There are few things in life that Jeff Burrows enjoys more than playing rock music with his lifelong pals to adoring throngs of fans across Canada and around the world. Hell, who wouldn’t love that?!
The drummer for legendary Canadian rock band The Tea Party admits that when it comes to touring plans, he is usually the instigator amongst the trio – prodding his bandmates Jeff Martin (guitar, vocals) and Stuart Chatwood (bass/keyboards) to pack up their gear, get their playing chops in order and venture forth to more rock and roll glory.
That being said, it really doesn’t really take that much convincing, especially if there’s a cool reason to go on tour. Starting Feb. 3, the titanic rock trio will be hitting the road for a celebratory jaunt that commemorates the 20th anniversary of the release of one of their most successful, and sonically interesting albums – Transmission.
The album, which features the incendiary hit single – still a staple on radio today – Temptation, as well as the epic Psychopomp, the powerfully emotive Release and the super cool Babylon, hit number three on the Canadian charts, reaching double platinum status and was nominated for a Juno for Rock Album of the Year in 1998. A couple of years back, the band toured to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their most commercially successful album, Edges of Twilight. So why not do it again?
“I don’t think we’re going to do it for every album, but I will take ownership of the fact that I brought this idea to the table. And it’s purely for selfish reasons; I love touring, I love playing with my brothers. I think the last record that we did this with was an amazing experience and we had so much fun doing it. And it’s been the same with this one so far. Right now we’ve only been rehearsing on our own, but in a few days we will all get together for a week of rehearsals together,” said Burrows from his home in Windsor.
“It’s funny, but I almost get on the defensive when I am asked why we’re doing it because a lot of people can be pretty critical and jaded saying we’re just doing it for the money and that we shouldn’t be doing it without having any new material. Well, yeah we have got new material and we’re working on it. And yeah we sort of are doing it for the money because that’s what we do; we’re working musicians and would like to make a little bit of a living, sorry. It’s our job.
“And I think it’s a great album and look forward to playing it live. Judging by the ticket sales in advance that I have seen, everyone else seems to be pretty keen that we’re doing an anniversary tour for Transmission as well.”
There are some songs from Transmission that were never played live, even on the original tour to support the album, but this time around every single track will be played live, even the intensely complex and bombastic Alarum. At the time of this interview, it had yet to be determined if the album was going to be played in order from top to bottom.
“There’s going to be two sets and this album is going to be one whole set for sure. Because of guitar tunings I don’t know if it can be in order, that has yet to be determined and won’t be until we all get in a room together and start playing. I do know that all the songs will be played – that I can guarantee. So we will play all of Transmission, then take a small intermission and come back and do a set of some other songs,” he said.
There’s little doubt that Transmission was a bit of a creative departure for the band. After the eastern-inspired classic blues rock power of Splendor Solis and Edges of Twilight, Burrows, Martin and Chatwood – the latter two in particular – began dabbling with some burgeoning new electronic technology, and it was beginning to influence the tone and tenor of the songs that we being composed, and vice versa.
“With The Tea Party, we’ve always been fortunate to have an intelligent fan base with a collective sense of music and a collective sense of style that actually followed us from the bluesy roots of our first record to the multi-instrumental eclectic mix of our second record to the electronically colour infused dabblings of our third record, which was Transmission. But the common theme was that we are a rock band,” Burrows said.
“So when you talk about this one being different from the others – absolutely. But it was probably due to the fact that our confidence level was much higher after touring our first two records constantly, non-stop. And that’s what I think made this album that much different. Our confidence level was there and I am not sure if it translated to the final product, but the fact is we were walking around with some swagger and we just knew where we could go as a band and we tried to make it happen.”
He also said that the band was in the welcome position of not being pressured by anyone at the record label or their own management company to try and repeat what they did musically on the massively successful Edges of Twilight album, which spawned the hit singles/videos The Grand Bazaar, Fire in the Head and Sister Awake.
“Management was always cool with what we did. And as a matter of fact, with this record we were under new management so they didn’t really have many expectations at this point in terms of our direction or trying to follow up Edges. And as far as EMI went, our product manager Dave McMillan was such a great friend, even beyond being our label rep, and the A&R department all the way up to president Deane Cameron – for them the reason why they kind of signed us was they knew that we could go off on these creative tangents,” Burrows explained.
