"We're gonna clone Jeff with a sheep to get the ultimate sex machine."
-Stuart Chatwood
From The Georgian Eye, February 9/94
TEA PARTY WINS NEW FANS DOWN UNDER
ROCK TRIO SET TO LAUNCH EASTERN-CANADA TOUR
Windsor's Tea Party have been bringing their combination of rock, blue and spiritual psychedelia (sic) to the world by way of cross-Canada tour with Blind Melon followed by an overseas Australian jaunt. I was able to catch up with Stuart Chatwood, the bass player for the group, the day after their arrival back
in Canada from the Land Down Under. Here's how our conversation went...
Journalist Andrea Mulder- "When was the band, as it sits now, formed?"
Stuart- "About three years ago. It actually started as a lark."
Andrea- "How So?"
Stuart- "Well, we (Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows and myself) were living in Toronto and were asked to play a pub show in our hometown of Windsor. The owner of this club asked us to form a joke band for a show. Martin and I were in another band at the time that was falling apart. It was to the point where we all needed to drink a bunch of beers in order to just get along with each other. When we decided to practice for this joke band we ended up spending about eight hours rehearsing! We couldn't believe just how well we all got it together. We jammed on a Saturday and on that Sunday, our bass player called to say the drummer was quitting. Everything was falling apart, yet it seemed like a good omen. That's when we decided to do this three piece band (Martin, Burrows, Chatwood) for real, not just as a joke."
Andrea- "So is that when you became The Tea Party?"
Stuart- "Initially we sent our cd out to record companies just to see what would happen. We got a lot of rejections until we signed a publishing deal with Warner and all of a sudden companies from all over were interested in us. I remember, we saw three record companies in one week. The first told us we were dreaming, that we would never find a company to go along with us with all the demands we were asking."
Andrea- "I suppose you showed them, huh?"
Stuart- "Yeah, but at the time, we left that office feeling pretty down. Anyhow, the second company we saw told us that they wanted to work with us, on our terms. They said we could record five songs and they would foot the bill. If that worked out, we would do the whole album."
Andrea- "And obviously it turned out great."
Stuart- "Yeah, we were able to do the album the way we had envisioned doing it from the start... it worked out well."
Andrea- "I won't go asking about your influences or aspirations and all that stuff, but I am curious about one thing..."
Stuart- "Go ahead."
Andrea- "In one of your videos, I notice there is a lot of reference made to the native culture. Is that something that you are interested in or did it just sort of work out that way?"
Stuart- "Well, we are all very disinterested in organized kinds of religion so I guess we are just into exploring different ideas. We're not weird or anything, we're just searching for something different, and the native ideas seem a natural route. The connection between the seasons and the earth and us as humans, I find that very interesting... we all do. Oh, hey, do you know where we just got back from?"
Andrea- "Yeah, Australia, I was going to ask you... how did that go?"
Stuart- "It went pretty good. The album was released there the second week of November and we flew down Christmas Eve, not really knowing what to expect. Turned out, there is a big alternative station down there called Triple J and they broadcast all around Australia. They picked up the single Save Me and they played it first once a day, then twice, then we were in heavy rotation, which lead to more promotion, so by the time we got there people actually knew of us."
Andrea- "What parts of Australia were you at?"
Stuart- "We played mostly between Sydney and Melbourne. On the last night there we played an unannounced show in Sydney. We would have been happy if 100 people showed, so you can imagine our surprise when we got there and there were 400 people waiting for us to go on."
Andrea- "Wow, that's terrific that you had that kind of interest there."
Stuart- "We were pretty happy about it. When we were flying back to Canada, the stewardess looked at us and said, 'You guys are in a band, aren't you?' We were all set to go into our routine of, 'We're The Tea Party and you've probably never heard of us, we're from Canada...' and then she goes, 'The Tea Party! I love you guys!' And she was from the other side of Australia."
Andrea- "So what's next on the agenda?"
Stuart- "We flew in yesterday and we play a few shows around Ontario. Then we fly to Halifax and St. John because that's one part of the country we haven't really concentrated on and we don't want to leave them out. Prior to Australia we did a cross-Canada tour with Blind Melon that took us West of Ottawa so now we go east."
If you didn't have a chance to see the Tea Party when they performed a couple of months back in Barrie... tough luck! It looks as though you'll have a mighty long wait before they return to our neck of the woods again. In the meantime, you can indulge in their exotic sounds which are nicely nestled in a bed of rock music on their Splendor Solis CD. Grab it, it's a keeper.
Stuart has his say about the critics, and defends "Edges"
Stuart- "The eastern tinges on the record have been a bone of contention with critics who see it as a western band either running out of ideas or rehashing some 70's ideas. We looked at our album as a chance to explore and expand on rock's limited foundation, the expansion of western ideas, and a melding of eastern ones. The critic is almost racist when he/she implies that a western artist does not have this choice. We will only have harmony throughout the world when other cultures are understood, and music is one way to do this. The band never once claimed to be experts at the exotic instruments. Instead we saw it as western musicians interpreting other music in the same way an Egyptian guitarist would interpret the blues."
From the Toronto Sun, February '95
ANOTHER TEA PARTY: One of the surprise Canadian success stories of the last two years, The Tea Party, has wrapped up its next opus. Called The Edges Of Twilight, it'll be in stores here March 28.
The title "comes from a book called Fire In The Head, about the transition the soul goes through and how it's related to the sun going down," bassist/keyboardist Stuart Chatwood explained this week from the Toronto offices of the band's record label.
The album, which is being mastered today in L.A., was produced by Tea Party frontman Jeff Martin and Ed Stasium, known for his work with The Ramones.
And how does it compare to its predecessor, the 120,000-selling Splendor Solis?
"Really mature," says Chatwood. "The touring we've done definitely shines through in the performance.
"I'm playing keyboards more than ever, and Jeff Martin dived right into sitars. We just went nuts buying instruments. I think we have a total of 31 instruments on the record, so even if you hate the music, you've got to at least admire the depth and effort that went into it."
Meanwhile, the band will play two warm-up dates in April, likely in London and Kitchener, before heading to Australia to headline some theatre shows. As for Toronto, look for a late-May or early-June show, plus an "unusual" event in March as part of Canadian Music Week.
Stuart 'kindly agreed to field questions from fans' here.
'The Tea Party serves up eccentricity' -July 6/95
In Seattle, The Tea Party isn't a social gathering, it's an event.
The pan-cultural rock trio from Windsor, Ontario, is on the brink of a national breakthrough with its second Chrysalis/EMI album, "The Edges of Twilight," an eclectic mix of influences that virtually defies categorization. If their burgeoning popularity can be traced to any one place, oddly enough, it's the seaport hometown of grunge rock.
"The first time we showed up there, there were 600 people at our show," bassist-keyboardist Stuart Chatwood said recently. "Then we came back a few months later and played to 1,300 people at the Moore Theater. Now they've offered to fly us back from a tour in Europe to play the Paramount, which seats about 3,200."
Radio stations in Seattle played tracks off the new album, primarily the first single "Fire in the Head" and the epic "Sister Awake," weeks before it was released. Fans have been buying import copies at $20 apiece.
Chatwood can't explain Seattle's affinity for The Tea Party's seminal rock sound, but he thinks part of the attraction might be their fearless eccentricity. Chatwood, singer-guitarist Jeff Martin and drummer Jeff Burrows thrive on blowing caution to the wind.
"We're not afraid to do things that maybe disturb some people or maybe people wouldn't feel comfortable with," said Chatwood, who bristles at any comparisons to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.
"What we're trying to do is move music forward. We're sort on the cusp of something that's new and challenging. What we're trying to do is incorporate as many elements of world music and put them into a hard rock, intense setting. I almost don't enjoy calling it rock anymore. I'd rather just call it intense music."
On "The Edges of Twilight" and when the band goes on tour, there are upward to 30 instruments at their disposal: mandolin, harmonium, sitar, hurdy gurdy, harp guitar, tabla, djemba. You name it.
It's a diversity similar to Dead Can Dance, a group Chatwood acknowledges is an inspiration. "They also share the no-fear factor," he said. "Having fear is total misery. You've got to be willing to take chances, and Dead Can Dance has that sort of same attitude. They approach instruments that maybe are sacred to certain cultures and they throw out some of the conventions and re-interpret them."
Chatwood, Martin and Burrows attended the same high school in Windsor but were in different bands. Fed up with the politics of their respective groups, the three merged to form "a band that would play music for music's sake," Chatwood said.
"That's what was missing from all the other bands we were in," he said. "We knew we had to go for this and make it happen. Fatalistically, the other bands - through none of our guidance - split up within 48 hours of our first rehearsal."
With its 1993 debut LP, "Splendor Solis," The Tea Party reached platinum status in Canada but failed to make an impression in the United States.
"We're just trying to let people know about us now," Chatwood said. "We don't want to get lost in the shuffle again."
A comment made by a certain Stuart Chatwood regarding an Andres Segovia album can be found here.
From an ad promoting 'Transmission'
"The Tea Party first applied eastern tunings to western instruments with
1993's platinum selling album, 'Splendor Solis'. Later they merged eastern
instruments with rock music on the double platinum, 'The Edges of
Twilight' and now on 'Transmission', the band has forged a hybrid of
electronic music, old-world acoustics and hard rock as they continue to
reinvent their sound and challenge themselves."
From 'The Tea Party, New Kings of Mystic Rock'
"Look, that's the Cd insert of our new album, Transmission," says Stuart Chatwood, smiling. "I conceived it myself. I wanted something simple." A little bit proud, Stuart Chatwood? That's normal, the third album of one of the most popular Canadian bands, The Tea Party, was not even out yet when Stuart and Jeff, bassist and singer of the band, were already invaded by journalists pleased to spread the good news: The Tea Party guys are still alive.
