BOB EVANS CHATS ABOUT HIS LATEST SOLO RELEASE

As we collectively extinguish the last of the embers from the smouldering dumpster fire that was 2020, we can’t help but think most of us would have found our own personal silver lining to look back on. One man who managed to find positivity amongst the chaos, is Bob Evans; the alter-ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell.“You have to have a laugh, otherwise you’ll go mad”, chuckles  Evans while discussing the recent hiatus of the live music industry due to Covid-19 related restrictions. “I haven’t played a gig since February – that’s the longest I’ve gone without playing in 25 years!”

Evans, the alter-ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, has released a string of acoustic gems over the past decade, and while the release of his forthcoming, as yet untitled album has been on hold temporarily, he assures us the album will be out in April 2021. “If Covid had never happened, it would be out by now” Evans explains. “We actually finished the recording part of it, in fact the last two days in the studio was the same 48 hours where the whole live music industry pretty much shut down. All gigs were cancelled, everything was cancelled. I’ve got such strange memories of that.” He continues. “Of finishing this record at the same time the whole world was turning upside down, so quickly. I walked out of the studio with the basic tracks of a record done, but with total uncertainty about what the future held. After that, everything was put on ice.”

While the album, the first Bob Evans full-length since 2016’s Car Boot Sale, won’t be released until April, the first single Born Yesterday (stream it here) was recently released and is seeing some great reviews. “The record company would have been happy for me not to release anything until next year, but I said to my manager “look, I’ve got to put out some new music before the end of the year. Just a song, something, just to have something productive to hold on to for the last few months of the year. The only reason the song is even out, is just for my own sanity and my own well being more than anything else. It’s a very cool thing that the song has been greeted with such a warm reception so far. It’s funny how it has all worked out, and how the year has ended on this really positive note.”

For those of you familiar with Evans’ back catalogue and the overall acoustic vibe, Born Yesterday takes a slightly unexpected turn with the inclusion of “a sincere love letter to the 80s” In the form of a mean saxophone solo straight out of a 1980s movie climax. “The band had recorded the song, and I had done the vocals, and the only thing missing was the guitar solo. Steve [the producer] and I just kept putting it off, waiting for something better to come along.” Evans continues. “We had a brass section in to work on another song, called “excuses”, Steve and I were thinking the same thing – we asked the sax player to stick around and play over the top of this section. He’d never heard the song before, so it was totally ad-libbed, and it was just perfect. It invokes so much more than a guitar could, and for anyone who lived through the 80s the sax automatically evokes that feeling of nostalgia, because we connect it so heavily to that time period. And, because the song is all about reminiscing, the sax carries that sentiment so well, I think that’s why it works so well on the song, and I think that’s the reason for the positive response. All the pieces of the puzzle just fit together, and it wasn’t planned – a lot of it just happened.”

While Covid has thrown a proverbial spanner in the machine that is the live performance industry, it helps to stay optimistic and find the silver linings where you can. “I have two young daughters at home, and they love having me around, they’re more than happy to have me not travelling away most weekends. I did nearly 20 weeks of home schooling while my wife continued to work. Those are times that I’ll reflect back on with smiles – despite the challenges, I do feel lucky that I was able to do that.” He continues, “There are plenty of silver linings to this year, and I hope that everybody is able to find some of those in their own situations.”

“Another silver lining was that I had lots of extra time to work on the mixing and all the other stuff involved in finishing a record – I had loads of time to really concentrate on that, and get everything exactly how I wanted it. So, I think the end product is much better for it, in a sense.”

In all seriousness though, there’s no denying the impact Covid-19 has had on live music in Australia and around the world, but with any luck the industry recovery is just around the corner. “I’m confident the live music industry is going to bounce back in a big way [in 2021], and I think people are going to celebrate getting back to doing what they love – whether that’s performing, or watching performers, both sides of the fence are going to love getting back into it again. Everybody has experienced this differently, with varying degrees of difficulty, but hopefully everyone is able to squeeze a little bit of lemonade from the lemons of 2020.”