Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Jebediah's Kevin Mitchell been up to lately? OR Are there any rockstar diva tantrums on a Kevin Mitchell / Bob Evans tour?
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Kevin Mitchell, the versatile frontman of Jebediah and the folksy charm of Bob Evans, joins us for a spirited conversation on the Still Rockin' It podcast. Discover how he juggles his robust career with personal commitments, from rocking the stage at the Sydney Fringe Festival's 27 Club to managing family life and pursuing an arts degree.
Hear Kevin's take on his evolving musical journey, as he shares stories about crafting a unique performance that marries the acoustic and electric worlds of his dual personas. With a playlist rooted in the power pop and garage sounds of the late 80s and early 90s, Kevin reveals how these influences shape his latest creative endeavors.
Journey alongside Kevin as he reflects on nearly three decades of music-making, revealing the thrill and challenges of reimagining his extensive catalog for solo performances. From the nuances of selecting which Jebediah songs translate to the solo stage to the exciting prospect of upcoming tours, Kevin opens up about the intricacies of blending his musical identities.
Fans get a sneak peek into his family dynamics, including eldest daughter's love for rap and their shared anticipation of an Olivia Rodrigo concert. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to his music, this episode offers a celebration of Kevin Mitchell's enduring passion and creativity in the music world.
What has Kevin, I mean Bob, I mean Kevin. been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That radio chick, cheryl Lee, here. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast, where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today we catch up with two great singer-songwriters Kevin Mitchell, frontman of the iconic post-grunge 90s rock band Jebediah, and treasured folk artist Bob Evans, both men driven by an unrelenting curiosity and desire to push boundaries. The fact that they're one and the same individual hardly seems to matter To Kev and Bob. It's all about the music. They've got lots of things on the boils. Hope you enjoyed chatting to Kev as much as I did. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to that radiochipcomau. You're with Cheryl Leavitt and I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today Kevin Edward Mitchell. How are you going, kev?
Speaker 2:I'm good, thank you, how are?
Speaker 1:you? Yeah, well, thanks. So we chatted earlier in the year, I think about february. You came into the radio station just before uh, our fringe here. Yes, yes, that's right, you were performing with the 27 club.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's been going gangbusters yeah, well, we just did a season at sydney fringe festival with a bit of a revolving cast actually, because I was on tour with Jebediah at the time. So they did a five-week run, but I did week three and week five, so then we had, yeah, other people coming in and out of different shows.
Speaker 1:It's great how the line-up does that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got some other people that have come on board. That have been really, really good. So, yeah, if other people that have come on, board.
Speaker 1:that have been really really good. So yeah, If we thought you were busy back then, my goodness, we've got so much to talk about today. Do you ever sleep?
Speaker 2:I sleep well. I sleep well.
Speaker 1:Is that because you're exhausted?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably yeah. I mean it has been a really busy year. Particularly the second half of this year has been very busy. It goes on right through to Christmas. But you know I'm grateful for the work you know, especially coming off a few years of COVID where it was very challenging. So, yeah, it's been a great year.
Speaker 1:You played a bit of Nirvana for me last time. Any chance of a song this time, or is it a bit too tricky on Zoom.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, not really set up for it at the moment. Next time, I'm not really set up for it at the moment.
Speaker 1:Next time. I just thought I'd quickly ask you how you were going with your arts degree. I think you just started that last time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good, good. I'm two-thirds of the way through it. You know, when I started it, my goal was to graduate by the time I turned 50. I just had my 47th birthday the other week. I'm on track to finish by 49. I reckon I'll be done.
Speaker 1:And I guess, with this busy, busy schedule that you've had and have coming up, you haven't been putting your journalism into practice with any podcasting, or have you?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't been podcasting. I've been just too busy, yeah, you know, between sort of work and family and studying.
Speaker 1:One more quick question and then we better get on to all the exciting things. You've got two girls, I've got three. What's on your playlist now? Is it Katy Perry?