Since when does the band exist as we know it today, Jeff-voice, Stuart-bass and Jeff-drums?
Stuart- "The Tea Party has existed since 1990, but we've known each other since childhood, since school, more precisely. In a way, I think it's a good thing because we know the limits of each other and, with the years, we have learned to rely on each other. So Jeff (Martin) can be the fire of something, me, the eyes of another thing, and Jeff (Burrows), the spirit of something else."
What do you think about the industry?
Stuart- "Some bands find the industry very hard to endure. Sometimes, they have no liberty, except dressing the way they want. We don't have that problem because we produce ourselves our albums and videos."
You're one of the most popular Canadian bands. How do you live your popularity always getting bigger?
Stuart- "The fans in Montreal are very nice. They're fans, but they respect us."
I didn't know you were living in Montreal...
Stuart- "I've lived here for a year."
As a Montrealer, do you speak French?
Stuart- "Désolé, mon français est très limité!"
From the August '97 issue of Chart Magazine
Stuart- "Well, as for compromises, I think our band makes the fewest out of anybody."
The complete interview with Stuart and JM entitled, 'Nothing Is Wrong With Us' can be found here.
From the Enligne MusiquePlus interview -September 22/97
Stuart comments on 'playing live' vs 'playing in the studio'
Stuart- "As they're two different animals, like recording we're allowed to completely orchastrate things and there's really no limits, and live we have to figure out how to do what we did in the studio, so it's like a real mind bender, but once we've eventually figured it out it's like a real rush doing each live show, so each has its rewards... you know?"
From 'Tea Party to open for Stones' -October 15/97
"In `95, we played with Led Zeppelin (Page & Plant), now we're playing with the Stones. All we're doing now is waiting for the Beatles to reform, and we'll get asked to open for that gig hopefully," jokes The Tea Party's bassist and keyboardist Stuart Chatwood.
The Tea Party kept silent about the opening slot for several weeks, as it waited for final confirmation and announced its own headlining dates in the meantime. "We were rumoured to play with the Stones on the last tour," says Chatwood. "We were supposed to do some dates with them in New Zealand actually, when they were there on Voodoo Lounge, but that never came through, so we didn't want to spread any rumours".
The Tea Party will join the Stones at Toronto's Skydome, Jan. 9, and Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Jan. 11. "The 10th, we'll probably hop on their jet and just boot around North America," quips Chatwood.
From an interview sometime in October '97
Stuart- "There's more to life than white guys that are sexually insecure,
singin' about angst, you know, I mean...it's a big world out there..."
To read a short interview from the Jam! Music Database done with Stuart on November 26 1997, click here.
From Beat Magazine, April 8/98
It has only been a little over six months since The Tea Party were last on our shores. This month The Tea Party make their sixth visit to Australia, their second tour since the release of last year's successful Transmission album. I spoke with one third of the Canadian outfit, Stuart Chatwood, recently to find out what The Tea Party do when not touring Australia.
What exactly have you been up to since the last time we saw you here in September?
Stuart- "We have been touring around North America non-stop. America is such a huge country, and we have been converting Americans night by night. It is very different over here, it is very fragmented and corporate. We haven't quite made it on to a lot of the playlists, so we are reaching people live. The other interesting thing is that we had dates with The Rolling Stones, two in fact but they got cancelled and rescheduled for April which we incidentally had to turn down because we were coming to your country. We were supposed to do two dates with those guys back in 1995, those were cancelled as well so we are thinking that it is fate speaking to us and we should adhere to fate and just move on and turn them down whenever we can."
It must be peculiar to not be playlisted in North America when you are so readily accepted by Australian audiences...
Stuart- "What happened was that the first two records came out on EMI in America which is now out of business. It was run by one of these evil men called Charles Kaufmann who spent a lot of money on the wrong things. It is hard with EMI because they are there trying to promote Barney the Dinosaur, who is on the same label. Where do we fit in?"
A split single maybe?
Stuart- "Actually maybe, don't put that in the story about not being playlisted, because it is all really non-stop award shows, baby."
Yeah right. Well anyway, how did the conversion of the American masses turn out, are they all faith followers now?
Stuart- "It was good, we just finished a tour with a band named Creed, a grungy type band, so there was a stark contrast to when we came on."
Was that a band of your choice?
Stuart- "Well they are breaking pretty big in the States, so yeah. It wasn't the perfect match musically, but if we tried to do that we wouldn't tour with too many bands. Radiohead might be a good band to tour with, but other than that I can't think of too many others who incorporate into their music the elements that we do."
Well you do seem to stand alone in certain respects...
Stuart- "It is lonely up here. Someone come and rescue us."
Were you able to write for the next album throughout all this touring, or do you find touring and writing exclusive of each other?
Stuart- "I am always singing melodies or humming something and it is only when you get back home that you can actually formulate something substantial. I try not to record things [on the road] like other artists do, because I find when I get home, if I can remember a melody then it is a melody of note and means something. Our goal always is to write universally, something that strikes a chord in a lot of people. And I think we did that with Save Me, and Psycho Pop [the writer is obviously not familiar with the Tea Party's new stuff! That was not a spelling mistake] on the new album does that. After hearing the new album five hundred times the hairs on my neck still stand up, it moves me even if I am absorbed in some other project and it is on in the background."
The material on Transmission appeared almost like a genesis of your previous albums, where do you see the next direction for The Tea Party?
Stuart- "I think with the first album we were playing eastern styling on western instruments. The second album we actually had travelled and toured and acquired a lot of theses instruments. With Transmission we added those two elements with the last frontier for us which is electronics. When I say that I don't mean dance culture, not that I have anything against that, but it was never our intention to chase down a dance audience like U2 or Daivd Bowie. It was more that we wanted to incorporate new sounds, we are sonic junkies. We didn't care where a sound originated, whether it is tape based, guitar, samples, synthesised. We weren't racist about its origins. What we have done with Transmission is created a huge array of influence that we can head off in any direction we choose now. We have found our foundation and our basis and it is just a case now exploring that a bit more on all the tangents."
So where have your tangents of late been taking you?
Stuart- "I think there is a melodic edge that might catch a few people off. Often we have very challenging melodies in some of our music and often people can't relate to it initially. Which is kind of good because it stands up to multiple listens because you don't get the song until the tenth listen and then it grows on you. I don't want to use any definite examples but there are so many songs that have an expiry date on the back. They taste bad after three months and you get it right away, and you want to get rid of it right away though."
What has been the source of this melodic influence?
Stuart- "It has always been with us. When we were young The Cure and a lot of post punk bands had a lot of respect for melody; like a second generation of The Beatles. I know Oasis and all that stuff is not really an influence to us, we have always been great levers of melody ourselves, not disposable melodies, melodies that mean something."
Will you incorporate much of this new material into the set for Offshore or will you be focusing on material from Transmission?
Stuart- "What we always like to do is tour [an album] twice. The first tour is where we get on to Australian soil and say to ourselves 'we have just recorded this great record now what the fuck do we do and how do we play this live'. Then we like to return and give the definitive version where the song has been evolving for a year. It is almost like you were cheated at that first tour and you didn't really hear the songs the way they were supposed to sound. Now we are coming back and giving you the proper versions."
You certainly do set yourselves a challenge with the amount of instrumentation on the albums to then deliver live...
"We don't think about it. We record these records and then it is like ‘what were we thinking, we have to play this live'. On the next album there will only be three chords."
When is the album scheduled for release?
Stuart- "First we will have to get twelve songs. We like to edit ourselves initially. We are not one of those bands who records thirty-eight songs and chooses the best ten. Hopefully you will see it in the spring of 1999. Then we will be over to play Waltzing Matilda at the Olympic."
I think there would be none other who would be more fitting. Perhaps you could do a dress rehearsal down at Offshore, give it a burl see what the crowd think...
Stuart- "Yeah we will give it a hurl, a bit of a chunder."
From MuchMusic's Intimate & Interactive with The Tea Party
Bill- (reading e-mail) "From your recent album 'Transmission', Stuart
did the painting on the cover. The painting is called 'The Earth We
Inherit'. Why did you choose to use this painting, and what drove you
to take the artwork into your own hands? (done reading e-mail) 'Cause
this is not new with The Tea Party records..."
Stuart- "Well, we always control everything--or we try and control everything."
JM- "Ego maniacs!" *laughs*
Stuart- (*insert cute Stu laugh here*) "No, I appreciated, uh artists,
that uh, I don't know created, I don't know...you knew what you were
getting, or what, what you were getting was the artist's vision, totally,
it wasn't like sort of filtered through a record company, so I appreciate
it when like artists produce themselves, artists make their own artwork,
artists are heavily involved in the video, you know, it's the anti-product
thing, you know, the anti-marketing thing? But uh, I don't know, with this
album cover, uh, Jeff (Martin) and myself were in London at the Tate
Gallery and we saw this painting by Turner, and we walked around the
gallery separately, and we came out on the sidewalk, and we both said,
'Ah, some boring stuff in there, some nice stuff, but did you see that one
painting?',and we both talked about the same painting, that was the one
that really struck us so, we always kept that in mind for the album cover,
so it was sort of inspired by a work by Turner, so...(*head nod*...)"
From an interview with Stuart in Vancouver during EdgeFest '98
Bill- "You co-headlined the first half, headlining the latter half of
EdgeFest, a lot of people would be impressed by that, are you phased by
that at all?"
