Bob Evans is the nom de plume of Kevin Mitchell, front man for the Australian indie legends Jebediah who has gone solo for a number of years now.
His new single ‘Concrete Heart’ is a warm and embracing track from his upcoming album Tomorrowland which is set for release on 16 April 2021. Of the song’s themes, Evans says:
The lyrics are inspired a bit by online conversation on social media. I have been accused of being a ‘bleeding heart’ a few times when putting forward my opinion on a political or social issue, which I think is a hilarious put-down, because it’s basically criticising someone for caring too much! What is so wrong with that? So it got me thinking about owning that label, like, “yep, I am a bleeding heart” because what is the alternative? A cold heart made out of concrete? No thanks. That is not me and I don’t ever want it to be. The music to this one is kind of upbeat and fun sounding though, so I tried to come at this whole idea with a bit of tongue in cheek, like I’m poking fun at the
whole thing in a way.
There are sixties-flavoured harmonies and jangling guitars with a country flavour augmented by the accompanying video, filmed in outback Australia, with bucolic scenes of gnarled old gentlemen, bleached-white sunshine and innocence. Evans’s band, playing in the art deco toilet tiled-wall pub, captures the essence of pure Australian rock and roll traditions:
I came up with the idea of my band playing in a front bar of a pub to a virtually empty room and a disinterested audience. I just thought it was a really simple and funny way to address the message of the song. Arlo made the clip for Born Yesterday with me and we wanted to try and carry over some of that same feeling and aesthetic to this clip, which wasn’t really a straightforward thing to do as they are quite different songs; Concrete Heart is quite upbeat. We decided to really lean in to the Australiana vibe and make it look like it could have been filmed any time between now and 30 years ago.
Utterly iconic and utterly charming:
You can download/stream ‘Concrete Heart’ here and ‘Tomorrowland’ is available to preorder here.
