9.58°C Jeanie from the Mountains talk songwriting, community and a return to live music ahead of their biggest show yet at Colchester Arts Centre.
Jeanie from the Mountains didn’t begin in a rehearsal room or a studio. It began in the back of a shop.
Jez Dixon and Steve Hurdle have run Best Days Vintage in Colchester for 13 years. What started as a clothing shop has grown into something closer to a community space. Part record shop, part café, part meeting point for the city’s creative scene. Music has always been central to it, and it was only a matter of time before it turned into something else.
After years away from releasing music as a serious project, Jez found himself wondering if the spark was still there. A podcast, a handful of covers for a small event, and a quiet challenge to himself led to a new song. That song became Lattes in the Rain, the first release by Jeanie from the Mountains, and once it existed, others followed.
Keep Colchester Cool’s Ben Howard caught up with Jez to find out more about how the band took shape.
“We’ve got a tiny office at the back of the shop,” Jez says. “Friday evenings, a few beers, writing songs. The songs came quickly, and it felt obvious that this should become a band.”
This time around, the approach was different. Having been through band life before, Jez and Steve were clear about what they wanted and what they didn’t.
“We’ve done the full band thing and know how easily it can stop being fun,” Jez says. “So we set a few rules early on: it has to be enjoyable, and we’re not chasing an industry game anymore.”
That outlook comes from having been through it before. Both Jez and Steve were previously part of Fans of Kate and New Adventures, bands that took them deep into the realities of the music industry.
“The biggest lesson is simple: the song always comes first,” Jez says. “Just keep writing. You get better, you figure out what suits you, and you stop second-guessing yourself.”
That clarity runs through everything the band does.
“I’ll usually bring in a song fairly fully formed,” Jez says. “Steve’s great at shaping arrangements, then the rest of the band adds their parts. Everyone comes from a different background. Heavier stuff, shoegaze, folkier influences. That mix stops it from sounding locked into one era.”
Jez describes the sound itself as an attempt to escape the everyday. There’s a pull towards something more open and reflective, music shaped by ideas of space, distance and stepping away from routine. Rather than being rooted in any one genre, the songs lean into a feeling of leaving things behind and heading somewhere quieter and less defined. It’s a thread that runs through the writing and helps explain why the music feels as comfortable in intimate settings as it does when it opens up.
The current lineup reflects that openness. Alongside Jez and Steve, the band brings together musicians from different generations and backgrounds, each pulling the songs in slightly different directions. Rather than flattening the sound, it gives it shape, with room for detail as well as weight when things open up live.
The same thinking carries through to how they play live. Under the banner of BestDays Live, Best Days Vintage became a venue in its own right. Candlelit shows, small audiences, and a welcoming space for local acts to play without pressure.
“It was always part of the idea,” Jez says. “Vintage clothes, records, live music. It all belongs together. BestDays Live gave people a space to play without pressure, and at the time, there wasn’t much like that locally.”
Those early shows were intimate by design, but the songs quickly outgrew the space.
“Even when we were playing in the shop, the songs felt like they wanted more room,” Jez says. “That’s why the Arts Centre feels right. The sound, the lighting, the sense of occasion. It’s the kind of space where the music can really open up.”
That sense of momentum continues on the day of the show itself. A new single is released on Thursday, 12th February. The same night sees Jeanie from the Mountains headline Colchester Arts Centre, their biggest show to date, supported by Swines and Evy Frearson, in collaboration with Keep Colchester Cool and the Arts Centre.
“It feels like a proper moment,” Jez says. “You’re treated like a real band at Colchester Arts Centre. The production, the soundcheck, everything. We’ve seen so many bands on that stage over the years, so stepping onto it ourselves feels significant.”
Beyond that, the longer-term aim is an album. There’s already a sizeable backlog of material, written without any deadline in mind, and the plan is to return to the studio once the show is done. The intention is not to rush it, but to make something complete that reflects the band as it stands now.
For Jez, it’s less about putting on a show and more about how the music lands in the room.
“I hope people leave feeling better than when they arrived,” he says. “For me, music should be escapism. Something that takes you somewhere else for a while. If it makes people want to go to more gigs, discover more music, or even start something themselves, that’s the best outcome.”
From a back room in Colchester to the city’s biggest stage, Jeanie from the Mountains have found their way back to live music, on their own terms.
Tickets for the Colchester Arts Centre show are available now, and Jeanie from the Mountains can be found on Spotify.