Stuart- "Well this whole thing, was a Canadian thing to start with, and
I guess everyone from the promoters on down, it was like, you know,
it made sense to have a Canadian band play last, so, you know, I mean
we're honoured that we were chosen this year, so, you know, it's grown
to such a huge thing from just one show in Toronto every Canada Day,
now it's goin' across Canada, so it's, I mean it's a huge testiment of the
strength of Canadian music nowadays, that we can fill, you know, places
like this."
Stuart- "Well, this is the last thing that we're gonna do, then we're just
gonna head back to the studio, demo, and then uh, we hope to have the
record done before Christmas, you know, get it on people's desks and get
it out in the, the spring of next year. So, yeah, it's starting to come
together, you know, stuff like this (EdgeFest) is just good, it just, you
know, gets our chops back up, so we go back to the studio you know, don't
get any flab around the waist or anything you know, so..."
A little Q&A with Stu from the EdgeFest '98 Magazine
Q: What would your "spice" name be?
Q: Favourite Rock Star move/pose?
Q: Best part of your job?
Q: Should fighting be banned from the NHL?
From a brief interview in Ottawa at the Canada Day Show '98
Juliette- "Well, look at all these people, it seems to me that a lot
of them are here to see Tea Party, and yet, they just saw you at
EdgeFest, you guys are everywhere, what's the deal?"
Stuart- "Uh, anywhere there's rain, they call us in, so uh, I feel bad
for the squeegee kids, they're goin' uh, hungry today."
From the EMI site's 'TRIPography'
"One of the great things about how we made this record, was that when we were in the studio with all the pressure to write on the spot and keep an eye on costs, I sensed a difference. We had the musicianship, the knowledge and the direction to come up with an idea, put it down on tape and watch it come to fruition before our eyes without trying multiple times. My piano playing had improved to the point where I could just take on anything. The start-off of "Taking Me Away" for instance, is just an exercise in overhand, underhand playing, just going up and down the keyboard. That's something I'm very proud of."
From the April '99 issue of Chart Magazine
"We picked up this old electro-acoustic instrument that was created in Russia," enthuses bassist Stuart Chatwood. "It's the wildest thing. The Beach Boys used it in the early '60s. It's got this really cool 'Woooooooo-wooooooo' sound to it. [Umm, that would be a theremin... think of the original Star Trek theme. --Good Vibrations ed.]
"They [the instruments] are like our toys: We love to play with them, experiment and see where they can take us."
From The Edmonton Journal, May '99
The Tea Party may not be huge fans of Pepsi, but that didn't stop them from taking part in a concert series sponsored by the great beverage company.
Singer Jeff Martin, bassist Stu Chatwood, and drummer Jeff Burrows were at The Rev last Saturday, treating a bunch of contest winners to a sneak preview of their upcoming CD, TRIPtych.
The trio were tight, albeit very introspective, as they performed four of their new tunes, including Heaven Coming Down, and a shwack of their previous hits. Chatwood said the band took advantage of the Pepsi deal to work the kinks out of their new songs and delight their fans.
"Instead of people paying $25 or $30 for us to work out songs, we could play for free," he explained during a pre-show interview at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. "We don't mind working for nothing on occasion."
But Chatwood does mind drinking Pepsi. He looked aghast when asked if he belongs to the Pepsi generation. "No, I don't," he said, nursing a glass of orange juice. "I drink Coke with Jack Daniels."
Fortunately, the band didn't have to publicly thank their sponsors for footing their cross-Canada preview tour. And Pepsi respectfully declined to cover the Rev in advertising--although the trio were drenched in Pepsi-blue and red lights for much of the performance.
From Vue Weekly, May 27-June 2/99
Ten o'clock in the morning -- and I was psyched. Jeff Martin, frontman of the Tea Party, was my next interview. While certainly not the biggest name I've ever had the privilege of speaking to, he's definitely no slouch in the music business. I scribbled down some questions: "Tell me about the new CD"... "Just how much do comparisons to the Doors bother you?"... "How is Windsor, Ontario when it comes to fostering musical talent?"... and I waited.
10:30 a.m.: Martin's a half-hour late. No big deal, it's happened before, and God knows it'll happen again. I call the band's publicist and she says, "I'll get on it."
10:40 a.m.: The phone rings, "Hello," I say. "Can I please speak to Dave, please?" says the voice on the other end. "Speaking," I reply. "Hi Dave... it's Stuart Chatwood from the Tea Party."
Stuart? What about the Doors guy? Chatwood, the band's bassist/keyboardist, goes on to politely explain that Martin is temporarily AWOL after a late night out. Ah, to be a rock star.
CANADIAN AMBASSADORS
That was my professional introduction to the Tea Party, the trio (consisting of Martin, Chatwood and drummer Jeff Burrows) that emerged into the national spotlight via Windsor, Ontario, a town famous for, well, being across the river from Detroit. But actually, crossing the Ambassador Bridge over to the Motor City had as much to do with where the band now finds itself as anything else.
"Detroit's probably like a smaller Chicago, a big midwestern town," laughs Chatwood. "Pretty well every band that tours stops there. It's this big rock city with a lot of university radio stations, and it left this indelible mark on us."
In fact, the American music scene had more of an influence on the Tea Party than what was available north of the border -- Chatwood says the band members were more concerned with artists that broke in the U.S. Perhaps, then, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the Tea Party are often compared to one of the most unique American acts of all time: the Doors.
But those comparisons, which have persisted for years now, are somewhat inaccurate. Chatwood doesn't mind the criticisms -- he just wants some explanations from the band's detractors.
"If they can explain why they feel the way they do, that's fine," he says. "The same rule applies to accolades. What I want is some thoughtful insight either way. When it comes to the Doors, the comparison is 90 per cent visual. I pity the reader."
THREE-PEAT, THREESOME, TRIFECTA...
But there are more pressing concerns with the Tea Party -- like hitting the road to promote their upcoming CD, Triptych. The band is in the midst of a 10-stop swing as part of the Pepsi Taste Tour '99. It's not exactly your traditional road trip, seeing as all of the venues on this jaunt are smaller clubs, plus the concertgoers are there by invitation only. Well, they aren't exactly presented invitations; instead, fans have an opportunity to win tickets via local radio station promotions or the tried-and-true Pepsi Taste Challenge method.
Chatwood likes the fact that this tour offers fans a free night out to the club, especially considering the ever-rising cost of concert tickets. It works out for the Tea Party as well, who get the opportunity to sample the new tracks from Triptych in front of a smaller, more intimate crowd.
"It's a good way to start -- you can gauge the audience's reaction," says Chatwood.
STU-STU-STUDIO
But touring has become less of a, well, challenge as the band has begun to place a greater emphasis on what they do in the studio. Chatwood explains that this particular session proved to be genuinely rewarding, as some of the tracks off Triptych were penned right in the studio -- a sign, he believes, that the band is maturing musically.
"The studio is becoming more and more my favourite place," he says. "Touring can sometimes be the same, but the studio is always something new and fresh.
"I would actually like to do fewer shows, but don't let my manager hear that," Chatwood adds with a chuckle.
So enough about music -- let's get down to some serious issues. Stuart, whaddya prefer, Coke or Pepsi?
"I'm more of a Royal Crown man myself," he jokes.
Yup, 10 cent colas... I remember them like it was yesterday. And the smile on my face makes me forget, temporarily, that the band's swash-buckling frontman left me hanging.
From the June '99 issue of Chart Magazine
STUART CHATWOOD:
"We're prepared to do whatever it takes... [even] if I have to use all
my limbs to create [the] sounds live," musical martyr Chatwood says
calmly. "It's always frustrating for us as a band, because sometimes
maybe we do overdo it in the studio. [Then] when it comes time to play
live, we're like, 'Oh, goddamn it, why'd we make this so difficult? We
could've just kept one guitar line in.' Besides, we're three people. You
know, we sort of squint our ears."
Chatwood's sense of humour is unmistakable, even through long-distance
telephone wires. Speaking from Montreal 10 days after the TRIPtych mixing
session, he's equal parts joker and eloquent orator. He asks as many
questions as he answers, perhaps suggesting a post-Tea Party career in
journalism.
The Tea Party is a few weeks away from rehearsals for and intimate club
tour sponsered by the fine brewers of Pepsi-Cola. Stuart laughs insanely
at the mere mention of this unlikely match-up, and admits that the
corporate angle has made him a little uncomfortable.
"Here's an interesting way to look at it," he says. "This is how I try
to rationalize it, myself: We're going to do this tour, people are going
to get to see us for free... We're not making a lot of money on it. In
exchange, Pepsi will adveritse on the radio and in print for us.
"At the clubs, there'll be Pepsi coasters at the front where you come in.
There'll be nothing around the stage; we're not going to sacrifice that.
I mean... everyone has their line of integrity."
In other words, don't expect to see a line of limited-edition Tea Party
Pepsi cans ("Collect 'em all!").
"The price is right, baby..." he laughs. "I really don't want to insult
the intelligence of our audience, to think that we drink Pepsi. You know,
I don't order a Jack Daniels and Pepsi."
If big-ass corporations like Pepsi are lining up to get in bed with The
Tea Party (Pepsi isn't their first coporate suitor), can mainstream radio
be too far behind? Does increased melody lead to heightened
accessibility? 'Heaven Coming Down' would fit quite comfortably between
the sheets with Peter Gabriel and Natalie Imbruglia.
"I don't want to get onto those stations," he says, referring to those
that spin such material. "I mean, everyone wants to expand their fan base
in Canada, [but] I'm happy where it's at. I don't want to prevent anyone
from listening to us, [but] I think I'd have very little in common with
the type of people who would listen to MIX 99, or whatever it's called,
in Toronto."
In addition to a huge Canadian following, frequent touring Down Under has
inspired a rabid and burgeoning Australian audience for The Tea Party.
