SuppliedThe Tea Party
With: Special Guests
Saturday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m.
Union Hall (6240 – 99 St. Edmonton)
Tickets: $35 (unionhall.ca)
After a decade away from the recording studio, The Tea Party is roaring back with their iconic brand of emotionally charged and instrumentally complex rock.
Jeff Burrows, drummer and founding member of The Tea Party, notes their reformation came at a time of rapid change in the music industry.
“It’s a different game now … the landscape of radio has changed so much. There’s so much competition, which is good for the market,” he says.
Having just recently come out of their long hiatus, The Tea Party enters into a music world very different from the one they left back in 2005. Radio play for fringe genres such as progressive rock is dwindling, but Burrows suggests this has granted The Tea Party a more dedicated fan base.
“I think they’ve all become more educated and more informed,” Burrows reflects. “They have to sniff it out … they didn’t even hear it on the radio.”
The progressive rock trio from Windsor reformed in 2011 after their 2005 breakup. Since then, the band has toured extensively and released their eighth studio album The Ocean At The End. While they managed to put together a new record, Burrows admits that songwriting as a team can make the music-making process tough.
“Sometimes you’re just scrat-ching your head going ‘what the fuck, I’ve got this brilliant idea and its just not coming out right,’” Burrows says. “Then add two other people, three other people to the mix then heads are colliding, egos are colliding, everything’s colliding.”
While they found some bumps after getting back to songwriting after such a long hiatus, The Tea Party managed to come together to make The Ocean at The End. The new album is surprisingly similar to their older albums, remaining iconic to the organic Tea Party sound.
The word “organic” might just be the best way to describe The Tea Party circa 2014. Every track on The Ocean At The End feels like it was crafted naturally — nothing feels forced. The seamless musical chemistry that granted The Tea Party their early success is evident in their newest release.
Critics and fans alike agree that The Ocean At The End is a decidedly rock ‘n’ roll album that features a more stripped down arrangement than previous records, which Burrows attributes to the collaborative nature of the band.
“We’ll just start hashing out ideas together,” Burrows says. “That has a lot to do with that real rock ‘n’ roll sound because it was just guitar, bass, and drums and the organic flow of ideas was right there.”
Armed with a stripped down, organic sound, The Tea Party continues to make waves with The Ocean At The End. One this is certain, The Tea Party is back and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
