BOB EVANS

Hi Kevin, and thank you for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology.

There seems to be a time in every prolific musician’s career when they depart from their signature band and continue to work as a solo artist. Exploring a new direction in ways that only an individual can. As Bob Evans, you have been doing this for some time, but in your case, was the time with Jeb something that, unbeknownst to you, mapped out a future path for you as a solo artist?

I’m not really sure. In many ways, I view Bob Evans as being a return to the kind of stuff I was writing on an acoustic guitar when I was a kid, before Jebediah got together. By the time I was in my late teens, I desperately wanted to start a band and play noisy rock music because by then that was totally what I was into, and I had almost lost interest in the soft acoustic stuff I was playing beforehand. But I never really let go of it entirely and came back to it within a couple of years of Jebediah forming. I was playing local gigs in Perth as Bob Evans for about 6 years before I made my first record. Still, no one really knew about it. So the reality of it is that I’ve always done Bob Evans it’s just people didn’t really find out about it until Jebediah had already been around for ten years.  So I guess people just figured that Bob Evans began when they first heard about me, but that’s not really the case.

Embarking on a monster national tour, is there something a little new that you notice in the places you travel to each and every time you perform?

Perhaps, or maybe it’s just that I forget things and then remember them again when I revisit a place. I suppose after twenty years of travelling around Australia, I have seen a lot of cities and towns change a fair bit in that time. It’s such a big bloody country though, that even now I am still visiting some places for the first time, and there are still many places I have not been to.

Do you find touring itself to be inspirational for your songwriting or are you so focused on the task at hand that songwriting takes a back seat?

I do sometimes come up with ideas when I’m on the road, but generally speaking, I write most of my stuff when I am at home, so songwriting does take a bit of a back seat when I’m on tour.  Often, the touring is like the reward after making a record, being able to travel around playing new songs.  In some ways, when I am touring, it feels like a lot of the hard work has been done because writing and making records takes a long time and is not an easy process, but touring I find to be pretty easy most of the time.  So when I’m touring, I’m trying to just relax and enjoy each new day.

You have generously offered a 6 x track EP for those who get in early and buy tickets online. Some of these tracks have been with you for some time and haven’t met the world just yet for one reason or another. When you revisit tracks in this way, do they take on a new light or just feel like an old pair of boots?

Well, most of the unreleased songs are songs that I’ve never played live at all because they haven’t made a record.  A lot of the time, when I listen back to an old demo, it’s kind of a surprise because I may have sort of forgotten about it over the years.  So revisiting them can be really fun.  I’m usually thinking to myself, “Oh wow, I’d forgotten all about this song!  Hey, it’s actually pretty cool!”  That’s why I wanted to release some of them somehow.  I also thought it might be a cool opportunity for people who are interested in what I do to get a glimpse into my world of writing and home recording, because people only ever hear the finished product.

There is an impressive  quote from electronic artist Dan Deacon, who said “the audience is the performance” and this strikes me as something that would embody your own live performance ethos, where the crowd’s enjoyment means far more to you than the actual physical act of performing?

Oh for sure, for me it’s all about the audience. I don’t feel like there is anything tacky or patronising about wanting to give your audience what they want.  It’s not just about song selection either, and I mean, obviously, I don’t want every one of my shows to be exactly the same so you have to find a balance.  But it’s also about interaction.  I talk a lot between songs these days, I think more than I ever have before because you know what, a lot of people seem to like that. I think an audience often likes to know that the performer is having a good time. I think the more I enjoy my shows, the more the audience seems to enjoy themselves. Obviously, this is not going to be the case for every artist because the beauty of it is that all artists are different and have different styles of performing, but for me, that’s how it seems to work.

Having worked alongside so many great artists over the years, were there any particular instances or words of wisdom spoken to you that really resonated with you and altered the way you approach your craft?

Nope! It’s funny though, because I can remember people taking me aside and giving me a bit of special wisdom and having a quiet word with me that I know at the time meant a great deal to me but you know what, I’ve forgotten the details of what those people said to me completely! Now that I think about it, for me, I’ve been very lucky to have formed some pretty nice friendships with some of my heroes, and I think I’ve been influenced more by just being around them and watching how they go about their work.