The Tea Party To Celebrate 25 Years Of ‘[TRIPtych]’ In Australia…
Iconic Canadian rockers The Tea Party are heading back to Australia this June for the first time since 2019, bringing their [TRIPtych] 25 tour to our shores. Performing shows across the country in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Thirroul and Brisbane, The Tea Party will be playing a set that not only features their greatest hits and rarities – but will be exploring their fourth studio album [TRIPtych] on a more in-depth basis. Some of these songs have never been heard live before, and some haven’t been heard for years. Initially released through EMI in Australia in June 1999, this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of [TRIPtych]. Featuring the smash hit Heaven Coming Down, which was the band’s first #1 in Australia, and fan favourite, the Daniel Lanois’ cover The Messenger, [TRIPtych] also achieved double platinum sales and debuted Top 20 in the ARIA charts. Jeff Burrows talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.
Hard to believe. Five years has passed by since the last Australian tour. Lots happened in that time.
Everything felt like a million years for a few years.
How did the band navigate through that period?
Well, we all live a great distance apart. Jeff’s in Australia on the east coast, I’m in our hometown, so about three hours south of Toronto in in Ontario, Canada and Stuart’s on the West Coast of Canada. So Stuart’s about a five hour flight for me and we’re about a twelve hour flight to Jeff, so during COVID when things got, you know as messed up as everyone else was trying to deal with. There were a lot of bands around this area, Toronto, Canada and America in general were doing the drive in shows, just really odd things where people would stay in their car and you would play on an outside stage. They’d flash their lights and so on. We obviously couldn’t do that. So, we started doing some remote recordings and that’s really about all we could do. I believe we had music that was still pretty fresh out, but the fact that we were able to do Everyday Feels Like Sunday. We did a Joy Division cover as well, they were both very apropos to the situation, it was as hard on us as it was everyone else. We were just in the fortunate position not to be a very young touring band who needed to continue writing, working and playing shows. The was the safe part of that, but other than that,we really couldn’t do too much with our geographical situation.
Celebrating another milestone as well with the twenty-fifth anniversary of [TRIPtych], the milestones are coming thick and fast now.
Yeah, it’s pretty exciting setting up the drums this week to start working specifically on a lot of the tracks that we haven’t played forever or some that we haven’t even played before. It’s going to a very fun few days in Australia. I’m really looking forward to it and I miss the guys. We miss each other so much, we get to do enough shows. Last fall here in Canada we did over twenty shows with our friends Mother Earth, another stellar Canadian band. that was a lot of fun. We do have a few Canadian festivals coming up and a couple of American festivals coming up in the summer, but the Australian one is just going to be particularly sweet just because we don’t really get to hang out. It’s nice to be able to be in other places and Jeff can show us his haunts that he loves in Australia and there’s just going to be so many surprises I guess you could say on this run even for us that keep popping up. So, it’ll be a great it’ll be a great run. We’re really looking forward to it.
Do you feel like you’re getting old as well with these milestones ticking over now? It must be great seeing the next generation coming out and seeing your shows?
Yeah! It’s interesting. I always thought if we were to make it this long into a career, how old we’ll feel. I remember just looking at any band from Aerosmith to AC/DC, you just wonder do they not feel it? I remember thinking The Rolling Stones were really old when I was in grade eight in elementary school and it turns out they were forty two.
Well here I am fifty-five and The Stones are still going mind you, but no it doesn’t hit you like oh I’m getting up there. It really doesn’t. I trained for tours, run and work out and so on so. I’m probably in better shape than when I was in my thirties because that was a hell of a time but overall you don’t really think about it. I love seeing original fans and friends bringing out their fifteen and sixteen year old sons and daughters out to the show because they grew up with a lot of that music as well as well as my kids, my first son probably k.ed to it daily. I didn’t listen to it daily, but he loved it when I was gone because he’d miss dad and he’d look up in the sky and he’d see it plane. He’d think I was on a plane all the time and he’d just be listening to The Tea Party. Now he’s a grown man in his own band, but can probably play them better than I do. So, you kind of grow with it. You know what I mean? It’s not like you snap your finger and voila, you’re in your mid-fifties. It comes with the territory and as you get grooving I haven’t had to modify anything yet on the drum kit. I always thought I may have to lower the symbols and do this and do but we’re lucky. Jeff’s in great shape, Stuart’s in great shape. It’s strange being where we are, but we’re embracing it more than anything, to be honest.
Do you spending much time reflecting on what the band achieved with an album such as [TRIPtych] and how important it is as part of the back catalogue?
No, I don’t look at things like with importance in in that sense. The nice thing on a on a surface level at least, is seeing all of the pictures that are coming up that they’re using for promo or managements considering using for this and that. Seeing shots of ourselves with zero grey hair in our beard and that sort of vibe, I can appreciate that the nicest thing that can happen to you as a musician, I think, is when people say to you that song was used for their wedding or my brother passed away and you were his favourite band and their favourite song was this. That’s what really gives being in a in the band meaning to me, that’s what success is. It feels when that you’re having a bit of an impact on someone’s life, even as minuscule as it may be, or even if it’s a bigger moment, like a marriage or a funeral, that’s what really cements the satisfaction of being in a band and the success.
