“What is apparent to me personally is how much the world has changed in 20 years around Jebediah,” lead guitarist Chris Daymond said.
“If you look at what we do, it remains fairly insulated from being affected by outside influences.
“The fact we haven’t got a political agenda or that kind of thing, it means it is still what it was.
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READ NOW“We get to be quite selfish in that we dictate whether what we do changes and we don’t necessarily want to f*** that up.”
“We’ve got a Facebook page though,” bassist Vanessa Thornton said.
Spending the day in hometown Perth promoting their 20-year anniversary tour and release of a celebration album, Daymond and Thornton laughed when asked what it was like to celebrate “quite a milestone”.
“We feel lucky I guess,” Daymond said.
“I mean it’s as lucky as we felt celebrating a 19-year anniversary.”
“I reckon it’s about as lucky as we felt when we got to play our first gig,” Thornton adds.
“The sentiment is shared with a humbling gratitude – the fact that we get to do this,” Daymond said.
“We get to go out on the road and play shows and connect with the people who are really making it happen.
“If no one bought a ticket, that would throw a spanner in the works.”
Fellow band members and brothers Kevin and Brett Mitchell will return home later this month to close out the anniversary tour with three shows at the Astor Theatre, of which two have already sold out.
“I don’t think we’ve ever sold out this many shows,” Thornton said, with shows also sold out in NSW and Victoria.
“It’s unexpected to tell the truth,” Daymond said.
“It’s equal parts getting your ego massively massaged and being really thankful and humble that this response has occurred.
“We are very lucky to be able to play three nights in our home town.
“It provides us with a new level of achievement I guess. Not that we look at it as that, but it’s certainly a positive sign and it will inspire us, I think, to look at our band and the continuation after this event.”
With two 45-minute sets, Jebediah fans can expect “a very tired band by the end of the night”, Thornton said.
The first set will consist of beloved classics and surprises followed by their 1997 debut album Slightly Odway played in its entirety.
“I think it’s going to be a hugely fun time to be immersed at a gig where even the house music will be all music that we loved from the 90s,” Daymond said.
“Watching these bands that we love (Turnstyle, Red Jezebel and Beaverloop) then getting to connect with our fans over an album that they love – it’s something that we really want to pull off.”
Jebediah’s celebration compilation album Twenty was released on May 29, featuring 20 tracks chosen by the band spanning five releases.[David Friedlos]“A lot of the songs just pretty much picked themselves,” Thornton said,
“We definitely have favourites that haven’t been singles or that we really enjoy playing live so that kind of dictated some other songs, and then also just trying to get a nice contribution of every album to represent the full length of the 20-year history.”
So plans for new material from Jebediah?
“Not so much plans as such but I’m sure it will happen at some stage,” Thornton said.
“I think we would love to do that. That’s just the way it’s always been. When we can, we will,” Daymond added.
“We didn’t plan five years into the future in the beginning so we’re lucky.
“We’ll just keep rolling on I think.”
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Jebediah
Where: Astor Theatre
June 26 with special guests Turnstyle – sold out
June 27 with special guests Red Jezebel – sold out
June 28 with special guests Beaverloop
Tickets: ww.jebediah.net or www.astortheatreperth.com