Two months later, on their first gig outside WA and their lucky 13th overall, Jebediah won the annual National Campus Band Competition in Lismore, New South Wales, 4000 km from home. The stun factor went national.

Jebediah signed to murmur (home of silverchair and Something For Kate) in April 96, immediately undertaking the first of many exhaustive national tours. The 'Twitch' EP was released in August. Radio rapture kicked in with their January 97 single, 'Jerks of Attention' and escalated in June with 'Leaving Home'.

In September 97, Jebediah's debut album Slightly Odway entered the national ARIA chart at #7 and the ARIA alternative chart at #2. Within four months it was certified Gold. Today, having spawned five hit singles and one of the most thrilling live sets in Australian rock, it's a double platinum classic.

It can take a near death experience to get some bands off the road. In Jebediah's case, late 1998 was a litany of personal disasters from car accidents to glandular fever to busted ribs to appendectomy. Were it not for reflective moments in various emergency rooms across Australia, this eagerly awaited second coming might still be on the 'later' list.

"We just love playing," Chris Daymond shrugs. "You're either on the road playing with your band or you're sitting at home doing nothing. Since the very beginning, we've very rarely said no to a gig."

It figures. Any rock fan who hasn't caught Jebediah in the breathtaking act over the past two years just hasn't been trying. From Livid to Homebake to Mudslinger to the Big Day Out, no Oz road fest was complete without the Jebs' hyperactive stage presence and grab bag of sterling radio tunes.

Whether in the company of WA indie buddies like Beaverloop, Mach Pelican or Red Jezebel; national monsters Powderfinger, You Am I or the Living End or global stars of the Soundgarden-cum-Smashing Pumpkins calibre, life since Slightly Odway had been a steadily snowballing road marathon.

The pay-off is all over Of Someday Shambles, the work of a band two years older but with a whole lifetime more experience. "We're obviously a lot better in our playing and a lot more confident about our songs," says Brett Mitchell. "We still really like Odway," his brother adds, "but this one had to be better. That was the only real aim."

After their berth on the 1999 Big Day Out, the band took a month off to hone an existing array of unrecorded tunes and to coax another half a dozen 'from out of the sky'. Some of the album's most striking songs "Did You Really", "Congratulations", "In Orbit", "Run of the Company" all materialised in this pre-production period.

"No one comes in with written songs," Chris Daymond stresses. "We all have to be there, writing the song together. Everything we write, if it's gonna survive, it needs four people to remember it the next week which doesn't always happen."

The up side is that if four people remember a new Jebediah song after one rehearsal, there's a good chance thousands more will have it in their head for keeps after one spin. Of Someday Shambles' first single "Animal" is a text book example of the pop immediacy and blistering rock energy which define Jebediah's reputation as singlesmiths par excellance.

But it's the scope of Of Someday Shambles that really impresses. Cracker tunes like "Did you Really", "Star Machine" and "Skin" follow where Odway left off, but few could have expected the harmonic delicacy of "Love At Last", the pedal steel shading of "Happier Sad" or the hair-raising orchestral finale, "Run of the Company".

Vanessa: "We contacted (producer) Mark Trombino on the Internet cause we all loved the Knapsack record and (Blink 182's) Dude Ranch. Because of the types of songs we were writing, he seemed to make sense. He emailed us back straight away and said he liked the songs." "Which was a blessing in itself," says Brett. "He's a very hard man to impress. He's very methodical. A total perfectionist, in short. And he's a drummer, so the drums sound fantastic. We averaged about four days per song. I don't mind saying it was a little gruelling at times but that's the way he works and the results are so good it was well worth it."

"We spent a lot more time on harmonies," says Kevin, "but then we spent a lot more time on everything. We were in the studio twice as long as the last record. I was more particular about the lyrics, for sure. There's a lot of lyrics on the first album that make me wince. I guess I'll probably feel the same way about this record in a year or two, but I thought I'd give myself a better chance."

