It’s here! Bob Evans fourth and fabulous new album Familiar Stranger, featuring the current quirky new single ‘Go’, is out now and already causing a kerfuffle as it hit the Top 10 iTunes album chart on its official day of birth. Familiar Stranger is Bob’s first album since 2010’s Goodnight, Bull Creek.
The album’s proud father Mr Bob Evans (aka Kevin Mitchell) shares this about Familiar Stranger, “I must admit I was toying with the idea of making a “concept album” this time around, which I haven’t done but some of the ideas carried through. The songs were all very visual for me and I started to think about the album like the soundtrack to a movie. Even though the lyrics don’t necessarily link the songs together I still thought that if I worked out the order the songs would go in before I started recording them then we could record to that order and make the songs link together musically. So the first two songs and the last three songs all blend together, which was a challenge at times because they weren’t originally all in the same key.”
Bob continues, “I know it’s probably fast becoming an out dated notion but I still think of records the same way as I did when I first started listening to music and that is as whole pieces that you put on and listen to from start to finish. I attach so many of my musical memories of discovery and wonder and awe and fear and excitement to this idea that it remains important to me. So why not, given the unbelievable opportunity to make records of my own, indulge in that stuff? Even though the lyrics on this album might be of a serious nature I hope that the music carries with it a sense of fun and playfulness because that was the idea.”
The latest (and very amusing) video for single ‘Go’ was directed by Darcy Prendergast for Oh Yeah Wow and produced by Nicky Pastore features Australia’s Tim Rogers (You Am I).
Bob Evans upcoming national ‘Familiar Stranger’ tour kicks off on April 11 playing the Sunshine Coast Queensland before making its way around the country visiting all states before ending on May 18 in Meeniyan Victoria. Bob Evans performs at the Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, on Thursday May 9, 2013.
Joining Bob Evans and his full band as main support is triple j’s Unearthed bandTigertown (excluding Cairns and Darwin shows) and Melbourne’s Davey Lane for all shows.