“We never really fit the mold in the first place. We were a young band from Windsor that literally came out at the same time as the grunge explosion. And we were the farthest thing from it and we remained that eclectic sort of rock band. I attribute a lot of that to our fans and I attribute a lot also to our live show, because of the passion and energy. You have Jeff Martin dripping and oozing with passion when he delivers his vocals and for me by the end of the show I feel like Bruce Springsteen after one of his marathon five-hour shows – I could pass out because I literally had zero energy because it was all left on the stage.”
The notion that led to the sort of industrial/electronica vibe on Transmission stemmed, in some part, to Martin and Chatwood revisiting the music of their youth, according to Burrows.
“We all had the affinity for electronic music, even back to our high school days when we were into The Cure, Joy Division, New Order and that sort of stuff. It was always a big part of our music libraries when we were kids. We all had the albums and cassettes. And I think it really was just another direction to try for us, another colour to be added to the rock layer. And, really, the coldness of the electronic sounds and the production added to what we were trying to convey with the songs themselves. Everything just seemed to fall in line with that and it made perfect sense with the songs. I suppose if it made more sense to use indigenous stringed instruments or percussive instruments, we probably would have done that, but it didn’t really fit those songs.”
And speaking of new tangents, Burrows said the band is well into the process of completing some new music – the first since the Ocean at the End album, which was released in 2014.
“We have written and recorded somewhere between 12 and 14 songs which we have been working on for over a year now. We don’t feel a rush to put something out, though. Last time, because of the geography, we learned a hard and expensive lesson trying to get an album out at a pre-set time. It actually didn’t feel rushed, but at the end of the day it ended up costing us so much money. We flew to Australia three times [because that’s where Martin is based] and Jeff came here two times – all that back and forth and the hotels, all because we had this deadline that we had to meet. This time around it’s like, ‘why don’t we just do it at our own pace, and whatever happens, happens.’ So that’s what we’re doing,” he explained, adding that they will be doing more work on the new music once the current tour wraps up, while they’re also rehearsing for a symphony tour in Australia later in the spring.
“I can see a release in one form or another by the end of the year – in a worst case scenario early in 2018. And I can see us doing a single first.”
Many rock bands, particularly North American-based classic rock acts who tour primarily on this continent, have eschewed the idea of releasing new music – especially full-length albums. Burrows said it’s something even the most successful bands grapple with in the age of digital downloading.
“We do wrestle with it for sure. I was talking with Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar the other day and I told him we were thinking about maybe not doing something and just doing the tour. But we both felt that new music is feeding the need of our fans who do want something new from time to time. You don’t want to let your fans down, but you also don’t want to put out inferior garbage; you want to give them something great. So if it makes sense for us to maybe do three or four songs at a time and release them once a year, instead of doing a full album once every three years, is that maybe the way to go?” he said.
“That way we’re still being as creative as we want to be and can be and people who are fans of our music can still get it. And, again, it gives us a more legitimate reason to go out and tour and do what we love and do what we do best. So it’s a constant debate, for sure. To me, I don’t get it when bands just play the nostalgia circuit – why would you not want to keep creating?”
When The Tea Party went on hiatus in 2004, Burrows got involved in a number music and on-music ventures. One project was the Canadian alt-rock supergroup Crash Karma, which also featured former Our Lady Peace guitarist Mike Turner, Zygote bassist Amir Epstein and former/current I Mother Earth singer Edwin. The band release two albums, a self-titled debut in 2009, and Rock Musique Deluxe in 2013.
Burrows said there has been some preliminary discussion between the quartet – all of whom are busy with a variety of other projects, about reconvening.
“We actually are thinking about doing some more stuff, so stay tuned,” he said.
The 20 Years of Transmission tour begins Friday, Feb. 3, in St. Catharines and the Canadian portion wraps up April 1 at the venerable Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. The Tea Party will then play some select dates on the U.S. west coast, finishing up in Los Angeles at The Roxy on April 8. Australia follows two weeks later.
For more information, or for tickets, visit www.teaparty.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