Since their April residency at Melbourne's Sing Sing studios, Jebediah have taken steps into the international market with a showcase tour of Canada and a second trip to New Zealand. Harder, sweeter, smarter and stronger, Of Someday Shambles is destined to broaden their horizons in more ways than one.

"We're a band that likes a lot of variety," Kevin says. "The best thing about this record compared to Odway is that when a song had a particular kind of vibe or felt like it was going a particular way, we just went with it. If a song wants to take you somewhere, you might as well ride with it."

The Jebediah Line-up

Kevin Mitchell – Rhythm Guitar/Vocals
Chris Daymond – Lead Guitar
Vanessa Thornton – Bass
Brett Mitchell – Drums

"The Wild West has spawned some legends – and the latest is Perth band Jebediah" – Sunday Telegraph 21/6/98

Jebediah formed in May 1995, their first achievement was winning the National Campus Band Final in October 1995. It was their thirteenth gig and, as they say, the rest is history…

Jebediah's first EP Twitch debuted at number one on the Western Australia charts in August 1996, knocking the Fugee's smash 'Killing Me Softly' from top spot after 11 weeks.

In January 1997, Jerks of Attention the band's second release became a Triple J and Indie chart favourite.

1997 was spent touring, with Jebediah proving to be one of the hardest working touring bands in Australia. In addition to their own tours, high profile supports continue to fly their way... Smashing Pumpkins, Everclear, Weezer, Soundgarden and You Am I to name a few.

In September 1997 Jebediah's debut album 'Slightly Odway' debuted on the National ARIA Charts at number 7. Since then it has gone PLATINUM (and more) and after 47 weeks it continues to chart Top 30 nationally. The strength of the album is undoubtedly re-enforced by the continual high profile touring schedule of the band. Put nicely "If you're a fan and you haven't seen Jebediah over the last couple of years then your parents have had a very sturdy lock and chain tied to your bedhead." (Drum Media, NSW June 1998)

1998 has already seen a hugely successful national tour with The Living End; both Triple J and MTV presented the 'Split Personality Tour' throughout April, over 35,000 people attended the tour nationally. In a definitive moment in rock, Slim Dusty supported the Jebs at the Big Wet Benefit for the Katherine flood victims in May of this year.

Jebediah are on the road again throughout August with Bodyjar and their hometown buddies Red Jezebel. Festival slots are queuing up, so it's bound to be a big summer and plans to record the second album are for November/December this year.

Jebediah's album 'Slightly Odway' was released in Japan in March this year and it was made available in New Zealand in July this year. The hands are beginning to go up in other countries…Stay tuned…

Perth, June 1997. The lighting rig is a flying trapeze. The microphone stands are bouncing kingpins and the stage is a communal springboard. Kevin Mitchell lurches back as his mike is kicked over for the tenth time, Chris Daymond leaps forward to bark the chorus of 'Benedict.' Brett Mitchell keeps his head down and sticks flying while Vanessa remains, as usual, lost in her own spinning world under blue hair and brandishing a dangerously mobile bass guitar.

Pandemonium comes easy to Jebediah. But then, so does everything else. Like their lead guitarist Chris Daymond says, "There was never any trial and error. Just error." Jebediah's first mistakes were in a rehearsal room in Perth, Western Australia, in May 1995. They remember thrashing songs by Archers of Loaf and The Muppets until Chris Daymond stumbled over the riff to 'Superhero 6 1/2'. The floodgates to a repertoire of brash, ridiculously tuneful distorted pop were blown off their hinges.

Kevin, Chris and Vanessa had met in theatre arts classes at Leeming High. "It was the most creative subject we could do," remembers Chris. "It got you out of a lot of classes", says Vanessa. "And it gave us the experience of being on stage in front of lots of people," Kevin adds significantly.

Kevin's older brother Brett had been drumming in local bands for years when he was called in to complete Jebediah, a name taken from Jebediah Springfield the founding father of The Simpsons' home town. "Chris was saying if he ever had a kid he was gonna call it Jebediah," Vanessa says. "Since he didn't have a kid we decided to steal it."