Speaker 2:No, no, my eldest daughter, ella. She just turned 13, she 13. She listens to a lot of rap music actually. She's into Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and then there's a bunch of artists that I've never heard of. It's such a deep well of stuff, that world. It's rap. But it's a very particular style of rap music. It's quite low key. The rap music that I grew up with was stuff like Run DMC and MC Hammer. It was really up-tempo kind of stuff, right, whereas this is like quite downbeat kind of rap music. It's quite mellow. It's almost kind of A genre on its own. Yeah, it is. It's a very modern genre and there's just so much of it out there. So, yeah, she listens to a lot of that. Actually, I think the kids are going to see Olivia Rodrigo when she comes to town in a couple of weeks. So yeah, they really like her. She's a bit more traditional, I suppose, kind of pop singer. I quite like her actually. She's got some good songs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like. Is it Driver's Licence? Yeah, yeah, such poignant teenage angst you are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee. The Mitchell girls are off to see Olivia Rodriguez, let's have driver's license, and then we're back to speak to their dad, kevin Mitchell, about what's coming up next. What about you? What's on your playlist?
Speaker 2:What's on my playlist? What have I been listening to? I've been listening to a bit of Ron Sexsmith lately. I'm still listening to lots of, like you know, late 80s kind of garage, kind of power pop stuff or like, even like the Bangles and like Big Star and the oldies. But goodies, yeah, there's just something about that sort of jangly guitar pop from the late 80s and early 90s that I'm still really enjoying and it's actually informing a lot of the new music that I'm sort of writing at the moment. You know the Lars, that English band, the Lars. You know that song. There she Goes. Actually, the other day I was listening to the new Nardis Surf record, speaking of great power pop bands. They just put out a new record recently. So, yeah, lots of guitar, power pop music.
Speaker 1:You're going on tour with Bob Evans and you've got the Hotter Than Hell tour. Which should we talk about first?
Speaker 2:Let's go in chronological order. Hotter Than Hell first. Hotter Than Hell.
Speaker 1:So this is an old school vibe off the beaten track outdoor venue tour. You are doing all the dates. So again there's some bands coming and going. Jebediah are doing all the dates.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:Have you played with any of these bands before?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean Regurgitate are headlining and we've known them for, you know, decades, lots of shows with them and also Little Birdie, who are reforming for this tour. We've known those guys for a very long time as well.
Speaker 1:Axe are Regurgitator Less Than Jake and Unwritten Law from the US. And then local guys. You guys, jebediah, little Birdie, Adelita Love her.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I've just spent the last three months Jebediah touring with Magic Dirt, so I've been seeing a lot of Adelita this year.
Speaker 1:The Bennys and the Kickons. What a line-up. But the uninitiated. How would you explain? Hotter Than Hell.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a tour that has been around for a little while. We've done shows underneath this banner before, and it's always got a pretty strong sort of 90s, early 2000s kind of vibe. It's pretty obvious what sort of market it's going for. But this one is very different to any we've done before, because a lot of bands, including ourselves, are playing albums in full. So jeb and I are playing slightly odd way from start to finish, our first album, which is something we've only done once before, and that was to celebrate our 20-year anniversary, which was almost 10 years ago. So, um, it's a rare thing, yeah, and I know there are other bands on the bill that I think unwritten law and less than jake are. Little Birdie might be doing that as well. So, yeah, you're getting sort of the album experience.
Speaker 1:I do love when you see a band and they play your favourite album from Woe To Go and you get to experience that favourite music in the live setting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I guess it's a concept that's been around for a while now. Quite a lot of bands doing it. You know there's a lot of nostalgia, I suppose, attached to that, sometimes being dangerous.
Speaker 1:Music, it takes you down memory lane and it brings back, you know, long-forgotten feelings and memories and adventures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you know people of a certain age are kind of attracted to that.
Speaker 1:I'm 13 years older than you, oh, okay. So I don't know whether it's an age thing and you get more nostalgic with age, or not.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, look, I think it probably is something that as you get older you do tend to. I mean, you know there's a lot that I feel you know with that Jebediah record Slightly Odd Way that we're playing. I'm sort of happy to be celebrating that record because you know, we do have a lot to be thankful for with that record, not just because it was our first record, but it was kind of the record that gave us our career, you know, your kickstart basically, yeah, well, really, we're in a massive well, Well, really in a massive way.
