There was a time, in the mid-90s when you could not turn on Triple J without hearing The Tea Party, and lead singer Jeff Martin puts his band's popularity in this country almost solely down to that.
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"Australia was really the first country outside of Canada to embrace the Tea Party and that goes back to 1994 and it's just really never stopped. Back then we were basically Triple J darlings, and that was a big thing, it was exposure. And also the touring that we did, we actually took the time, and it was kind of unheard of back then for a Canadian rock band to come all the way to Australia, I think we were the first to do that. So it was a big call, it was a big gamble, but I think we pulled it off."
Heaven Coming Down was the band's biggest hit here, a much more melodic affair than The Tea Party's other darker, heavier material. "It was a time and a place," says Martin of that song now. "Funnily enough it came out of me being very, very bored on a video shoot and played around with a new 12-string Rickenbacker guitar that I had just gotten. I came up with that chiming riff and I played it to the boys and made a song out of it, and once the record company heard it, I couldn't really stop it."
The song made The Tea Party's name here, and Martin has maintained strong ties with Australia ever since. Not only does he tour here often, he has a studio in Fremantle, and his own record label, 93 Records. He is producing a record for Australian bands Lepers & Crooks and Black Diamond Express with Sarah McLeod from The Superjesus. He also has two children here: a son in Perth and another son living in Byron Bay. Martin's latest Australian adventure is a solo tour throughout the country. "There's a demand to hear the solo material," says Martin, "But also I'm going to be performing new Tea Party songs from The Ocean at the End acoustically as well."
The Tea Party's sound has been described as Moroccan Roll, because of its Eastern and Indian-influenced heavy rock sound.
"When we first started out we were constantly getting compared to Led Zeppelin and now bands are getting compared to us, so it's come full circle," says Martin.
It's the sensuality of those sounds that he loves, Martin says. "I love any kind of music that has sensual in it. It's gotta have sex in it. So if it has that, you've got my ear. And that's what I find with music from Morocco or the Middle East or India, there's always such a sensual aspect to it and the marriage of hard rock music which is basically based on the blues, which is a sexual music in its own right, well there you go. It's quite a potent combination."
JEFF MARTIN
When: March 29, 6pm
Where: Transit Bar, Civic
Tickets: $35 available from moshtix.com.au
