This month, Bob Evans aka Kevin Mitchell will start his first tour in four years as a solo artist travelling around Australia to showcase his latest album, 'Car Boot Sale'.
Lately, Kevin has spent most of his time as a devoted dad to two, beautiful daughters. But between swimming lessons and school drop-offs, he still manages to write music and is also producing a monthly podcast titled ‘Good Evans, It’s A Bobcast’. He first emerged onto the music scene in 1994 with Jebediah, an alternative-rock band originating in Perth.
When the band reached mainstream popularity, having made the top ten of the ARIA album charts with three of their albums, it was then that Kevin decided a pseudonym would be appropriate. In 1998 he was booked to play his first, solo show and had planned his gig incognito to ensure that no one knew he was “the guy from Jebediah”.
“I just happened to be wearing a t-shirt that day that had ‘Bob Evans’ on the front of it, so I literally looked down and thought: ‘That’s it, I’ll be Bob Evans’ and that’s how it happened and I never changed it,” Kevin says.
The separation between Jebediah and Bob Evans was essential for Kevin and although it all happened very slow and organically, he’s proud because he was able to create something brand new that didn’t “ride on the coattails” of the fame he had already gained from Jebediah.
“It was like six years after our first gig before I made my first record and almost ten years after that first gig before I actually started to get played on the radio and started to sell a few records and turned into a thing and started to go well,” Kevin says.
The seasoned musician is looking forward to doing the solo shows with just his guitar and “no one else” being able to get on stage. “At the end of last year I did a tour with Josh Pyke… but every night we were pretty much playing the same songs in the same order,” Kevin says.
“What I like about going out and doing shows on my own is it’s total freedom… I can play whatever I want, whenever I want, stop in the middle of a song and tell a story and then start back up again.”
It’s this element of his performance that makes every Bob Evans show quite unique. But this tour, Kevin has even more treats in store for his fans. “I’ve made a little, six-track EP of home demos… I’ve literally got hundreds of songs sitting on a hard drive that I’ve been collecting for the last ten, fifteen years… so I chose six that sounded the most listenable,” Kevin laughs.
“Everyone who buys a ticket online will get this digital EP for free… it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for ages and fortunately my major label record company have given me their blessing.”
Despite a slow start to his solo career, Kevin believes his greatest achievement in music has been longevity and feels blessed to be continuing his journey after such a long time.
“I saw an interview [just recently] that I'd done… when Jebediah had our first record out and I answered this question by saying that I saw [music] as a great opportunity in my 20s, that I was just going to have heaps of fun and tour all through my 20s and figured that by the time I was 30 it would be over .
“I'd be quite happy dying in the best possible way that an artist could die, that's what they do, doing what they love right?” Kevin says. “I'd love to think that in ten years time I'm putting out another record and performing in old people's homes.”
Bob Evans tour commences 20 April.
– written by Emily Oswin