Speaker 2:It's still the most popular record we've ever put out, so it's a big part of the reason why we've kind of had a career. So, yeah, I'm happy to be celebrating it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's have the title track from that album Leaving Home. Then back to speak some more with lead singer, founding member and guitarist of Jebediah, kevin Mitchell. Leaving home life is never good. Today, leaving home, little Birdie. Are from Perth.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Kick On's are from Perth, you guys are from Perth. A lot of good stuff come out of Perth.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, you know, probably the biggest Australian band in the world from a life perspective right now is Tame Impala, who are from Perth. When we first started, you know there weren't many bands from Perth getting played on national radio or touring nationally and it was something that when we started there was the WA music industry was really trying hard to promote itself and get West Australian bands noticed. We were sort of, I guess, one of the first bands to taste strong success nationally in the sort of mid-90s. And then, you know, a lot of bands kind of came through after us and got much bigger than us. You know Eskimo Joe Birds of Tokyo, you know you've got Luke Steele and Sleepy Jackson and we're now Empire of the Sun and then of course, tame Impala.
Speaker 2:In the last sort of 10 years or whatever longer than that, I've been around for a while now. So it just feels like it's just kind of grown and grown. You know grown and grown. You know, since I like in waves, you know every few years another band comes along that gets even bigger, and then a few years later another band and it feels like with taming parlor it's sort of like feels like the the peak of of a project that really started 30 years ago for the west australian music industry in terms of like trying to get the world to notice our town and and the music that was coming out of it. And Tame Impala has kind of achieved the ultimate success in a way because they're internationally huge.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I feel like we were sort of part of that history in a way yeah, I always used to say that all the best bands came out of Adelaide, but you're giving us a little bit of a run for our money yeah, I mean, I mean, look, obviously Adelaide got a pretty proud musical history as well but.
Speaker 2:I think you know the thing about perth. I mean I'm going to adelaide. I always kind of felt there was a lot of similarities between perth, adelaide, but basically the same size city and but the thing that's different about perth is, you know, just that isolation, you know, and adelaide's just only a short jump away from melbourne and, I think, um, culturally, adelaide and Melbourne, you know there's a lot of share Crossover. Yeah, perth really back in the day was geographically just very isolated from everywhere and I think that really had an impact on the culture and the music that came out of it. I mean, these days it's all different now. You know, geography has kind of become a bit irrelevant now because yeah, the world's become smaller and smaller and smaller.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're all connected online Technology. That's right, so I'm not sure that that isolation has the impact that it used to.
Speaker 1:Probably not as relevant. You're right, these dates for hotter than hell. So if you like your rock a little bit rockier, a little bit funkier, a little bit rockier, a little bit punkier, a little bit hotter, then this one's for you. Through October and November, get onto the Hotter Than Hell website to get tickets. Yep and I'll see you down the front in Adelaide on the 26th of October at our Cooper's Ale House.
Speaker 2:Gepps Cross Gepps. Cross that's it. We've done one there before. It's great. It's an awesome venue, probably one of the better ones actually around the country. They did a really awesome job setting it up last time, so yeah, it'll be good. And actually, from memory, last time we were there was peak of summer and boiling hot, so it might be a little bit cooler this time.
Speaker 3:You are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:Fresh back from seeing Adelita perform at the Monday Monday Bash Music Festival earlier this year. Hopefully she's on the bill coming to your town With the Hotter Than Hell tour. Here's her song I Want your Love Back to see what else is going on and maybe get Kev Mitchell from Jebediah to introduce us to Bob Evans. Shall we move on to your duo, your duet tour with Bob Evans. You two have one in the same. There's Kevin Mitchell, lead singer, guitarist of Jebediah. Then Bob came to the fore and he's more of a folk kind of guy. How are you two going to mesh together on this tour? Will there be any biffo?
Speaker 2:That would be quite the sight, wouldn't it, for people to come along and see me. You know, I did this for the first time last year, and so this is the second time. I've kind of done it, although it's a different set.
Speaker 1:Hence the title. When Kev Meet, Bobs Rides Again.