This summer, they're not playing on the EdgeFest tour, as they did in
1997 and '98; rather, they're building worldwide momentum by returning
to Oz, and plan to hit the road again in Europe as well. Unlike many
Canadian musicians, The Tea Party don't judge their career based purely
on Stateside acclaim.
"I would like to see us grow [in the U.S.]," Chatwood admits. "I wouldn't
want to be a superstar, but I would like a fair shot. I'd just like to
make sure that our music got out there to the right channels."
Whatever airwaves transmit TRIPtych, it's apparent that this is a band
who'll never revert to day jobs.
"We want all our efforts to go into writing songs and playing
instruments," says Chatwood. "We don't want to water that down with any
distractions."
From Chart Magazine Online
THE TEA PARTY: SHINING IN THE DARKNESS
If The Tea Party was a voodoo doll, what part of the doll would I have
to prick in order to affect you?
Stuart- "The feet. I have very sensitive feet. What did the other
guys say?"
Martin said the third eye.
Stuart- "The third eye. I better come up with a better one."
Burrows said the heart.
Stuart- "Alright. Uh, I guess I'll have to go with that, or else it's
premeditated. I should have said the third eye. I'm the one reading up on
Buddhism."
TAKING THEMSELVES SERIOUSLY: PERCEPTION VS. REALITY
There've been accusations of taking yourselves too seriously in the past;
is there now a conscious effort to let people see the lightness, or do
you just not care?
Stuart- "We care, but I think it'd be the latter: Conscious effort to say,
'Hey, look at me...' We do take our music seriously. There's bands out
there that premeditate it, they purposely show you they're joking; whereas
for us, we believe in what we do, you know? It comes off self-righteous,
so if you've got a problem with it... [joking]. It's just, we do believe
in what we do, though, musically. Those artists really don't get poked at
as much as we do. There are a lot of bands here who are like, 'Are we
O.K.? Are we bothering you?' You know? We don't care what people think."
THE MELODIES, THE SONGS AND THE RADIO
Was the injection of melody a planned step for the music?
Stuart- "I am a more melodic songwriter, myself... When [Jeff Martin was
in Paris], he was staying at a bed and breakfast, and a guy came down and
recognized him as being a rock star. He said, 'I have a guitar upstairs,
why don't you play me a couple of your songs?' Jeff realized, that, you
know, 'How am I going to play 'Psychopomp' on an acoustic guitar?' That's
probably one of the songs that he could have done, but, 'Army Ants' or
whatever, you know, from our prior album would be very difficult. So Jeff
had a goal, from his songwriting perspective, to write songs [that are] a
bit more accessible."
Are you more comfortable on one side of the tempo/emotional spectrum than
the other?
Stuart- "Like it's a dinner, you know? Do you want your appetizers, main
course, dessert? You know, I love sitting down when the show's almost over
and playing something [slower] and then finishing off with a bang. I mean,
myself, my listening tastes I would say are more mid-tempo, you know,
Massive Attack-style beats."
So 'Heaven Coming Down' will be the lead-off single. There's a lot of
radio accessibility there.
Stuart- "Well, here's an interesting thing; I put up a little site where
you can vote. You can check it out yourself if you just go to our site,
and you can pick one of five songs. So it's just funny seeing which ones
make it. Part of the problem with... They want to make their job easy, in
terms of selling it to the public, so they pick what will be most
successful, with one of the more accessible songs."
CRITICIZING THE CRITICS
In the beginning, the band was plagued with critics' accusations of
unoriginality - which became unoriginal unto themselves; an excuse not
to listen to the album and figure things out for themselves. Do you feel
that this has been surpassed now?
Stuart- "So well put. I totally agree with that."
FLATTERY AND SUMMARY
Would you feel flattered or soiled if there was a sudden Pearl Jam/Nirvana
sound-alike syndrome in a Tea Party vein?
Stuart- "I think it'd be flattering. It also forces you to lead the way,
though, and rely on what you were doing before."
Can you sum up the new album in one word, thought or emotion?
Stuart- "Reassuring."
From the interview at MuchMusic on June 3/99
-getting all miked up before the interview...
JM- "Check, testing, testing...testing."
someone in the background- "Testy."
JM- "Tes--what'd you say?" *laughs*
someone in the background- *laughs* "Just testing."
JM- "Hello? Hm? What?"
Stuart- "Testes." *laughs*
JB- "Are you guys on the air right now? (*to the camera*) Good top
quality television."
-talking about 'TRIPtych'
Rachel- "The new thing, the whole melodic, you've really sort of brought
it down and it's not quite as uh, not quite as many elements. Did you hold
yourself back? Did you find..."
Stuart- "I think with 'Transmission', it was more of a, like, we call it
a quantum leap, that one, and we sort of, my analogy is we sort of
threw a tightrope across a crevass, and this album we've sort of taken a
couple steps back where we're building a bridge, now, we're making it..."
Rachel- "You're, you're building a bridge..."
Stuart- "...Yeah, instead of it's a tightrope, we're sort of reinforcing
some of the things we've done in the past, you know, we're sort of taking
a step backwards to go forwards, so..."
-talking about JM
Rachel- "Is he a bit of a control freak?"
JM- "Let me answer that..."
Stuart- "Not substances, no..." *insert cute Stu laugh again*
JB- "No, it's in a good way."
Stuart- "Ah, nah, it's, we have a balance. Like Jeff's, I mean it says in
our bio 'perfectionist', so he's been hit with that in the last two days
about thirty times with interviews, but it's a good balance, because you
know, we know when to stop."
JM- "Yeah. Definitely. 'Cause I, you know I will, I mean if I'm left to
my own devices I'll fill up all forty-eight tracks. But, the thing is
though, is when it comes time to mix, you know, mixing is an artform,
really, and you have to like strip away everything unnecessary and get
like to the real, you know the matrix of the song itself. You know what I
mean? So..."
Stuart- "Also, Jeff's 450 years old, so if he takes
ten years to make an album, it doesn't really make a difference to him,
yeah..."
JM- "That's right...I...am...and..."
Stuart- "...but us mere mortals..." *cute Stu laugh yet again*
-after the triva game, handing out prizes
Rachel- (*to Stu*) "You lose..." (*holds out a cd*)
Stuart- "N'SYNC?"
Rachel- "...so you get 'Spaced Out', the cd."
Stuart- "Oh. I've already got this."
-they also get MuchMusic condoms...
Stuart- "Can I get a large please?"
Rachel- "You want a large..."
Stuart- "Yeah..."
Rachel- "...oh, you want an upsized one..."
From 'Shifting Gears' (Winnipeg Sun-Saturday, Friday June 11/99)
"You won't get any drug stories out of me," jokes bassist/keyboardist Stuart Chatwood, who says he never wavered in his belief the band would weather the stormy times.
"I had faith in our friendship ... although we realized (with the management fiasco) we couldn't rely on other people."
As a result, what began nearly 20 years ago as a collaboration between high-school chums has become even more "insular," Chatwood says.
Another key difference is being life-long friends who share a "musical telepathy" that's rare in a music industry in which bands are pieced together through want ads or as gimmick-driven marketing tools, Chatwood says.
"We all grew up with similar influences," he explains. "When you know what each other is thinking, it's very easy to achieve what you ultimately want to achieve."
From an interview on June 11/99
Stuart- "We take our music seriously. Some artists need producers. We are the producers of our music so it's important that we know all the tools that go into making music. Like an artist should be aware of the characteristics of paint, how fast oil dries compared to acrylic."
Stuart- "We do everything it takes to satisfy ourselves and we do it for the audience. We wanted to make a record that you could just put headphones on and forget everything. You press play and you're not worried about going to track three or nine -- it's a complete listen."
From 'Pushing the edges with THE TEA PARTY'
Journalist David Giammarco- "From Jeff Martin's haunting and sexually
charged baritone to drummer Jeff Burrows' vigorously primal pounding of
the skins and bassist/keyboardist Stuart Chatwood's intricately layered
wizardry, TRIPtych pulsates as the band's most assertive work to date."
Chatwood, 30, is quick to point out that the band's musical exploration
will never cease, "because once the exploration stops, the band stops. What would be the
point?"
"I mean, we're not just doing this as a hobby,"
Chatwood adds.
"We believe in saying something and making a statement. And a lot of
Canadians are uncomfortable with that, and as a result, we receive a lot
of flak."
From dB Magazine, issue #199 -June 30/99 to July 13/99
To give you an idea of how The Tea Party feel about
their supporters and audience in Australia, the first
question asked by bassist Stuart Chatwood is: "When is
the Fringe Festival?", referring to their magical
performance over three years ago when the band won
over an audience of some two and a half thousand in
Rymill Park... he remembers the occasion fondly.
His second question to me, a longtime fan, and the one
who's supposed to be leading the interview, is
likewise to the point: "Have you heard the new
record?" followed by, "What do you think? I like it."
The Tea Party are back, and full of beans (and
attitude) and they're ready to explain where they've
been and what they've been up to. In a way, they feel
the need to explain, because Australia constitutes the
band's strongest market outside of their home country
Canada. They've always felt welcome here and always been warmly received.
In the round of interviews conducted for the release
of TRIPtych, their fifth album, it's a point they've
been most happy to make. They've also been at pains to
emphasise the band's integrity and musical progress.
Indeed, integrity is the theme they're pushing...
"There are more melodic and orchestrated sounds on
this album; it's part of a natural evolution," says
Chatwood of TRIPtych. "I tend to hate bands that
just regurgitate the same stuff again and again... it's
sorta like feeding off the original idea...
"Musically I think it's more seemless. I've said in a
couple of interviews how Transmission was like a
quantum leap for us, coming after The Edges Of
Twilight: with TRIPtych it seems like we've gone
backward and built a bridge in between the other two."
