Smooth Sailing

In an age where bands like Tame Impala, Pond, San Cisco and the like are making big names for themselves on an international level, Jebediah is still one of the first names fondly brought up in conversation when it comes to Perth’s music success stories.

To date, the group has released five studio albums, with four of them climbing into the top ten of the ARIA Charts. They’ve toured with Jimmy Eat World, Nickelback, Powderfinger and more, and, reflecting on their achievements, bassist Vanessa Thornton reckons they’ve had a “bloody good run”.

“These days we’re just doing odd shows here and there. We just get together when something’s going on, which is always fun. We’re family; we’ve been together for 20 years. A couple of the guys are married, so there’s kids and family, and your priorities change as you get older. At some point it’s good to start earning a proper wage and to be able to afford a house and mortgage payments and that kind of stuff. Thing is, at the moment, what we’re doing is working for everyone, and it’s crazy to think that’s the case after all this time.”

"At some point it’s good to start earning a proper wage and to be able to afford a house and mortgage payments and that kind of stuff."

It’s a pretty chilled vibe in the Jeb clubhouse these days, but that’s not to say they’re not busy. Two members currently live in Melbourne and two remain in Perth, and they’re all working at various projects. Vocalist Kevin Mitchell is widely known nationally under his Bob Evans moniker, while Thornton and drummer Brett Mitchell feature in another Perth band quickly gathering momentum, Axe Girl. “When you go through the beginnings of a band when you’re 19, 20, 21 – and you know, we were very naïve [as Jebediah], especially about the industry and how everything worked, I mean, we didn’t even record anything until well after we’d been playing gigs; people would come up to us and be like ‘Do you have a CD?’ and it didn’t even occur to us, we were just having fun. There’s something really great about doing that and being completely naïve to everything and that’s what I’m finding hard now. You can’t unlearn stuff you already know. The whole Axe Girl thing has been great, but it’d be cool to do it and not know anything. It’s heaps of fun, but in a different sort of way.”

Getting together to play a show with long-time heroes Hoodoo Gurus, Thornton is certainly starstruck. “There’s nothing stopping us going out and playing or jamming. It’s totally up to us. We’re playing with Hoodoo Gurus and those guys are older than us, and they’re still killing it. One of the first big gigs we played was supporting those guys, and 20-odd years later, we get to play with them again. We had surprisingly few downs and so many ups along the way. The way the four of us work together, it’s surprisingly free of any sort of serious arguments or hostility. We’re really lucky, hey!”