What does Jeff Martin admire most about his Tea Party band mates Stuart Chatwood and Jeff Burrows? ‘Their patience with putting up with me,’ laughs Martin without skipping a beat. Calling from his Perth studio, he reflects on why it was so important to him that The Tea Party’s long-awaited new album be partially written and recorded in Australia:
‘Home is where the heart is and I have a couple of homes here in Australia now, this is my home. So I felt it was important that Jeff and Stuart experienced that as well. Because with the Tea Party’s history, touring, we’ve done amazing things here you know? But we’ve never actually written while we’ve been here and it was great. A few months after The Reformation Tour, Jeff and Stu flew into Byron Bay where I was living and we had our first writing session. We did some recording at 301 Studios in Byron Bay and it was just a really enjoyable experience and it sort of sparked what was to come,’
What was to come was The Ocean at the End, an album that transcends The Tea Party’s previous work by evoking those genres and eras where needed and creating something entirely new from them at other times.
‘The Ocean at the End’ is an eight plus minute long opus that Martin originally envisaged as a minor blue song, but Stuart had other plans:
‘Stuart is a bit of a dark horse because out of nowhere he’ll just come up with these ideas – that I wouldn’t think of – for a particular song. All I simply wanted was to do a minor blues thing that would kind of take the place of ‘Drawing Down the Moon’ or something like that, and then Stuart’s like, “Great. I’m going to put some keyboards on it so it sounds like [French band] Air,” So it’s like… ‘Ohh-K (laughs).’
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Stuart’s synth seascape provides a rolling backdrop for Jeff’s evocative voice and raw lyrics on a song that can readily be considered a love letter to the fans – not about the fans – but the offering of an open and pleading heart to every listener who hoped The Ocean at the End would include classic Tea Party sounds. It will no doubt become a live staple and a band and crowd favourite alike.
‘Stuart and I both came up with the idea of the whole ‘Pink Floydy’ thing in the middle, and then it was Jeff who wanted to end the song in majestic fashion and go major, make it more of an anthem. Perfect example of the three of us just putting equal input into it and coming out with a great piece of work.’
The delights of their 1995 album The Edges of Twilight are nowhere more evident than on ‘The Ocean at the End’, but Martin is hesitant to revisit The Tea Party’s back catalogue in rumoured anniversary-style shows:
‘Jeff and Stuart have brought it to my attention that next year is going to be 20 years for The Edges of Twilight which is crazy – it seems like yesterday to me. It just starts to feel too nostalgic. For me The Tea Party is not nostalgia, it’s not a 90s band, it’s now. I’m proud of those musical statements that we made… The Tea Party’s a democracy so we’ll have to discuss it, but I’m interested in moving on,’
Those who enjoyed the industrial, electronic style of the Transmission era though will dig ‘Submission’, Martin noting that while it is related to ‘Temptation’, it also has a quirky side.
‘To say it’s powerful is an understatement but it also has a bit of a menace to it as well, the song sounds dangerous, yet playful.’
If you’re wondering about the inspiration for ‘Submission’, you can thank Gary Numan and his 1979 song ‘Cars’:
‘One of my favourite songs as a kid was Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’. I remember Jeff Burrows and I when we were 12 or 13 years old, we used to go to this roller skating rink to pick up girls right,’ Jeff laughs, ‘and ‘Cars’, when that song played, all the girls were on the roller skating rink. And so it brought back memories for me.
Martin notes however that today ‘Cars’ sounds dated and perhaps it could do with The Tea Party treatment:
‘OK, what if The Tea Party did something that was influenced by that and we put it right in the men’s section?’(laughs).
Working titles can be deceptive, as Tea Party fans who were awaiting the mysteriously entitled ‘Aurora Australis’ will discover:
‘‘Aurora’ became ‘Submission’. It was a working title. Lyrically I just couldn’t find anything to match it, so the title had to change to reflect that and once I found the title, I couldn’t stop [the words] from coming out of me – it just made sense’.
‘The Cass Corridor’ is the blues set-piece of The Ocean at the End but this time Martin has given the devil the day off and focussed instead on fan favourite Kenny Watt, his long-time guitar tech:
’It’s a true story. I took Kenny to Detroit for the first time because he grew up loving MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, all that Detroit sort of early 70s garage rock. The Tea Party was playing in Windsor, our home town, so for Kenny Detroit was Mecca, he just needed to go and I was trying to explain to him that where he wanted to go, The Grande Ballroom, Grand Boulevard, it’s crack central,’ laughs Jeff ‘The building still exists, but it’s deserted, boarded up but he wanted to go and it was just so funny, he was oblivious, he was oblivious, to the dangers that surrounded us that day. So that song is about him and about me putting up with him.’
Devotees will note that it has been a decade since The Tea Party’s last studio album, a waiting process Martin himself is familiar with.
‘Believe it or not, especially in the first years of high school, Jeff and I were really into the post-punk stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs. I can remember waiting for the new Echo & the Bunnymen record because Ocean Rain, their last great studio record, was basically the soundtrack for one of the years of my life. I was waiting in anticipation for the next one to come along and then I was kind of disappointed,’ (laughs)
But Martin feels sure that Tea Party fans won’t have that same experience:
‘Certainly if people have been anticipating this Tea Party record, they are not going to be disappointed. We’ve put too much love and all of our heart and soul into this record.’
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Heart and soul is also what has been poured into ‘Water’s on Fire’, the most radio-friendly song on the album, but perhaps the strongest and most profound personal statement:
’The Water’s on Fire, that is my mission statement now,’ says Jeff, laughing the laugh of the damned ‘It is sad but true. There’s something that I’m here to do and for someone to come into my life and try to change who I am, that’s pretty much going to be a wrong move. You will end up getting hurt.’
For those wondering about the past and future relationships of the band members, those friendships were cemented a long time ago and show no sign of changing:
‘Jeff always looked out for me. He became my best friend, almost like my big brother, because I’m an only child. I was very awkward and very shy and Jeff was the cool kid always at school, all the girls loved him. He took me under his wing and protected me. He has the biggest heart. He’s just like a lion that you can actually go up and hug… that man’s got a lot of love in him,’
And what about Stuart Chatwood?
’I’m a very big admirer of Stuart’s intellect. He is one of the most intelligent people I know. There’s a lot going on in that head of his. I’m pretty blessed you know, because they’re two of the greatest rock musicians out there, that I get to play on stage with them… and they’re my best friends. So, it’s a good life.’
National Tour Dates
Thursday 9 October – Crown Theatre, Perth
Saturday 11 October – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Sunday 12 October – Palais Theatre, Melbourne
Wednesday 15 October – The Enmore, Sydney
Friday 17 October – The ANU Bar, Canberra
Saturday 18 October – Waves, Wollongong
Monday 20 October – Panthers, Newcastle
Tuesday 21 October – Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast
Thursday 23 October – The Tivoli, Brisbane
The Ocean At The End is out today via Sony