Speaker 2:That's right, you know, basically I'm playing songs from across almost 30 years of making music between Jebediah and Bob Evans. There's like 12 albums to choose from between the two of them. And it's not a Bob Evans show and it's definitely not a Jebediah show. It's something else altogether and I kind of alternate between acoustic guitar and electric guitar, which makes it very different to a Bob show where it's all acoustic.
Speaker 2:From a personal point of view, it's just, you know, I really enjoyed it last time just being able to celebrate or just be able to play music. From my whole history. You know, it's something that I've kept the two things separate always and it's just nice to kind of bring them all together, because some of those old jebediah songs are songs that I wrote when I was a teenager and I'm very fond of and of course I try and reinterpret them a little bit too. Obviously, without the band there's no point playing them the same. So playing them solo, I reinterpret them and play them a bit differently and, yeah, hopefully kind of it brings out a different side of the songs 30 years and 12 albums.
Speaker 1:That is an, you know, an amazing body of work. So many fabulous songs that were the soundtrack to our lives in the 90s to choose from. How do you pick?
Speaker 2:yeah, well it's. It is a process because I mean especially just the jebediah songs that are the hard. You know, the bob evans songs are pretty easy to pick because you know I perform them pretty much how I always have. But with the jebediah songs some of them just don't work like I'll give it away now. I don't play leaving home, maybe jebediah's most well-known song. I don't work Like I'll give it away now. I don't play Leaving Home, maybe Jebediah's most well-known song. I don't play it because I just can't figure out a way to do it that sounds good on my heart.
Speaker 2:That song, I just think, is just meant to be played by the full band. It's a band song, yeah. But you know a lot of other songs. I've found new ways of kind of doing them and playing them and that's kind of part of the fun the reinterpretation, yeah, and discovering a new way of playing it. So, yeah, so with the Jebediah songs it's kind of a process of going through and choosing songs that are not necessarily radio singles in the past, but songs that like album tracks that have become fan favourites, sort of focusing on those a bit more as well. It's a pretty broad range of stuff when it all comes together, you know, across many, many years and obviously different styles as well.
Speaker 1:We met Bob in 1999. He's getting on a bit now. He's been around for a while and he's won ARIA Awards.
Speaker 2:Well, I've won one, not plural.
Speaker 1:One Good on him. I think we'd better listen to that one ARIA award-winning album now, from 2006, the Suburban Songbook. It won Best Adult Contemporary Album, debuted at number 15 on the ARIA Albums Charts and is listed in the 100 Best Australian Albums. Let's have Sadness and Whiskey and then we're back to say goodbye to Bob. I mean Kev, I mean Bob If I didn't stink of sadness and whiskey. Could you marry me?
Speaker 1:Well, we look forward to seeing when Kev met Bob Rides again and more extensive tour, even in the hotter than hell, starting in the middle of November, going through till the middle of December. Yep, bobevanscomau for tickets for that one. The Adelaideans, you are at the Grace Emily, the beautiful, funky, spunky Grace Emily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I play there a lot. It's just one of my favourite pubs in the country. I just love that place and it's a really small venue so you know it always sells out. Yeah, it's just a very homely place to go.
Speaker 1:And it's just around the corner from me. Come on, I'll get on the scooter. Kev, thank you so much for spending your precious time with us today. I know you are a very, very busy man and we wish you all the best for the Hotter Than Hell Tour and also for when kev met bob rides again, and also oik, the newish album. All the best with the release of that as well. That's gone, gangbusters thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's been fun. So, like I said, it's been a very eventful year. I mean, any year where you put a new record out is eventful. Yeah, we've just done a lot of touring, a lot of shows, so yeah, it's been great. So hopefully this Hotter Than Hell tour and this solo tour that I'm doing will sort of cap it all off.
Speaker 1:We look forward to seeing you here in our town, not once, but twice. Twice yep, we'll see you down the front.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Thanks Kev, you very much.
Speaker 1:Thanks, kem tada for now, bye. You are listening to still rocking it. The podcast with cheryl lee will go out with a bob evans song that maybe you haven't heard before and I don't know if he'll play this one on the tour from a decade ago, two of us featuring john pike, a live version from the then and now aust Salutes, the Beatles album. You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.