Juice Magazine Issue 111, March 2002 - by Samantha Clode
They're best mates and one of the nation's most popular bands. Now, the return of Jebediah.

Sydney's Metro Theatre is packed.
Hot and sweaty, it had been over a year since Jebediah - singer / guitarist Kevin Mitchell, his brother, drummer Brett, bassist Vanessa Thornton and guitarist Chris Daymond - had taken to any of the city's stages, and they were nervous. They needn't have worried. Three triumphant encores later - and a rendition of 'It's Raining Men', which left a few heads shaking in confused wonder - it was clear the band were in their element. The show was witnessed by the most enthusiastic crowd the Metro had seen in months.
Now there's album number three, Jebediah. It's their best record yet, a testament to the group's growing maturity and song writing skills. After demoing a handful of songs mid-2000 the band headed off on a US / Canada tour, returning late that summer to firstly relax, and then to finish writing. The last album, Of Someday Shambles, had been a difficult one to make. Almost a year later, June 2001, they found themselves at Garry Gary Beers's Mangrove Studios on the NSW Central Coast, with producer Magoo [Regurgitator, Spiderbait].
On the eve of their national tour, Jebediah are keen to hit the road with the new songs. First stop: the JUICE interview.

Kevin Mitchell, vocals / guitar
Can you remember the first time you picked up a guitar?
I was 12, it was the beginning the summer of 990 - maybe I was 13? - and I chose to learn the guitar at school. So Mum and I went through the classifieds, and there was nylon - string classical for $90. By dinnertime I had written a song. It was called "I'm in Love With You" or something. [Sings] "What am I gonna do? I am in love with you." [Laughs] It was pretty shit, to state the obvious.
One thing that becomes really evident to anyone who spends time with you guys is that your friendships with each other are so strong.
When we started touring and started doing the band thing seriously, we were meeting all these bands - and I love that, I love hanging out with musos - which is fantastic. But seeing how these bands work made me realise, "Wow, they fight heaps and don't hang out much when they're at home." It surprises me in a way, we're still able to be like that; I thought we'd turn into what a lot of other bands are like. That just hasn't happened; maybe it never will.
Do you think people stereotype your music?
The one thing I can definitely say is that there is a lot more going on with our band than people realise; there is a lot more going on with the songs. People probably don't realise that we're the kind of band who're gonna be around for fuck of a long time, and the more records we make the more chance we have of showing people another side of us.
Do you think Jebediah miss out on critical appreciation due to the style of the music?
Oh fuck yeah, definitely. But it doesn't bother me; it isn't something that I get disappointed about. I am having too much of a good enough time to care about that kind of stuff, and I know what we're capable of. I know how important it is to me, and at the end of the day that's all that's really matters. In my mind, we're a really important band, and we're really meaningful, and that's all that matters. I got into this for myself; I didn't really get into it for anybody else. If people are into it, that's great - the more the merrier.
Did you have any particular ideas when you came to work on this album?
The last record was a really difficult record, and I wanted this record to have heaps more energy and impact. I really wanted to make pop melodies, even if the music the band was writing together wasn't pop. It was coming out really easy as well; I was getting off on it. For a couple of years there it was really difficult to get to the source of stuff.
Your dad died, right?
Yeah. You can't go through something like that without it affecting you, and especially when what you are doing is an expression of how you are feeling. I reckon for a good nine months - oh, let's just call it a year after Dad did - I didn't really know who I was in that period. It was just a really fucked time. Because the vibe of the band is like, four friends having a good time, and writing songs together was all positive and everything, when that horrible, negative fucking thing came into it, it just didn't gel.
In a lot of ways this record is a celebration for me, personally, of just coming out the other end of it. After dad died, I was really closed off. But a couple of years have passed and I've just worked things out about how I feel about everything. This record just feels like a celebration of being open again.
So what is the best thing about being in Jebediah, for you?
Pretty much every day, I can work and smile. I'm just enjoying it so much. Being able to find meaning in what you do, and enjoy what you. I never feel I am wasting my time - which is probably something that would sound stupid to certain members of society, because they would think everything that's involved with being in a band is a waste of time. I don't look at what I do in the sense of what I do as being a "career", and I don't look at Jebediah in the sense of it being a business - although strictly speaking it is. I don't think of it as 'art' either. And of other people want a slice of it, we're quite willing to give them one.

Vanessa Thornton, bass
All four members seem to have a lot of fun together?
Well, you never know when it's gonna end, do ya? So you may as well enjoy it.
Do you discard a lot of material when you're writing songs?
Yes, but that's mainly due to poor memory. We don't record anything. I'm sure we've lost stuff, one week we think, 'Oh, this is really good,’ and then the next week we can't remember what the hell it was.
Why did you choose to use Magoo?
We met Magoo when he was recording Midnight Oil's Redneck Wonderland. I can't think of anything he has done that doesn't sound great. I was very ken to use an Australian; the two people we had worked with before were guys we had called in from overseas who had no idea of the history of the band or what we were about.
When we were thinking about recording Of Someday Shambles we thought, 'If someone is gonna make our record, then they should se us live.' We organised this show at a pub in Perth for when Mark Trombino came over - but he got sick and was delayed. Then when he came into Perth, we thought, 'OK, we'll just jump onto something.' There was a little show called 20 Minutes of Fame on a Thursday night, and we played under a pseudonym. I think he might have been standing there going, 'Oh God, is this the band I am recording?'
Is it easy to make a living out of music in this country?
I think we're just making a living, which is funny because everyone thinks were rich. We don't own houses, Kevin doesn't even own a car!
What do you think of the progression from Of Someday Shambles to this album?
It reminds me of summer, even though we wrote half of it in winter. It feels as though we came out of a cave we were travelling in for so long. Because when you're on the road, you have no concept of what's going on in the world; nothing affects you except for the gigs. It feels like we came out of that and we've seen the sunshine and all of a sudden we're at home, and there was no stress or pressure. We spent more time in the kitchen of the rehearsal room, coming up with ideas for stupid skits and TV shows and expanding our empire.
Then how did the idea for Redline Records [the label Jebediah run with their management] come about?
We knew of a couple of records that had been recorded by Big Heavy Stuff, and Adam Said Galore. And we just though it was crazy; these bands had awesome records and no one was gonna hear them. So we just though, 'Hey, well, it's a tax write off.' [Laughs] No, we didn't need a tax write off at all. But we'd been so lucky with all these opportunities and seeing that these bands we really looked up to and respected, who had been doing it for longer than us, were still struggling, it was giving something back.

