When Josh Pyke’s parents were recently moving house, they stumbled upon an unexpected memento they’d framed from the early days of Pyke’s career – a poster from the collaborative tour he and Bob Evans (AKA Kevin Mitchell) played together ten years ago.
When asked if he wanted it back, Pyke was gobsmacked.
“I was like, ‘Wow, that was 2006,’ and I realised it was ten years,” he says. “It kind of blew my mind, and I thought it would be a cool, fun opportunity to do again.”
At the time of that first tour, AnEvening With Josh Pyke & Bob Evans, Mitchell had already made quite a name for himself as the frontman of Perth rock band Jebediah, and released his second album under his alter ego. He’d started the Bob Evans project to explore writing acoustic songs that weren’t really suitable for the full band.
“I’ve really always thought of Bob Evans as just being me going back to the kind of songs I was writing as a kid, before Jebediah was even thought of,” Mitchell explains. “In high school I had a crappy nylon string guitar, and I used to try and write songs that sounded like Cat Stevens or The Beatles or Don McLean, or just all those records that were around our house.”
Meanwhile, Pyke was still emerging on the music scene, and he recalls the admiration he felt for Mitchell the first time they met.
“I was already a big fan of his music. My manager was mates with Kev’s manager and I ended up staying with his manager in Perth. He played me the early demo of Suburban Songbook and I was like, ‘This is so fucking cool.’ I met Kev because I got the chance to support him at a small gig in Cronulla, and we sort of became mates that night, but we didn’t stay in touch.”
Pyke was working at a record store and had one song on the radio when they eventually teed up the dates together, and it was there they really got to know each other. Now, ten years and five studio albums later, Pyke has also made a formidable name for himself on the Australian music scene. Much has changed since he and Mitchell first toured together, but Pyke reckons his style of performance is what has changed the most.
“When I first started, I was really concerned with seeming too professional,” he says. “I think over time I’ve realised that it’s such a blessing to be in the studio, and such a blessing to be able to even have the opportunity to do this, and you should be able to really take advantage of it and go for it.”
For Mitchell, the way he approaches lyrics is his biggest development. “I devote a lot more time and energy into the lyrics these days than I used to,” he says. “When I first started writing songs, especially going back to Jebediah, no one could understand what I was singing half the time anyway!”
Having kids has also become a factor in the structure of the musicians’ respective lives since they last shared the road. Pyke remembers the more relaxed lifestyle he led before starting a family: he would often begin his mornings by going down to the beach and having a surf, grabbing some breakfast, then heading home to pick up the guitar. Now, his life is more about balance.
“There’s just no possible way you can live that life while being an engaged parent. In terms of how I actually write the songs, it’s probably the same – you’re just sitting around waiting for lightning to strike – but I’ve worked really hard to build structure in my life so that I can at least be in a place, an appropriate space in case that lightning does strike.”
Mitchell adds that having a family has brought inspiration to his songwriting. “It just gives you an extra thing to write about, another experience in your life that you can draw on for songs.”
In the preparations for their new show – Another Evening With Josh Pyke & Bob Evans – Mitchell says they’ve found learning each other’s songs quite the challenge.
“I’ve always been pretty good at being myself, but I’ve never been very good at being other people,” he says. “What that means is that I can do what I do well, but I really struggle when I have to do what somebody else does. So that’s why I don’t play or learn other people’s songs much – or ever!”
But what will make this tour so special is each artist’s admiration for the other’s material. “I have deep respect for Josh’s songs, and him as a writer,” says Mitchell. “So really the main thing is just trying to do my part, and just do justice to that material.”
Pyke and Mitchell have co-written two songs in the lead-up to the shows – ‘What The Future Holds’ and ‘Desperate’. After ten years of friendship and performing alongside each other, they’re excited to be hitting the stage together again. And Pyke says at the end of the day, this collaboration is really just about the experience.
“There’s no real reason to these things [other] than for fun, you know? And it’s definitely going to be fun.”
Head to the Factory Theatre on Friday December 9 forAnother Evening With Josh Pyke & Bob Evans.
