangible things - there are only a few reasons to play music, and the main one is because it feels good! You try to just hang on to that feeling and experience as much as you can as it goes along, because it’s irreplaceable. I suppose in terms of practical advice, particularly for longevity and it sounds a little bit grim - but I’ll say, don’t stop. Thanks so much Brett.
the plug! Catch Jebediah at FOTSUN. 11th - 12th December. For full line up, head to www.fotsun.com For enquiries, email: info@fotsun.com