Young, cocky, cool, magnetic and utterly possessed by their music, Jebediah took to the rock & roll stage like they'd been there all along. And Perth audiences took to them with the same instantaneous rapture. On their seventh gig, Jebediah won the West Australian Semi-Final of the prestigious national Campus Band Competition. In October 1995 they flew to Lismore, 4,000 kilometres from their tried-and-true home base, to take out the Australian title. It was their 13th gig.

"The bidding war thing, from what we've heard, can really sting a band," Kevin recalls of the next whirlwind stage in the young (average age 20) group's career. "If we were in Melbourne or Sydney and all the press knew about it, it could have really over-hyped the band."

Several months of discreet free lunches concluded with a signing to Sydney-based label murmur, home to silverchair and Perth's own dirty pop heroes, Ammonia. What Jebediah were looking for among the fine print was "cool people more than anything, people who understood where we were coming from," says Vanessa.

Kevin: "We never did a demo. We never sent anything. We did squat. (The attention) was based purely on our live thing, and that's cool. To me, that's still the most important thing."

You betcha. In January 1996, Jebediah were selected to play the local leg of the all-star Summersault spectacular alongside Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Beck, Sonic Youth, Pavement and Rancid. In June 1996, they took on their first gruelling tour of Australia with Snout and Automatic. The year progressed with a succession of punishing road trips with Ammonia and Big Heavy Stuff; Bluebottle Kiss and Something For Kate.

Twitch, Jebediah's first EP, debuted at Western Australia's number one chart position in August 1996, knocking the Fugees' smash 'Killing Me Softly' off the top after some 11 weeks. Recorded pre-murmur with renowned UK ex-pat Chris Dickie (Morrissey, The Pogues, Header), the astonishingly accomplished five-tracker represented the first songs Jebediah wrote.

But it was their second release, the single 'Jerks of Attention', which launched Jebediah from every video channel and car radio in the country the following summer. In January 1997, it debuted at 11 on the national indie charts ahead of Regurgitator, Pearl Jam, You Am I, Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins. "Overkill if you ask me," Vanessa mutters of the song's airwaves stranglehold, "but it's better than not being played at all."

Meanwhile, Jebediah's live schedule was coinciding with increasingly distinguished company: silverchair, The Presidents of the USA, Everclear, Weezer, Soundgarden, You Am I, Magic Dirt, Tumbleweed, The Big Day Out in Perth, Rock Above The Falls in Victoria, Homebake in Sydney...

September 1997 sees the launch of Jebediah's stunning debut album Slightly Odway. The 13 songs chart a fully matured dynamic range from the early punk mayhem of "Blame" to the delicacy of the new 'Twilight = Dusk', from the darker brood of the remade 'Jerks' to the bright strains of the new single 'Leaving Home' - all produced with maximum empathy by Neill King (The Smiths, Rancid, Madness, Elvis Costello).

"Neill seemed really enthusiastic," Kevin explains. "He sent stuff back saying he really loved (our music). He's done a nice mix of American punk stuff and British stuff, which suited us really well." Vanessa: "He's a really cool guy! We got on really well with him." -Chris: "And he's funny."

"Half the album is songs that we wrote in the last few months before recording," Kevin says of the LP's obvious progressive streak. "It would have been really boring to just take a live set and put it on the album," his brother explains. "They're two entirely different things. There's stuff there we wouldn't necessarily play live at all."

"I think it's a great album," Chris concludes with characteristic self-belief. "I'm very proud of it." "It sounds like a record!" Vanessa reckons. "It sounds really produced but we still kinda captured the live energy in the studio."

And that title? Vanessa: "I was saying something about how Brett was slightly odd and he was saying yeah, we all are. We were all kind of fond of that description."

"It's not a piss-take," Chris says, "but it's not exactly serious either."

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