A new documentary about Perth rock band Jebediah is tracing more than three decades of music, friendship and growing up together, offering younger audiences a glimpse of 1990s Australian alternative culture.
Jebediah: Are We OK? was made by director Arlo Dean Cook and producer Brooke Tia Silcox, who spent 11 years following the four-piece as they navigated the highs and lows of life in the band.
Jebediah features Chris Daymond on lead guitar, Vanessa Thornton on bass, and brothers Kevin and Brett Mitchell on lead vocals and drums. The group is known for songs including Leaving Home, Harpoon and She’s Like a Comet.
Silcox said the band’s longevity was unusual, particularly because it had retained the same line-up for more than 30 years.
“It’s very rare that a band will stay together over 30 years, and that it will still have the same lineup, and that’s just not an Australian thing – that’s an international thing,” she said.
Cook initially set out to film Jebediah’s 20-year anniversary tour in 2015, rather than make a feature documentary. But witnessing the closeness between the musicians persuaded him there was a deeper story to tell.
“Just being around them and witnessing how close they were and how good that relationship was, and I was just like, ‘Wow, this is incredible!’” he said.
The film also captures the band’s difficult periods. Cook said filming during moments of serious tension could be challenging, although the camera gave him a degree of distance from what was unfolding.
“It was hard. I mean, they were such good friends that when the real dramas sort of started to unfold it was kind of helpful to have a camera for myself as a bit of a protective barrier because it was really very raw for a long time,” he said.
Silcox said the way the musicians supported one another during those periods became central to the documentary’s story.
“Ultimately, it’s about the family that we choose … and what it means to grow up,” she said.
Thornton, however, said she still felt much as she had when she was 20, describing the band’s continuing life as a kind of bubble in which she had been able to keep having fun.
Cook became more than an observer during production. When a band member needed to step away, he was asked to play guitar at a series of shows, eventually performing 15 gigs across two tours while continuing to film the group.
“Before the film was finished, I literally got to step into their shoes and be one of the characters,” he said.
The documentary also revisits the band’s visual identity, including album artwork featuring the Futuro house, the spaceship-shaped building near the area where the members grew up.
Silcox hopes the film will inspire “anemoia” among viewers who were not alive during the 1990s – a word she described as nostalgia for a period someone never experienced.
Jebediah: Are We OK? is screening at Luna Cinemas throughout October.