Do you remember all the trials and tribulations that went on with making that particular album?
Yeah, there was lots that that happened between both Transmission and [TRIPtych]. This one, I believe the drums were mostly recorded at Morin Heights at Le Studio, which is north of Montreal, where Rush had recorded, The Police had recorded, The Bee Gees, you name it, everybody has recorded there. David Bowie! It is a pretty cool place but there was a lot of things that were happening. There was a lot of behind the scenes things that were happening at that time with regards to still trying to make it in the US after now that this is the fourth record and so on. Mechanically, I don’t think we had too many issues compared to Transmission when all the tapes were ruined.
Where there any other moments from that period that stood out for you?
There’s always standout moments. I remember being downtown in Toronto with my wife and the boys in the car and then the song came on Heaven Coming Down came on the radio for the first time. I was just flabbergasted at how well it sounded. Then I remember one moment in particular, Stuart and I were flying back from somewhere and we wound up in Toronto after coming back from wherever, and we passed this girl and she was literally opening the CD of the [TRIPtych] album, and she saw us walk by and her mouth dropped. We just sat with her and chatted for an hour. Those are the kinds of things that I find really, really cool, very entertaining, but to be honest, once this record came out it was back on the road, back to work. Let’s get some stuff done, let’s try to get even better and we’ve always done that, but shining moments, we’ve been blessed with so many great shows that we’ve been a part of and great festivals and we’ve gotten to meet so many great people. So, by that point we were truly cemented in that whole festival circuit and playing in Europe with the likes of Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine and Nine Inch Nails and so on, we were pretty blessed and that was probably about our biggest moment from 1999 to 2000 was pretty epic.
With this tour, are you looking to play the album start to end?
I think it’s not going to be start to finish. We’ll leave that to classic albums live someday. Stuart came up with a list and you’re going to get the ones that are obvious, but then you’re going to get some that we need to literally relearn, and that’s the best part. We’ve got eight or nine songs that we’re going to be performing from that album plus, plus, plus and then changing up the set list that’s been the staple for a while now, that’s what I’m looking forward to. It’s going to be a pretty cool show. We’re going to get to Australia about a week early at Jeff’s place and we’ve got some new ideas that we’re working on, but three days that we’re really going to be hammering the [TRIPtych] songs together, everybody’s going to be well rehearsed, it’s nice once you get together you finally get to hear the product and to be a fan, not in a cheeky or kitschy way, but to be a fan of the music that you play is a nice thing because there’s a lot of bands who don’t like the music they play. I’m feeling pretty blessed because Jeff’s an amazing singer and a great guitar player and the same with Chats. I’m a guy who just gets to sit back and pound on the skins and take it all in. These two guys in front of me. It’s going to be a great, great, I can’t wait.
Has it been quite a process relearning some of these songs particularly the ones that have never been played live before?
It’s true some haven’t been played live, but no, I think I play better now than I played back then. So for me, no, a lot of the parts that get tricky are going to be for Jeff and Stuart because Stuart is the multi-tasker throughout the show anyway, so he could find himself on keyboards and playing bass pedals with his feet or if he’s playing bass, he’s still playing bass pedals to the side with another set of pedals with. Then Jeff, when he’s doing his bits, he’s singing and trying to splint and choose the most prominent parts of the song that he’s playing on guitar because he’ll track two or three takes, two or three parts per song on that record. There’s going to be a little bit of learning that way, but I’m sure everybody’s going to have it figured out by the time we get together.
Have there been any sort of songs [TRIPtych] surprised you getting backing back into him after so long?
No, honestly, it’s just it’s refreshing for me because you don’t really ever get to focus much on a single album. We did Transmission, we did Edges. We haven’t done Splendor Solis and we haven’t done [TRIPtych] etc. For me, it’s all encompassing because then the memories really start flooding back. You remember when you’re recording this, you remember the fuck up or you remember everybody laughing at this one part or the mistake that you had to relearn because it was so good. Those are the best things that happened, those memories that flood in. There’s nothing not one song in particular that happens to. It’s just nice being able to get back behind the kit and play something of your own, but still feels a little bit foreign. It’s like it’s like a car that you’ve had for ten years, but you’ve driven it once and you get back into it or springtime when I start up the Harley, it’s like, oh, there it is. You have something new but not really familiar, but new, you know.
Are there plans for a new album?
I don’t know if it’s going to be an album, we haven’t had that band discussion yet. If we’re going to do an album anymore, it just gets so difficult. I mean, would I consider travelling to Australia for two months and writing with Jeff in my winter time? OK, I would definitely do that and then we could do an album. But everyone is so busy and everyone has so many things to do. So, if it does come down to us getting together before tours, after tours like I said we’ve got a bit of a festival run right after the Australian bit. Then we’ll take more time then and we will see how it goes. We’re not catering to radio, the first song that’s already being worked on is well over six minutes, which is nice not because it’s intentionally long, it’s just that it’s not done when that three and half to four minutes are up. I like that we’re in that position to be in a band that we’ve been around long enough, if anything, I think younger fans would appreciate something different as opposed to something prepackaged and ready to be consumed in in three minutes.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch The Tea Party on the following dates, tickets from Live Nation…