The explanation is Chatwood's way of getting straight
to the heart of the issue: if you wanted to hear a
reprise of their last album Transmission, then stay
away, bucko. TRIPtych is not for you.
Stepping back from the electronic barrage which
punctuated Transmission as an album of and for the
'nineties, The Tea Party have elected to make a more
timeless rock album, harnessing more traditional
instrumentation in their cause. It allows the band a
degree of spaciousness in their music, which in turn
means TRIPtych might be slotted in somewhere between
Splendor Solis and The Edges Of Twilight in the band's oeuvre.
Chatwood agrees: "We're conscious of that now and we
didn't want to make 'Transmission Part 2'. What we
find now is that we have this huge arsenal of
instruments. We can just go and open up the gun
cabinet and pull out whatever we want now. So there's
a few things that didn't make it onto the album that
are even more 'World Music' sounding.
Essentially, he claims, the band decided to
concentrate on the songwriting and the strength of the
songs, rather than record another suite of 'look how
many instruments I can play!!' kinda album. "A lot of
the writing took place in the studio, so it took a
little longer as a result of that," he confirms.
Though the full story doesn't bear repeating here,
there was also the half completed recording sessions
done at Jeff Martin's home in Montreal which were
ruined by other tenants in the building sandblasting
walls which hadn't been touched in nearly four hundred years.
"He woke up one morning and there was this sandstorm
in his apartment, and all this microscopic sand got
into the tape machines, and onto the tapes
themselves...". Four and a half weeks of work went down
the tubes, and the band had to line up a recording
studio and throw themselves into the difficult task of
trying to reconstruct their work. Despite the major
trauma, the album bears no obvious scars, and Chatwood
is chuffed to relate that the band have just scored
their first Number One record in Canada with the
single Heaven Coming Down, which is to be their second
single here. All in all, he feels things are
definitely on a roll, since the band have parted
company with their US label, Atlantic Records, and are
now talking with two other record companies. They've
never had any real success in America, and he clearly
feels that another record company might champion their cause more effectively.
In Australia, the situation is much different, and the
buzz is building on the news of The Tea Party's tour
here, scheduled for October. In Adelaide, this will be
their first performance in two years, after the
Transmission Tour's outdoor show was rained out last
year. This means, I remind Chatwood, we haven't seen
the Transmission era songs played live yet... "Yeah,
we missed a show," he recalls. "Probably there'll be
special consideration of some of the material we
weren't able to play there. What we want to do is play
the Thebarton again, it was a good gig last time."
And that is exactly what they'll do.
To get the transcript of the chat done with Stuart on August 21 1999, click here.
A sampling of one of my conversations with The Tea Party during the autograph session held at the Galleria Mall in London on Saturday, September 18/99...
Stuart- "Back again?" *smiles*
me- "Yep!"
Stuart- (refers to our conversation from earlier) "Who's the sexiest man
alive?"
me- "Stuart Chatwood..." (*said in an as-if-everyone-didn't-know-type
voice*)
JM- "What?! Oh my god..." *laughs*
*Both Stuart and I laugh too :) *
'Drawing Down The Moon' -an interview with Stu, September 21/99
"The Tea Party spent much of the summer on tour in Europe and Australia. What are some of the differences between touring at home and abroad?"
Stuart- "Well, for one thing the crowds in Europe are much more serious about how they experience music. Although they do occasionally mosh about, for the most part they go to a concert to learn, and not so much to forget about their problems the way that we seem to as Canadians. Australian crowds were somewhere between European and Canadian ones. One moment they'd be dead silent, drinking up what we were playing, and then out of nowhere there'd be this Mad Max scene going on, with people jumping off balconies and such."
"Your next Canadian tour is scheduled for November and early December? At this point in your career, what role does touring play in your work?"
Stuart- "Touring evolves with each album. I mean we're primarily a studio band, and historically it has been difficult for us to translate what happens in the studio to on the stage. After all there's only three of us, and in the studio we're so into creating layers and textures that would require a larger cast on stage. We have no intention of making an album that sounds like it was made on stage. That's not us. So on the road, we act like a painter trying to paint a complex landscape with just three colours. Just as that painter would have to squint his eyes to make it work, we sometimes have to 'squint' our ears on stage to find a translation we're happy with."
"After so long on the road, though, they're must be certain cities that have grown close to your hearts?"
Stuart- "For sure. Montreal is the end all for us. In fact, we experienced what was probably the best crowd of our career there, just two weeks ago. Montreal listens to what we're trying to say, they're more emotional and they love the experience of just sitting and sharing our music with each other. It's wonderful."
"The Tea Party is scheduled to perform at the MuchMusic Video Awards on September 23rd. You're also nominated for two awards. Are videos an important part of your artistic process or does the motivation come more from the industry and your label?"
Stuart- "It's a necessary evil for sure. We didn't set out to be directors. You know, if everyone in the industry agreed to stop making videos, I don't think we'd make them anymore. But the way things are now you just have to. They've become an essential part of the marketing. And there isn't any point in making music that no one will hear. It's not our favourite part of the job, but we try to make sure that as much of ourselves as possible comes through in the final product. So far we've been lucky that way."
"Moving on to the new album, what about your choice of instrumentation. On TRIPtych how important was the use of alternative instrumentation as compared to say Edges of Twilight or Transmission?"
Stuart- "To a great extent it will always be a key factor in our music. When we first started doing this, rock was so stagnant. So one day we just sort of looked at each other and decided to tune our instruments differently; just to see what would happen. Back then we didn't have the money for all the special instruments we use now. We're still not experts by any means, it's just our best effort to stay creative. Experimenting with new sounds and instruments was definitely a central focus of 'Twilight. However, we knew starting out with TRIPtych that we didn't want to make an EoT Part II. We had other things in mind."
"It comes across for sure. TRIPtych as an album concept seems to be fairly rich in symbolism. What does the TRIPtych concept mean to you personally and how is it connected to the music?"
Stuart- "Well, a Triptych is by definition a set of 3 panels creating a whole. For us they probably represent the spirit of musical evolution on 'Twilight, the introspective brooding of Transmission, and the more melodic ambitions of TRIPtych itself. On this album we really wanted Jeff to expand his vocal range. We always new he could get into the upper spectrum, but it was a bit of process to get him to embrace it. We had a show in England a few years back that was double-booked with Jeff Buckley. We were the ones that got 'sixed, and it got me curious to find out who this guy was that ousted us. So I went out and picked up some of his albums and he really grew on me. I introduced the other guys to him and it was like an infection. I think that at this point we've all got a little piece of his music floating around in our unconscious minds. It's helped us find some new melodies."
"The recorded cover of Daniel Lanois' The Messenger is a first for the band. What is it about this song that inspired you to create your own version? Is he another current influence?"
Stuart- "Actually, including that track was a tough call. Most people don't realize that The Maker (also by Lanois) inspired Save Me. In fact for a long time we used to mix the two songs in concert. And people used to come up to us afterward saying 'Wow, that was great, is that you're next single?' So with TRIPtych we decided to try The Messenger. We recorded the song for the first time out at the cottage, listening to it afterwards while staring out at the frozen lake and waiting to get bored of it. But after 30 or 40 times we were still liking it so we were like, 'Well that's it, its gotta be on the album'. We've heard that Mr. Lanois likes our version so that makes us happy too."
"In 1996 you released Alhambra, one of the first multimedia CD's to be released by a major Canadian band. What is it specifically about the opportunities of multimedia that drew you to that project and can your fans expect to see another project like that anytime soon?"
Stuart- "CD-ROMs allow us to put our opinions and music in the hands of the fans without the media interfering. I mean the fact of the matter is that no matter what I say to you now, you could change my meaning through paraphrasing or misquoting later on. Multimedia let's us get around all that and decide who to praise and who to slag so to speak. When we first decided to go ahead with a CD-ROM we took a look at what bands like the Cranberries and Bush already had out there. They were cute but they lacked real content. We didn't want to go that route so we waited until we were sure we were really adding to our body of work. It was a great way to showcase the instruments for example. As for another CD-ROM, we won't do it until we have something else we think truly merits representation in that format. We won't do it just for the money."
"Since the very beginnings of the Tea Party, album cover-art and design has been your exclusive domain. How do you feel that your designs contribute to the album concept as a whole?"
Stuart- "I'm a classic minimalist, so simple, meaningful images have always been a part of the plan. I don't believe in complicated album covers. I mean, I grew up appreciating the great art on old Pink Floyd and Joy Division covers, specifically for their simplicity. In twenty years I'd like to be able to put the album cover for Transmission or TRIPtych beside say Dark Side of the Moon and feel that they stand the test of time just as well. I really think that some current musicians are going to look back later in their careers and cringe at the images that they chose to associate with their work."
"It seems like the Tea Party has departed from some of the 'blues' feel that existed on the last two albums. Songs like Sun Going Down and Drawing Down the Moon have been replaced with a more electronic sound. Would you describe this as an artistic evolution or more of a temporary change of pace?"
Stuart- "It's a bit of both I guess. Bands like Dead Can Dance, Aphex Twin and Massive Attack really opened our eyes a few years ago. They were some of the first groups to demonstrate the electronica could really be a vivid art form. We built on their style by trying to create electronic music that still felt very human, very organic. Don't get me wrong though. We still love our blues roots. We've actually been considering swinging back that way for the next album. You know, creating the whole thing in two weeks rather than two years. Just hammering it out and seeing what happens."
"Although you're fan base is growing, it doesn't seem like many people realize the complexity and intelligence that goes into your music. How important is it for your audiences to tap into the message within the music? Do you care how deeply the fans look into your melodies and lyrics?"
