Josh Pyke and Bob Evans reveal how op-shopping and couch-surfing forged their friendship

MUSICAL mates Josh Pyke and Kevin Mitchell, aka Bob Evans, are heading back on the road together and looking forward to making a few mistakes.

Josh Pyke and Bob Evans will be playing each other’s songs together on tour. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Josh Pyke and Kevin Mitchell, aka Bob Evans, have been friends for more than a decade and are heading back on the road for their second national co-headlining tour.

How did you two first meet?

Josh: I was a big fan of Jedediah — and of the first Bob Evans record. When I was first starting up, I got to support Bob Evans down at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla. For some reason, we were giving him a lift down there.

Kevin: I was obviously touring on a shoestring because I was staying at Simon (Day) from Ratcat’s house. And bludging a ride to the gig from my support act. I was obviously not spending any money.

Josh: I hadn’t met him and I was a fan ... so I was a bit starstruck. He knows this now but I felt I had to admit to how many Jebediah shows I had been to ... it would have been about 20. I went to the first gig they played in Sydney after they won the uni band comp.

Are we talking fan or groupie here?

Josh: I never met him, so fan.

Kevin: You did tell me a story about you coming home from a Jebediah gig and seeing me walking hand-in-hand with my girlfriend down King St (Newtown).

Josh: We were driving past and saw you and I was like Oh my god, oh my god, he’s just out and about. Oh my god, he’s dating the girl from Fur. But then we did that show in Cronulla and I realised he’s just a regular guy ... slightly below regular. Sub regular.

Pyke and Evans have assumed each other’s mannerisms. Picture Chris Pavlich

And yet you agreed to do that first Josh Pyke and Bob Evans tour three years later.

Kevin: It wasn’t our idea. Probably one of our managers. When we met again to do a photo for the poster, you were in the studio recording songs for Memories and Dust album.

Josh: Yeah, Private Education had just kinda blown up, you know. Well, people liked it. I had moved back home to pursue music and was working in the record store in Balmain. I quit my job to go on that tour. Kev came and stayed at my parents’ house. We were rehearsing at my house. It was very glamorous.

My parents’ house is close to a pub so we’d just go to the pub. We went op-shopping for a new wardrobe for the tour. We bought second-hand suits.

Kevin: You introduced me to Oportos. I’d never been before.

Josh: And since then, it’s just been a steady stream of awakenings.

You should film these outings.

Josh: It’s probably not as funny as you think it is. We are going to do some podcasting together; I’ve done one of his It’s A Bobcasts.

How’s that going Kev? Can you quit the day job yet?

Kevin: Podcasting is my retirement plan. It takes time, Kath.

Josh: He’s working on his brand right now. It’s about brand equity so he can monetise it.

Good luck with that. Which song of the other’s do you love the most?

Josh: For me it’s Nowhere Without You. I heard that song for the first time when I was staying with Kev’s old manager in Perth, he played me the demos of that album. F---ing hell, this is a properly good song, it’s not a strummy singer songwriter song. You hear a lot of strummy s---. Lyrically it struck a chord in me because that song represents a time in my life when I was deciding to commit to my now wife. I was the only (fulltime) musician I knew and I was pursuing a way of life that I didn’t know if it would work out, that wasn’t at all secure.

Kevin: And that feeling never goes away.

You hopeful romantic.

Josh: I like that. That can be the title of my next album.

The friends were up against each other at the ARIA Awards in 2013. Picture: Jeremy Piper

What is your fave Josh song, Kevin?

It’s changed for me. Because we have been learning each other’s songs, there’s a couple of more recent tunes, Leeward Side and Hollering Hearts, which I knew and always liked but getting to know them intimately, it really clicked as to what was behind them. They are beautiful songs I can really relate to. It’s interesting when you get inside someone else’s songs, particularly if it is a friend, the way you relate to the lyrics is so different. You feel you can understand it on a different level. If I had to pick one, I would probably pick The Summer. There’s something really special about that song.

So you are doing the whole show together?

Josh: Yeah, we pretty much have copied what Neil Finn and Paul Kelly did.

Kevin: Let’s do what they did.

Josh: The first time we did it, we did separate sets with a couple of songs together. This time we decided to up it and playing it all together.

Kevin: All I have listened to in the last month is Josh Pyke songs.

I am sure I am not alone among your fans for hoping you make many mistakes.

Josh: I think we can almost guarantee that.

Kevin: If we do f!@# up royally, we have to totally nail it in the next moment.

Josh: It’s all about the recovery. It’s almost better than you do f!@# up. On the last tour, someone called out for Private Education and I hadn’t played it for a long time so I decided to give it a go. I got to the second verse and I had no idea.

SEE: Another Evening With Josh Pyke and Bob Evans, The Gov., Adelaide, today; Brisbane Powerhouse, December 2; Solbar, Sunshine Coast, December 3; Soundlounge, December 4; 48 Watt St, Newcastle, December 8; The Factory, Sydney, December 9; Corner Hotel, Melbourne, December 14, 16; Sooki Lounge, Belgrave, December 15.

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