In stark contrast, Mitchell’s reflection of his most recent release is cool, calm and collected. “It’s my favourite ‘Bob’ record I’ve made in ten years, so I’m really happy with it,” he says. “It’s everything I hoped it would be. I feel really content with how it all came out.”
Mitchell often expresses that each of his records act as a response to its predecessor. This time around, Car Boot Sale has seen him press refresh and return to his critically acclaimed acoustic roots. “With my last record, Familiar Strange, I was really trying to distance myself from the whole singer-songwriter thing,” he explains. “It was boring and I felt like I’d been kind of boxed into this kind of genre. So, for my last record, I was trying to make something that didn’t sound anything like that. Weirdly, that is the only record of mine that iTunes have put in the ‘singer-songwriter’ category. They’re just twisted bastards, fucking with my mind [laughs]. With this record I really embraced the acoustic guitar again. I felt like I’d spent enough time away from the origins of Bob Evans. I started enjoying writing on the acoustic again and I found new ways of putting songs together.”
“Familiar Strange was a pretty wide-screen kind of album and it was complicated, this one I just wanted to make simple, direct and efficient,” he continues. “Some of my favourite artists are people who make records in that kind of way. I think it can be easy to dismiss simplicity in any art form as being easy. I think that anybody who has experience in any art form knows that creating or expressing something in the simplest, clearest way possible can be a real challenge.”
Describing a selection of tracks from Car Boot Sale as ‘struggle songs’, Mitchell maintains that while it was not intended, the record acts as a running commentary on the various issues that surrounded him. “I started to notice a pattern emerging lyrically with the songs that I was writing,” he says. “It was the really simple idea of adversity and struggle and trying to keep your head above water and to trying see the light. I write about them in different ways – some are very personal and others are what I’ve seen playing out in the world around me, politically and socially. A lot of songs just seem to go down that path. I have a pretty great life by most standards, so sometimes it can be a little hard to take, hearing a white guy talking about struggle, but I think we’re all allowed to express that.”
The thirty-nine-year-old adds that fatherhood has had an affect on his writing process and overall perspective. In fact, his song ‘Some People’ discusses the potential impact of online trolling on his two young daughters. “It’s given me a kick up the ass to educate myself and to become more informed about social issues – particularly feminism and women’s issues,” says Mitchell. “It’s incumbent on me to have an understanding of what the world is like for women and the kind of world my children are inheriting. I also have to be disciplined because, in the past, I could just wander around the house all day strumming a guitar until something came along, whereas now I have to be really strategic with my time. I still like the same kinds of things and I’m still trying to achieve the same kind of things, I’m just trying to find new ways to improve.”
Heading out on tour this month, Mitchell will be joined by handpicked Melbourne-based songstress, Melody Pool. “Every time I tour now I always look for a female support act – just so at my shows there is some gender equality going on,” he says. “I fucking love Melody Pool. I love her record. Her first album, The Hurting Scene, was one of my favourite Australian albums the year it came out. I played it to death and I just think she’s super talented. It’ll give me a kick up the ass too because she’s really good. I’m going to have to follow her up so I’ll have to be on the top of my game [laughs].”
“I love getting on stage with a bunch of other musicians but one of the great joys of doing Bob Evans coming out of Jebediah is that I get different experiences on stage. Either playing on my own, which is great fun, or playing in a band with different musicians. My live band changes all the time depending on who I can wrangle. I just like getting out of the house and doing what I love.”
Car Boot Sale is out now via EMI Music Australia. Bob Evans is touring nationally this month. For tour dates visit bobevans.com.au.