Stuart- "Certainly it's nice when it happens, but to be honest we make this music for ourselves. Like Miles Davis once said, 'Fuck the audience'. We're definitely not that extreme, but in the end it isn't healthy to worry too much about helping people understand your work. Eventually even the kids who are listening to the BackStreet Boys right now will want something with more meat to it. They may stumble upon us. As long as people take something positive away, we'll be happy."
From Extreme Magazine, issue #27 -a brief interview with Stuart
With the release of TRIPtych, The Tea Party has stepped forward with a very lush and sensual collection of songs finding new voices and sounds. Recently, before two sold out shows in Toronto, bassist/keyboardist Stuart Chatwood spoke about the changes in the atmosphere that surrounded this record and the approach the band took when writing it.
"The biggest change is Jeff Martin exploring his vocal range. Jeff Burrows and myself were privy to the fact, we would go to blues jams in Detroit with Jeff and there would be like eight black guys up on stage and then this little white guy from Windsor, but he would wail and bring the house down. We saw this all the time and said why not get this on the record. We also concentrated on song writing more where maybe in the past we concentrated more on getting the unique sounds that make The Tea Party us. The album is more seamless now as the influences are soming together." One strong influence throughout the record can be found in the music and memories of Jeff Buckley. "I picked up Jeff Buckley's record after we had a gig canceled in Birmingham, England as they blew us out to put his show in. So, I was like who is this fucker? I played his record and was like, 'OK, I see,' comments and enlightened Chatwood. "Then I played it for the other guys and they're like, 'he sings like an angel, don't know if we like it (sarcastically).' We're all big fans of his now."
Over the course of The Tea Party's recordings, there has been a track that brought together all of the influences and became each album's centerpiece. On Splendor Solis it was the track "Save Me," "Sister Awake" was at the core of The Edges of Twilight and at the centre of the last album was the title track "Transmission." When queried what track I thought was at the centre of TRIPtych, I replied "The Halcyon Days." Chatwood (and the band) concurred.
On TRIPtych, The Tea Party recorded their first cover track, "The Messenger," by Daniel Lanois. It is a song that many have heard before as the band has been using it as a gorgeous live insert during "Save Me." Stuart talks about why the band wanted to release this track. "Daniel Lanois inspired the song "Save Me" with his song "The Maker," and we used to put "The Maker" in the middle of "Save Me" as an homage to him. We got tired of playing that after 250 shows so we decided to switch to "The Messenger." Everyone would hear it and say that was the highlight of the show, and it was for me too because Jeff's singing went up in register. So, we decided to cut the track and thought we'd use it on a soundtrack or something. We recorded it North of Montreal in the middle of nowhere. There's a studio, cottage, ice lake, fireplace, wintertime, snow. When we finished we listened back to it that night playing it like 35 or 40 times in a row and thought it wasn't wearing on us yet so it's great, let's listen again. When it came time to pick the tracks for the album, we decided it's such a beautiful song that it didn't do it justice to make it just a b-side."
The Tea Party has always been a band that takes their music to another level when they hit the road unleashing their live energy. The band recently returned from Europe. "We were there recently for about 10 days. We did a few festivals, some club shows and some press as we haven't been over there for about four or five years so we wanted to dip our feet again. It's amazing how people haven't forgotten about us. People have resorted to making their own t-shirts... we did an autograph session and we were signing all this bootleg merchandise. We sold out a club in the middle of Holland on a Wednesday night. It's like, 'thanks for not forgetting about us.' We'll be heading back over there in January for a longer tour." The band is embarking on their seventh tour of Australia throughout October before returning to Canada for a winter tour including a show in November 22 at Massey Hall in Toronto. They will be recording the show for possible use on a double live project.
"That's something we don't want to do until about six records in so that we can accumulate a bulk of material. We recorded two Selina's shows in Sydney last spring, then there will be Massey Hall, and then who knows. I'd like to do two nights in Seattle, as our following there is similar to what we have in Buffalo, as something different (energy wise) and then maybe Germany. We want to spread the recordings apart so they all don't sound the same, capturing the band over time."
As for the first night in Toronto at the Warehouse, The Tea Party packed in the people and then tore the roof off. The band blasted throught the early part of the set fueled by Jeff Burrows' massive drum sound and intensity. "The Halcyon Days," which Stuart had mentioned as his favourite song thus far on the tour because of how well it had come together live, was a journey from the ancient East carried by his rolling bass line and such a hypnotic guitar riff. The Tea Party really seemed to hit stride when they played "Underground" as Jeff Martin's guitar playing got increasingly fluid and lyrical from there on in. The band showed their respects for Moby, Jeff Buckley, Daniel Lanois, U2 and David Bowie inserting portions of each artist's songs somewhere in the set. Jeff Martin seemed to be very much at peace on stage focusing more on his vocals and playing with a very loose feeling. The evening was a memorable one.
From the October '99 issue of The Buzz magazine
Chatting With Chatwood, Messenger Of The Tea Party
Sweat. Shakiness. Adrenalin. Usually these phenomenons are experienced after
a Tea Party gig but moments before Stuart Chatwood, connoisseur or international instruments, called me I was in starstruck, panic mode. Thankfully, he sang,
joked and cockneyed his way through our 37 minute conversation, and gave me a corker of a chat.
Rather than crapping on about the Tea Party's background, or where they're heading, I'll let you enjoy the interview as it occurred- well the 'Best Of...' version anyway.
Stuart- "I'm in Toronto, we're performing at the Video Awards tomorrow night,
with David Bowie, the Chili Peppers, Britney Spears. We're performing so it should be cool."
Mike Cahill- "Which song is your favourite from 'TRIPtych'?"
Stuart- "Halcyon Days - it defines the album. The world music elements are
more evident than on Transmission, and Jeff's singing higher in the scale than ever before. I think that's the Jeff Buckley influence. He's utilising his voice better than ever."
MC- "You guys have done a few Jeff Buckley songs while touring here, is there any chance you'll do a song from 'Sketches'? There are heaps of ppl going to the Hallam gig who are major TP fans and major Jeff Buckley fans..."
Stuart- "Actually Jeff (Martin) did a version of (*sings*) 'Everybody Here Wants You' at a benefit gig last year. It was just Jeff, doing an acoustic as an impresario. It was for the same benefit as the 'Release' single. This year he
did a version of (*sings*) 'Into My Arms, Oh Lord'."
MC- *sings with Stu* "'Into My Arms, Oh Lord' Nick Cave..."
Stuart- "You trying to get his job there?" *laughs*
MC- "I wish babe!"
Stuart- "Which one do you think we should do from 'Sketches'?"
MC- "'New Year's Prayer' or 'Morning Theft'."
Stuart- "That won't put the crowd to sleep?"
MC- "No Way!"
Stuart- "We might do 'Hallelujah', for the Canadian section. (*sings*) 'She tied you to her kitchen chair...'"
MC- "A few years ago I heard a rumour that you were moving to Melbourne, is there
any chance?"
Stuart- "I thought you were going to say that one of us was dead - I've heard
that rumour."
MC- "Or that you are lesbians..."
Stuart- *laughs* "Trapped in a man's body... Jeff actually married an Australian girl. But don't print that or we'll get laid... (*laughs*) don't print that or we'll get in trouble."
MC- "Have you seen the special plastic ID card you get with tickets to the Hallam- it's got you sexy boys on it..."
Stuart- "That should get us laid..."
MC- "Do you remember the gig you did on St Patrick's Day at the 21st Century Dance club in 1996? It was the best gig I've ever been to..."
Stuart- *cockney accent* "Do you 'ave to bleedin' remind me mate? I'd forgot that..."
MC- "Sorry lad, but I paid fifteen pounds and I saw the fookin show of my loif!"
Stuart- "Wasn't that a small stage? I think we played above the club, on the
rooftop for a few shows too. We played their the day after New Years and we were really hung over. This year we're going to tour Australia, and whichever
city gives us the best time, we'll spend New Years there. Melbourne's looking pretty good."
MC- "I've been to 7 of your gigs, but never actually met you. I stood outside in the pouring rain at Offshore..."
Stuart- "Cursing our name... F@#kin Tea Party!!! *laughs*
MC- "You guys rolled up in a black Tarago, and I suddenly became invisible..."
Stuart- "Well you didn't have a pair of tits. I'm just being a yobbo."
MC- "What is Canada's finest export, and what is your most embarrassing export?"
Stuart- "We are Canada's finest export... the worst export would be some other
Canadian bands, but I shouldn't say..."
MC- "Come I know you want to say 'The Watchmen'..."
Stuart- "HA HA HA HA HA!!! (*evil laugh*) No, they're really nice guys. Our
worst export would probably be that Canadians are too reserved, like Kiwis... Jim Carrey's great - he's Canadian, Leonard Cohen, Lorne Michaels..."
MC- "The Watchmen were on Merrick and Rosso, and they were bagging you guys for being too serious..."
Stuart- "Really, HA HA HA. Our drummer's here, repeat what The Watchmen said
about us, and I'll put him on..."
MC- "Hey Jeff, The Watchmen said 'The Tea Party take themselves too seriously'."
JB- "He he, well you know what that shows we're serious musicians, unlike the Watchmen."
MC- "The Watchmen need to take themselves more seriously..."
Stuart- "There you go man!"
MC- "Hey, the cover of 'TRIPtych' is great, how did you come up with it?"
Stuart- "Thanks... we though of the name before the artwork. We wanted to make
it lighter than the dark cover of Transmission, and The Edges of Twilight. The record company tried to come up with a cover, and everything was just horrible. So I invited a friend in last days, and he (Antoine Moonen) came and designed it for us."
