Jebediah’s latest jams mark a new era

It’s been more than a decade since Aussie alt-rock band Jebediah released an album. Lead singer Kevin Mitchell speaks to Sarah Halfpenny about their new album, Oiks, and upcoming tour with support act Magic Dirt, including a gig at HABA in Rye next month. What inspired the creation of Oiks?

We’d been thinking about getting back in the studio and making a new record. We made one attempt in 2014, but it didn’t produce anything. Then I read about how Blur had gone into a studio in Hong Kong when they had some days off and started creating a record from nothing. I thought maybe we could do something like that. I sold it to the other guys as “Let's just book a studio in Perth where we normally record, set up all our gear, mic everything and just jam and write songs”. Like we always do, but record everything we do, then the next day go through everything we've done from the night before and weed out the good stuff from the bad stuff. It was an idea of basically recording all our jams and then coming back to them afterwards and piecing things together.

Did the extended break affect you all?

We were always playing shows, so the break didn’t affect our relationships. But yes, it was seven years between studio sessions. We were rolling the dice on our chemistry. We knew we were in a good place personally, but we hadn’t written together for a long time. Thankfully, it just happened to work this time.

A lot changed in your personal lives too. Yes, things are very different now. Two of us live in Victoria, two in WA. Three of us have children and families, and some have day jobs. Our lives are very different and spread out, but we find a way. What are you looking forward to most about touring?

Just the fact that we’re doing a tour of this size at all is a welcome relief. We haven’t been able to consider this since 2019. The pandemic wiped everything out for a few years. It’s only now that people are starting to put on these kinds of tours again. I’m just grateful that we’re doing it at all.

What are some of your favourite songs to play from this new album?

Motivation is definitely one of my favourites. I also really love Rubberman, which we hope to start playing live on this tour.

How did the name of the album come about?

Tim Rogers described us as a little gang of “oiks” when we first supported You Am I in 1996. I’d never heard the word before. It’s an old-fashioned term for an uncouth youth; a little troublemaker. It appeared in an episode of The Young Ones. I like the word because it continues Jebediah’s tradition of using wonky-sounding names for our records.

What have you got planned for the future?

This album tour takes us through to the end of September. After that, we’re doing more stuff, but I can’t announce it yet. It’s going to be a super busy and hopefully fun year.

For tickets and more information, visit www.jebediah.net

See page 88 for your chance to win one of two double passes to catch Jebediah at HABA in Rye on August 4.