Bob Evans

By Cara Williams
9 January 2007

Kevin Mitchell is a name that most would remember as the lead guitarist and vocalist of 90's indie- pop band Jebediah. Nowadays Mitchell is better known as solo artist Bob Evans, who’s singles ‘Don’t you think it’s Time” and most recent single ‘Nowhere Without You’ from his album ‘Suburban Songbook’ are frequently played on radio stations Triple J and Nova FM.

But Bob Evan’s music is a far leap from band Jebediah, with his style being closely compared to country music. “At the end of the day Bob’s songs are pop songs just like Jebediah songs are, but this time I’m just dressing them up a bit with something”. Mitchell tells me recently when discussing his album ‘Suburban Songbook’.

“People hear a pedal steel on a song and suddenly it makes it sound very country. It’s an instrument that’s so strongly identified with country music”. Mitchell explains. “The way that I look at the country element of it is that I’m just stealing the bits of country music that I like and just adding them to the same old pop songs that I’ve always written”.

In 2003 Bob Evans released his debut solo LP, “Suburban Kid”, which was relatively low key but showed a far deeper side to Mitchell’s songwriting ability. Still touring with band Jebediah in 2004 Mitchell continued to write songs under the character of Bob Evans.

When EMI music showed their interest in Bob, Mitchell had already recorded over 20 tracks, eventually cutting the list down to 12. His album ‘Suburban Songbook’ was released in June this year.

It seems that Bob Evans music targets a far broader audience than Jebediah- but Mitchell can point out the obvious contradictions with it. “It’s weird… I can see in certain areas like radio airplay- especially here in Perth, Bob has crossed over to some radio stations that Jebediah never has, but still hasn’t sold nearly the amount of records that Jeb has- so its hard for me to quantify. Is it going to a broader audience? I’m not sure.”

There is no doubt that Mitchell is enjoying being Bob Evans, but is he missing Jebediah? “I think that when I’ve been doing the band thing for a while I wanna do Bob and when I’ve been doing the Bob thing for a while I wanna do the band thing- I think I have to do both things in tandem with each other. But I’m having a great time doing Bob”. Mitchell continues. “I’m certainly enjoying the creative freedom. I suppose when you do stuff on your own you can sort of just indulge in your own thing- you don’t have to compromise. At the same time there are aspects of the band that I miss, you don’t have anyone there to give you advice or to steer you in the right direction”.

One would think that creating your own music and forming a new band would be relatively daunting, but Mitchell can see the positives aspects of it all. “When putting a band together I put a large emphasis on getting together with people that I was going to have fun with and enjoy their company and have a beer with” he says. “That was more important to me in some ways than them being technically brilliant- because you can learn to play a song in time and you can learn to get good at an instrument over time, but personality is set in stone you can’t really change them. But having said that they are all very accomplished musicians who have been playing for just as many years as I have”. He adds.

With the band having just completed their Australian tour, the Bob Evans crew is waiting in anticipation to embark on a national tour with Evermore, followed by Homebake in early December, where they will be playing with fellow Aussies Silverchair, Little Birdy and Eskimo Joe. “I haven’t played at a Homebake since about 2002- it’s been a while so I’m really looking forward to that. Mitchell says. “The band just finished our first national run a couple of weeks ago and that was fun- we are going on tour with Evermore for around a month and playing quite big venues, that will be interesting”.
Suburban Songbook is on sale now from all good record stores.