MC- "You've got the midas touch..."
Stuart- *fonzie-like* "HEEEEEYYYY!!!"
MC- "Did you intend for ppl to separate the 'TRIPtych' bookley along the perforated edges?"
Stuart- "We didn't intend on doing that, but you can if you want to. At one
point we were going to put cardboard panels together, and you could collect them and make a picture, you know rather Triptych. I like it plain- we like to keep
it more personal. Our favourite record covers- that stuff was made in the eighties, and the other covers made at the time were like "WHOAH!" (as in 'shit') like Billy Idot." *laughs*
MC- "Whiplash smile... what's your favourite sport?"
Stuart- "I played golf for 14 years, I'm English actually... Never professionally or anything- I get so serious on the course, national pride is on the line, you know? I really don't care that much to watch it on tv. But we went to an Aussie rules game, Richmond verses St Kilda, St Kilda won. Richmond- they're from Sydney way?"
MC- "Ah... no."
Stuart- "Are Sydney Swans in the Grand Final?"
MC- "Negatory, it is (was) North Melbourne versus Carlton. I reckon North will win by 35 points."
Stuart- "I feel like drinking some VB watching it."
MC- "Being a master of several strangely named instruments (one sounds like
Akeepmateef Inajarbesidedabed) which one was the most difficult, but most rewarding to learn?"
Stuart- "A cello- I'm left handed, so that was the hardest thing. The most
enjoyable was piano, and the hammer dulcer. Jeff actually found an Asraj, which is an Indian instrument in a Melbourne pawn shop. It's a version of a sitar,
just shorter- you play it with a bell instead of plucking it. He took it back to his hotel room and we wrote 'Samsara' that night. Another instrument was
used on 'Halcyon Days' and that was given to Jeff by Ham Ramses, the leader of the Egyptian Pharohs. The Egyptian folk band who played with Page and Plant- we
met them when we opened for Page and Plant. It turned out they were big fans of our music and what we were trying to do. Six months later a big box turned up
on Jeff's door, with a note saying 'Thank you Jeff. Thanks to you we have made the commitment'."
MC- "What an awesome present."
Stuart- "That and getting a bottle of red wine from every fan of the audience.
Yarra-Yerring! It's a Victorian wine- one of my favourite wines in the world. It's expensive."
MC- "I'll get everybody to get you a bottle. $50 each!!!"
Stuart- "We'll be doing Jeff Buckley's album! (*laughs*) Just kidding."
MC- "What do you think of other bands who sample middle-eastern music and use it
gratuitously? Like Taxiride..."
Stuart- "Like VAST... I don't know if it rings true. We're passionate. We get
a lot of flak too, but we're not professing to be experts. We're just trying to broaden the horizons of rock music. People like things the way they are and
they like rock music to fit into a little box. There's your quote. Bold and Italics. And a big picture too."
MC- "Don't worry, I'm gonna help you get laid out there."
Stuart- "Tomorrow nights a big night for that- have you seen Britney Spears
backup dancers? Boy, I've chipped three teeth on them already."
MC- "Did you succeed in changing your style from Transmission?"
Stuart- "Yeah, I think so. We tried to create a stronger sound. I don't know
how many instruments we played, but it wasn't like 'Edges of Twilight'. We achieved what we intended to... Can you hear Moby? I've got Moby on. I like
Nick Cave and TISM. Natalie Imbruglia... whooo!!!"
MC- "She used to be on Neighbours."
Stuart- "I wish she was on me... (*laughs*) Actually, I'll tell you something-
we are going to be giving out an award at the ARIAs, and if she's there, look out!"
MC- "Any parting words - knowing you have been one of my favourite bands since 'Save Me' (Splendor Soils)."
Stuart- "OK, Sod off! (*laughs*) Just come to the shows prepared for a special ride."
From Freq. Magazine, an interview from November '99
Stuart Chatwood has cold hands.
When I was younger, I lived in Winnipeg. From the first snowfall in early November until the last of it was gone in late April, we would have snowball fights after school until the sun went down nearly every day . I had the coldest little fingers you would ever see on an eight year old. When we would come inside for dinner, my Grandmother would tell me that cold hands are the sign of a warm heart. Over the past ten years, I've come to meet a lot of people with cold hands, and Stuart's hands were pretty cold the day I spoke with him at Massey Hall.
I had been warned that he was often difficult to talk to and that I should put my bid in to talk to Jeff Burrows, the Tea Party's drummer. However, Derek, a journalism student from Ottawa had expressed to me earlier how nervous he was and asked me to look over some of his questions. I decided that he would probably benefit from someone more laid back than I would. So I had the chance to sit down with one very tall Stuart Chatwood for a few minutes before he went back to his hotel for dinner.
On top of being a foot taller than me, he was dressed in black from head to toe with, a break in the middle for a dark navy shirt. His hair is black (although it used to be a light brown), gelled perfectly, and honestly, he just looks cleaner than most bands. This makes for an intimidating first impression.
I had noticed that they had reused a sample from Transmission on the song 'Great Big Lie' from their latest, Triptych.
Stuart- "Those things... they're not really intrical to the songs, we were at the point where we were just adding things, and we, well, Jeff (Martin), felt that that just really suited the song."
Freq- "Where's you guys get that from any ways?"
Stuart- "That's from our short wave... We saw a guy, a performance artist in New Your City, do short wave shows in between bands at a club called the uhh.. I think it was the refrigerator or the freezer or something like that... it was in the meat packing industry in
New York. We went and saw this Japanese female rock band, and in between this guy played short wave radio samples all night long and we just, got ourselves a short wave radio and started screwing around with it. So it's some sort of biblical thing.. we got a biblical station."
[Before we continue, you should note that Stuart has a Trace Elliott bass pre amp in his rack that lights up like a glow stick on Halloween night everytime I've seen the Tea Party.]
Freq- "What's that Trace Elliott thing you have in your rack? It looks cool."
Stuart- *laughs* "That uhh... doesn't get used actually, it's a piece of junk. So it's a pre amp, but it's horrible... is that a question?" *laughs*
Freq- "Yes!"
Stuart- "I just think it's very specific... you know, Bass player magazine." *laughs*
Freq- "Well, I wanted to ask Jeff (Martin) about his Matchless stuff..."
[Note: Matchless equipment is very VERY expensive and he has three cabinets and two heads]
Stuart- "It's very expensive, but I mean..."
Freq- "Did he buy that or did you get a sponsor?"
Stuart- "We bought that yeah... so that is... it's like ten thousand dollars. But umm.. I mean we're guilty of doing that though. We spend all out money on our tools, our instruments. Like on our second record, for the Edges of Twilight, we went out and we bought like sixteen different instruments, and it added up. It doesn't add up actually buying the instruments, sometimes the road case is more expensive than the actual instruments themselves and maintenance, like the skins, are hard to find..."
Freq- "What about strings? Like the sitar ones and..."
Stuart- "Same thing, same thing. I mean, when you're lucky, the sitar is more of a popular instrument compared to like a tar... you know, a tar is very unique. But a lot of these instruments are metal strings so all you have to do is find out the original gage, and you can sometimes, not guitar strings, but you can find other sorts of strings that are, you know, almost."
Freq- "When are you guys going to put the videos up on your web site?"
Stuart- "Ummmm... it's just something that... I don't know... we don't have the technology at our web site right now. We don't really take our web site as seriously as we should perhaps. I don't know, I don't want people living on our web site. Like a lot of bands..."
Freq- "But you know, you go back a month later and they're still not there..."
Stuart- "Well... (*laughs*) No, I don't know. Like sometimes I feel like putting up teaparty.com into just a big billboard just saying turn off your computer go listen to some music... sometimes it is frustrating how people you know... like I have instant messenger or you know, just where I can see who else is online and some people everytime I log on, they're online and I just think it's sometimes a very antisocial thing and you miss so much. I wonder about the long term affects, they won't be felt probably for twenty years where there will be a dramatic shift from people experiencing things, you know, social settings..."
Freq- "But it's the same as TV, that's from about twenty years ago."
Stuart- "Yeah but people are still watching TV though, I think the Internet is not eating into TV time."
Freq- "I think the Internet is going to be TV... throw in a cable card and it already is..."
Stuart- "I think it's all media.. I don't think it's going to be one or the other, it's just going to be a convergence of media whether you want to watch recorded TV shows, movies, read a book..."
Freq- "Right but on the Internet you can get radio from all over the world, TV from all over the world... don't you think it's just expanding..."
Stuart- "But at that point the Internet is just ubiquitous, it's just the carrier form. Like you don't think of the telephone lines when you're talking on the phone or the cell units at the top of every building... it's just a means to an end to communicate."
Freq- "So you want people coming to tell you stuff in person..."
Stuart- "Oh, yeah, I like human... we're not creatures that were meant to live alone, you know, in ivory castles or islands or whatever... we're meant to have social interactions I think."
Freq- "So do you think this will be the demise of society, you know, that commercial, give your kid a straw... the Internet on cable and everything coming faster..."
Stuart- "Well, it's not, no, it reaches a point where it can't get any worse. I don't think we're going to be all suicidal nihilist anarchists living at home with gun collections, although, if you if you go to Montana, you'd think twice. But, no, I just feel probably not, no, I don't know, it just seemed like people in the Victorian era or whatever, seemed to be a little more, like if you've ever read newspapers from back then. Sometimes it's almost difficult to read because their writing is so articulate. And it's not just thrown together."
Freq- "Newspapers now are targeted to a sixth grade reading level though."
Stuart- "Yeah, yeah. Exactly, proves my point."
Freq- "What about MP3's?"
