JEBEDIAH

Braxton Hicks, a mother-to-be's painless contractions before labour begins, the album is viewed by the band as the first steps in an empowering new stage in their development as a band. "We already used the self-titled Jebediah for the last album, which might have been more relevant for this new record, the way things have worked out," says bassist Vanessa Thornton. "It's always exciting to make a new album, but this time it's different, because we did it all ourselves." Directing their own show is a change of pace that's done Jebediah no end of good. Having the freedom to work under their own steam made
the recording of Braxton Hicks a little different. "When you're onto your fourth record and you're a bit older, it's really difficult to take the second-guessing and all of that input from the record company," says frontman Kevin Mitchell. "This time it was really nice to be in complete control of everything."

After a month in late 2003 spent demoing at drummer Brett Mitchell's house, the band came up with a refreshing batch of new tunes. Jebediah then entered Kingdom Studio in Perth a choice which guitarist Chris Daymond says had an important influence on the album. "It was awesome to be in our home-town. We could be really intense for the period of recording but then go home and immerse ourselves back into the other world in which we live. I think that was really conducive to everyone being happy, and it's reflective in what we managed to achieve in the studio." With confidence to lead the album without an external producer, the foursome brought in Matt Lovell (Something For Kate, Big Heavy Stuff) to engineer the recording, while the final set was mixed by Shaun O'Callaghan. "I think the reason we did it by ourselves this time around is that we had learned so much from producers that we had worked with in the past," says Vanessa.

Ask them today what they think their proudest moment was, it would have nothing to do with the Big Day Out or the Hammersmith Palais and the Bowery Ballroom, and everything to do with "Braxton Hicks". It's the assured sound of a band comfortable in their own skin but not afraid to step out of it.

Estimated despatch 14-20 days after ordering.