Brett Mitchell, drums
Personally, how do you feel about being in Jebediah?
I don't consider myself a natural performer so I am perfectly suited to my role, because if there is any chance of escaping the spotlight than I am the one who is most likely to do that.
Was music your passion?
I don't really consider myself a big music fan. Do you think that's unusual? Being in the band has changed my perception of music and changed the way I interpret it. I’ve always had a feeling that whatever it was in me fulfilled by listening to music is now fulfilled by playing it instead.
What do you think about the public perception of Jebediah?
[Sighs] I honestly still don't know, and it has taken me quite a few years to get to the stage where I can accept compliments about it. We've been around long enough now for people to get some idea about who we are; I don't think there is too much that's contrived about us. I think we try to be honest. Yeah, I think if there were two words to describe Jebediah they would be 'honesty' and 'energy'.
If you weren't in this band what would you be doing
I didn't finish university so I'm not qualified to do anything really. I enjoy writing; perhaps I would have tried to get a job in the media somewhere - behind the scenes of course.
I'm not qualified to do anything else. I'm not qualified to do this, but don't tell anyone! I read an interview with Ozzy Osbourne recently and Ozzy was saying, "How can you retire from something that's not really a job?"
Do you think at all about how to maintain longevity in a musical sense?
Oh yeah, for sure. But it's so volatile and beyond the four of us it's hard to think about it in specific terms. You have fantasies about where you might be in five years, or even ten years - but then I think, 'Hang on, do O even want to be doing this in 10 years? The lifestyle could kill me before then!' [Laughs] And we don't even go hard; we're pretty reserved compared to a lot of bands. You see the lifestyle take its toll on people and you wonder if that's inevitable or if it is something that you can decide not to do. I think that we have enough respect for ourselves to avoid some of the pitfalls.
The others like to describe you as someone who has a life outside of music.
I'm a little boring [Laughs] I'm more introspective than the others. Maybe that extra year or two makes a difference. Maybe it's about feeling that you've found your calling. I think some time in your late twenties you have the revelation that there's not going to be a revelation, you know? Nothing is going to fall into your lap - mind you, for the band, a lot of things do seem to fall into our laps!

Chris Daymond, guitar
So what was the first record you ever bought?
The lines are pretty blurry here. I think it was Summer of '87 because it had "You're The Voice" by John Farnham on it. I liked that song! Actually, Whispering Jack was a pretty good record, so I guess that was it. I think now that my Mum actually liked it a lot more than I did.
Is a career in a band and with music what you always wanted to do?
This is what I always wanted to do. I'm really ambitious, and I am kinda confident. I can't explain why; I always knew I'd be in a band. It sounds really stupid to say I knew I'd be famous, because I'm not famous, but I always wanted to be able to perform and be good at it.
What would you like to learn more about?
I really want to learn a lot more about the recording side of things. I like recording, but I don' like the pressure of it. Sometimes I feel like the recording process is like sitting fucking exams that you haven't studied for! [Laughs] It's bloody nerve racking!
What do you think each member of Jebediah brings to the band as a whole?
What Kevin brings to it is that he's my best mate. We try to make each other laugh a lot of the time; that's a really important thing. Vanessa, I love the fact that I can now be onstage at the Big Day Out and I can look across and she'll be smiling at me. We'll be in front of thousands of people and we're just looking at each other going, 'Can you believe this?' It's the same look we used to give each other at rehearsals when we were writing a cranking tune, you know? And now it's six years later, and we're not believing this is happening. Brett, even though we sometimes disagree musically about what we like and what we're gonna do, he is the one with the least amount of ego. He's a real rock, and he's kinda shy. I look back and I really appreciate that we have someone like that in our band who does get embarrassed and coy in public. He balances the way Kevin and I like to show off, and I really like that.
So what do you think of this record?
It didn't come out the way I thought it would. I could hear it sounding a little more polished and textured than what it is. But I wasn't really considering the fact that we were going to have a day and a half to record each song, pretty much. So it came out differently, but not in a bad way. I am not unhappy with the way it has come out, actually really happy with it. I think it speaks for Jebediah far better than the last two, which is why obviously we don't have a title for this one. There are certain parts of songs I get chills when I listen.
Such as?
The single, "Nothing Lasts Forever". I get a chill in this certain bit that Kevin sings, "When we talk about the past, I could sit with you for hours." I don't know who he is talking about, it just gives me a chill to think that I am in this band, playing the music that I like.
I never get sick of being on the road. There is nothing I can complain about. I don't mind all the travelling; I really, really enjoy it. I have nothing to complain about, so people might wanna punch me in the head. But how do you feel not embarrassed about having achieved your dreams?

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