Stuart- "Uhh... it's a nice compression format. (*laughs*) It's a shame it doesn't have any duplication code in it to stop that... I mean the only reason I would worry about MP3's is when it reaches the point when the average consumer.. When my parents can pirate music, that's when I'll really really worry about it. Because, kids have been using cassette tapes, kids have been using CD burners, I mean, MP3's just make it a little more convenient. Well, if you're still on a 56k modem it's still a pain in the ass."
Freq- "Those CD's I just gave you all came from 56k.. you just use getright, leave it on and go to school."
Stuart- "Yeah, but you could also go down and buy something with artwork and something that sounds perfect, you know... It's OK if you have the time you know. That's why the majority of people doing it are students..."
Freq- "What about live stuff though..."
Stuart- "The live MP3's? Well, like I said, it's a format, it will probably be replaced by MP4. Which hopefully will have some sort of serial digital management.. and of course, there'll be a crack. I mean they've already cracked Digital Video Discs."
Freq- "But the crack is expensive though."
Stuart- "No you can get for free in Norway apparently. But the problem is, once you've cracked it, what do you store it on... do you take up five gig of your hard drive?"
Freq- "Hmn, that would take up like... four CDs."
Stuart- "Well, there's DVD ram... but even that, carries less than a DVD ROM. So it would take multiple of that. But again, it's a pain in the ass... for twenty bucks, you can just go out and buy one. I mean you can tape movies off the TV and get rid of the commercials, and then have a huge movie collection, but how many people do that..."
[I probably looked confused at this point... bear in mind that I was born in 1982, well after VCR's were established, but not before beta was abolished. People did do that when VCR's came out.]
Freq: "No way..."
Stuart- "Oh yeah! Like we recorded at a studio where there was like seven hundred and fifty films on the wall and there were all off the TV stations and the guy pressed pause at the commercial or you went in and edited the commercials out and the quality is just horrible, and you don't see that in many households. you see people with movies that they bought though."
Freq- "Where did all the instrumental tracks go on this album?"
Stuart- "Well Jeff now has more time to write lyrics (*laughs*)... no, umm... just, we did have a couple for this album, just it was a case of there's only room for twelve songs on our albums. We don't like to put too many songs on our records, because we feel records sometimes run longer than they should be.. like the Smashing Pumpkins Melloncollie could have been one record, the Fragile could have been one record you know... so we like to do the weeding out process ourselves, and get it down to twelve songs."
Freq- "OK... umm... Orly is telling me to leave now..."
Stuart- "Oh she is... oh... OK... anything else... relating to the band?" *laughs*
Freq- "Umm relating to the band... can I have tickets for tonight?"
Stuart- "Umm... I'm the wrong person to ask... because I'm allowed a very small portion and I've given my tickets out already..."
Freq- "Ok, bye."
I did end up getting tickets for the show. Edwin gave them to me about an hour later. He has cold hands too.
Stuart at the Juno Awards, March 12/2000
What Stuart had to say while presenting the award for 'Best Selling Album - Forgien or Domestic'
Stuart- "These are the artists with all the money... They keep the price of champagne artificially high..." *trademark grin*
(Just for documentational purposes, the Backstreet Boys went on the capture this award. Eck.)
CD Reviews Stuart gave to the German Music Magazine, Intro
Stuart was to rate the albums on a scale of 1 - 10
Ween - White Pepper
Amon Tobi - Supermodified
Dilated People - The Platform
Brassy - Got It Made
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
Tommy Guerreo - Little Bit Of Something
Miles - Miles
Hans Platzgumer - Datacard
Absolute Beginner - Bambule Remixed
Fuschimuschi - The Fuschimuschi ABC
Sleater-Kinney - All Hands On The Bad One
Reissdorf Force - Smart Dust
Saint Etienne - The Sound Of Water
Bentley Rhythm Ace - For Your Ears Only
Leona Naess - Comatised
Guano Apes - Don't Give Me Names
Duran Duran - Pop Trash
Silent Poets - To Come
Plattenpapzt - Full House
Shelter - When 20 Summers Pass
The Tea Party Talk About Their Image -October 31/00
According to The Tea Party's Stuart Chatwood, every time the band release an album their record company's first suggestion is to put a photo of the band on the cover. "We try to handle everything in house. Up to this day they [EMI Music Canada] still try to put us on our album covers. We have to go in and have this fight and argument each time. So if you see any bands with their photo on their cover you know they lost that fight."
Chatwood who's doing a bit of talking about their new greatest hits record, Tangents, thinks he understand why the label reps would want to have the band on the cover of their album: "They went to school for their marketing degrees and they want to use it. It's the same thing with the music, if you sit idly by, they'll come and do the pre-form stamp on you."
Granted The Tea Party aren't as serious about their image as Madonna. Chatwood recalls seeing Madonna, "During 60 Minutes they had the cameras rolling and she tried four different chairs, 'This chairs' too big,' 'This chairs' to small' 'I'm to high.' 'I'm to low.' Then with the lighting guy she was saying 'left, right, up, down.' When the light wasn't right on her you saw all these wrinkles. So we're not as control freaks as that. We try to stay focused on what is important." That said, anyone attending the photo shoot for the Chart magazine's 10th Anniversary cover shoot would have seen Jeff Martin, with his own hair pomade.
So you won't be seeing three guys standing in a line for pics when Tangents comes out Nov. 28. Instead they've opted for a very basic cover, with an inside panel featuring Tea Party memorabilia, including two Chart magazine covers that Chatwood has collected over the years.
"I was [a big collector] in the beginning. Then everything started looking the same. There's only one press kit that goes out and a lot of writers don't put the effort in to research other than the press kit so their stories end up all sounding the same. Nowadays I end up collecting things out of the ordinary. Posters from Belgium with two giant pigs on it, that has to go in there. Or, like, Chart magazine covers."
We here in the Chart House Of Ill Repute decided that although having our covers on the inside panel of Tangents was a great compliment we'd have to call our lawyers to sue for copyright infringement. "You'll have to get behind Now [Toronto weekly]," Chatwood says when informed about our plan of action. [Editor's Note: It seems we're always behind Now.]
The typical incentive to purchase Tangents is used for the fan that has everything, is to put out a unrleased song. This is no exception. The Tea Party have included "Walking Wounded," a song that band was planning to release on their next album, which Chatwood says should be released in May, but made it onto the hits package.
'Tea Party RSVPs'
JM- "Je parle cette langue, car ma mère est française."
Stuart- "Pas trop bien... Moi!"
'The Tea Party: Their Cup Runneth Over'
A: Sorry I don't and won't do endorsements for Old Spice
A: Hendrix and his gum-chewing
A: Designing props for our comeback tour in the year 2010, The Tea Party Mach 111. It's going to be a replica of the pyramids. The important thing is the dimensions. I wrote it down in this napkin: 36" X 24"
A: No, it should be a battle to the death
'ROCK FANS TAKE THE TEA PARTY CHALLENGE'
...while Chatwood subs for AWOL Martin
We're big enough already; let's just make music.
(Weekend Post-Saturday, June 19/99...my 18th b-day!)
(...whoa...I like this guy...)
-article by Sarah Lindsay (thanks Sarah!)
Very cool production, much more meldoic than previous efforts. Very eclectic so far as musical skill and sound. I hate to admit it, but I like it. (7.5)
I don't feel right trying to critique something I'm not quite familiar with. But it does remind me of very late nights in Montreal; very dark, moody, impressive. (7.5)
Again, I can't pretend to understand where these guys are coming from. (-)
Distorted bass and guitar, funky drums, witchy, witchy on the twin table and a "click" with attitude. I wouldn't buy it, but wouldn't change the radio station either. (5.5)
Sometimes you just try too hard to sound cool, this project does not. They or he or whomever is super. I give two thumbs up. Spaced out 21st century Floyd. (8.5)
Wow, Art Of Noise meets The Cure meets Electro Lounge all with no vocals. I'm keeping this. Hell, I'd buy this, wonderful, bravo, brilliant! (9.5)
Smokin vocals and beautiful harmonies, very catchy, slick production. Sounds like a great summertime album. I know a Detroit modern-rock station that would eat this up. Delicious. (8.5)
This is what you put on when you're really messed up. If this guy wasn't making records he'd be the one designing the latest nuclear warfare arms. (7)
Remixes a la "Hot Stepper". Amazing electronic production. This goes very well with my double vodka rocks. Chillin' chillin' chillin'. (7.5)
This is a truly funny record. It has the Parliament-Funkadelic tonuge in cheekiness that millions of people love the world over. I can dig it. (8)
This is third grade "Bengals". I almost want to say not bad for a girl band; but most of my favourite bands have girls in them. I wouldn't put my "hands on the bad one." (3)
This is a cool record. Why doesn't American radio play cool tracks like this. Don't be afraid. (8.5)
A lush and beautiful female voice, layered over electronic mood music. Like rich chocolate cake. (9)
Funky, quirky, modern "Bachelor Pad" music. Serve with dry vodka martinis. (7.5)
Pleasant middle of the road pop music. I'd listen to this Sunday morning or any morning. (7.5)
First reaction: "another band trying to be Korn", but much to my surprise the strong female vocalist fronts a very heavy rhythm section. Listen at least 3 times before making judgement. (8.5)
Modern rock/pop for 30 somethings. Very slick as usual, often sounding like soundtrack material a la James Bond. Lacks the standard hit singles they are noted for. (6.5)
A bit too electric for me but some momentous tracks. Very electic in style and mood. (6.5)
This is rap music made by white men. I can't relate to real rap music from Black America let alone Germany. (-)
This piece of garbage sounds like my band in high school rehearsing while getting severely drunk. It's over, let it go. Sorry. (1.5)
this is the way...
[
back to main
]
