The Tea Party have long been the dark horses of alt-rock.
Between 1993 and 2014 their eight albums have studiously refused to be pinned to one style or sound, and even after enjoying mainstream success – like their Canadian number one hit on the rock charts, ‘Heaven Coming Down’ – the trio maintain a mercurial personality. Australia has been a second home (literally, in the case of lead singer Jeff Martin) for years now, and so it seems fitting that their latest guise will see the band perform in Sydney and Melbourne with a full symphony orchestra. Drummer Jeff Burrows tells us more.
“When we did our first album, we wore our influences on our sleeve,” Burrows admits. “We were being called a band that ‘Sounds like Led Zeppelin being fronted by Jim Morrison,’ and at first, we reacted angrily. But the more we thought about it, you know, there are way worse bands to be compared to! Jesus Christ, Led Zeppelin? OK!
“With [third album] Edges Of Twilight, we’d pepper songs with all the exotic string instruments and percussion and keys. We’ve realised as we were touring that our fan base – and I’m not kissing ass – but they seemed so much more open to us doing different kinds of things.
“The first album, it was very acoustic and heavy and bluesy. It seemed more of the most streamlined of albums that we have, but in actuality it’s all over the map as well. Come third album, we did essentially the same thing, steeped in rock but peppered with electronica and noises, things that are cold and metallic. I’m surprised by how commercially accepted it was, because it’s out there. It’s a rock record, but it’s weird! It’s dark and angry, and very progressive, which I never really considered us to be. So I suppose we’re quite grateful that our audience has been so accepting and appreciative of our tangents.”
As tangents go, reinterpreting your catalogue with a symphony orchestra sure is an expansive effort. Melbourne and Sydney will be using their own respective orchestras, under the guidance of conductor Marc Ouellette, and the show has prompted the band to dig deep into the trenches to find tracks that don’t often see the light of day, but are particularly suited to this epic environment. Not that this is The Tea Party’s first symphony rodeo; 14 years ago they led a similar cavalcade back home.
“The way it worked in Canada, we did six or seven different cities using their respective symphony orchestras, and the one main component was Marc,” says Burrows. “He scored 15 or 16 songs that aren’t necessarily the big hits, but lend themselves righteously to that particular setting. He pretty much had it centred around a 42-piece orchestra, and he would write parts for every single instrument. We went out and did it, and it was fantastic. So when the opportunity came to potentially do it in Melbourne and Sydney, we immediately jumped. It’s going to be a lot of rehearsals, a bit of mental strain, but I know once we’re rehearsed it’s going to be fantastic.”
A further challenge is not simply learning to play under these new conditions, but determining the shape of the setlist itself. The band is having to re-examine the songs in a very different light, and the arrangement of material – the shaping of the story, so to speak – is key.
“It’s important, how the set should flow, whether or not [you consider] the different changes in tuning and so forth,” says Burrows. “But the biggest thing we’re going to find difficult – which we also found touring initially, back at the start – is that we’re a jam band. We don’t play to clicks, we don’t play to tracks. Choose any of the songs that were moderately successful, we’ll play it, but it won’t be verbatim. We’ll go off on tangents, we’ll add a 30-second solo, we’ll turn a soft bridge into a heavy bridge. So the hardest thing is going to be playing these songs as they were actually recorded, which we really never do.
“So that falls on me a little bit, since my back is directly to the back of our conductor, and that’s why I’m taking a lot of extra time. I’m getting to Australia early, I’m heading up to Jeff Martin’s place and rehearsing there on his beautiful plantation.”
Having happened to chat with Martin last time he was doing the touring rounds, I was curious to learn of his interests in esoterica and the occult, and how that informed his music. I wonder if Burrows, too, is a spiritual man, and whether such interests leave an impression on his creativity.
“I believe I’m a spiritual man. Mostly I try to live by the motto of ‘don’t be a dick’,” he laughs. “But does the spiritual comes across in the music? I think it does – that goodwill, and the desire to share something communal. I’m having a hell of a time onstage, and I think that gives the audience a sense of well-being, too.
“It’s a bit of a juxtaposition onstage with Tea Party. Jeff can be the angry man, he can be the romantic, and the soul singer, the spiritualist. I can be the romantic and the heavy-hitter, and Stuart [Chatwood] is the one always contemplating. I think between the three of us, that’s the beautiful ugly that is The Tea Party. And live, it manifests itself there more than anywhere else.”
The Tea Party perform with theSydney Youth Orchestra at The Star Event Centre on Friday April 21.
