Thirty years, four original members and plenty of stories to tell. Jebediah have achieved something few rock bands manage: keeping the same line-up intact for three decades.
But as their new documentary makes clear from the opening moments, sticking together hasn’t always been easy.
In a Rolling Stone AU/NZ exclusive, the band shared the opening scenes and credits of Jebediah: Are We OK?, offering a first glimpse into the deeply personal film exploring the band’s enduring friendship, their remarkable career, and the challenges that have tested both.
“I have a funny relationship with the whole concept of growing up because in so many ways I don’t feel like I have,” frontman Kevin Mitchell reflects in the opening narration.
“Spending my whole adult life as a musician, there’s been a side of my life where I haven’t really been required to grow up much at all. In fact, I’ve been encouraged not to.”
For Mitchell, music has offered something of an escape from the responsibilities of everyday life.
“It’s a little door we can jump through into this kind of timeless, magical place that’s kind of free of all the pressures and worries and issues that we have in our lives,” he explains.
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“It’s not something that we would just give up on easily. We’ve just invested our whole lives into, not just Jebediah, but into each other.”
The footage moves between reflections on the band’s early years, archival interviews and commentary from familiar Australian music industry voices, including Recovery host Dylan Lewis and former triple j music director Richard Kingsmill.
There’s nostalgia and humour, but the mood gradually shifts as the conversation turns to the realities of maintaining relationships across three decades.
“We’d always been this very functional band surrounded by so much dysfunction,” Mitchell reflects, admitting they once believed Jebediah were somehow immune to the problems that had fractured so many of their contemporaries.
“But no, we’re not immune to it.”
Directed by first-time filmmaker Arlo Dean Cook, Are We OK? was filmed over 11 years, following Kevin Mitchell, his brother Brett Mitchell, Vanessa Thornton, and Chris Daymond as they navigated the distance between their carefree beginnings in suburban Perth and the considerably more complicated realities of middle age.
What began as a documentary about one of Australia’s most enduring alternative rock bands became something far more intimate, exploring family, financial pressures, addiction, recovery, and the changing music industry.
Cook even found himself becoming part of the story, stepping in as a temporary guitarist when one of the band’s members needed time away.
The film also serves as a remarkable time capsule of Australian music in the ’90s and early 2000s, drawing on an extensive collection of archival footage, photographs, and memorabilia. More than 1,300 individual items were cleared for use, while members of Grinspoon, You Am I, Spiderbait, and Magic Dirt are among those contributing their perspectives.
Ultimately, Are We OK? isn’t simply a story about a band that never broke up. It’s about what happens when four friends dedicate their lives to something together, and what it takes to keep choosing each other when things become difficult.
Following its premiere at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival, Jebediah: Are We OK? has been screening in Australian cinemas, accompanied by special Q&A events featuring members of the band and the filmmakers.
