EXPLORING THE EDGES OF TWILIGHT WITH THE TEA PARTY
Source: Network Magazine, April/May 1995

Through exploration, both personal and musical, sonic journeymen The Tea Party have created -- on the recently-released The Edges of Twilight -- an album of snake-charming seduction, raging storms and delicate minstrel beauty.
On the trio's platinum-selling debut, Splendor Solis, singer/guitarist Jeff Martin imitated a sitar, harpsichord and other "exotic" sounds by using open-tunings or a violin bow. But on The Edges of Twilight, the whole band branched out, employing as many as 31 various stringed and percussive instruments.
Among other things, Martin plays a santoor, sarod, sitar and a hurdy gurdy. Drummer Jeff Burrows plays the djembe, dumbeks, plus shakers and bells like the rainstick, Australian clapsticks and finger cymbals. And bassist Stuart Chatwood, who learned to play piano in five months, also plays harmonium and dumbek.
"We were fortunate enough to find this classical Indian raga institute in San Francisco called the Ali-Akbar School Of Music," says Martin.
"We had the opportunity, in going around the world a couple of times, to pick up a lot of these instruments that we were always trying to simulate on Splendor Solis and have a more direct experience with a lot of the moods and the emotions that we were trying to express," he adds.
The band, which formed in Windsor, Ont. in July 1990, always had an intense drive to excel as musicians. Even as they worked Splendor Solis, Martin, Burrows, and Chatwood would pull apart the songs and take them to new heights of passion and purpose.
"They were metamorphosing over the tour," says Martin. "It's really beautiful the way things have evolved." But beauty wasn't his only inspiration.
Amid the high pressure environmeent of touring and fame, Martin experienced temptation, anger and emptiness as well. "Correspondences," "Walk With Me," "Drawing Down The Moon," and "Coming Home" seem particularly heartfelt -- and cathartic.
"My personal situation influenced a lot of things, especially in the poetry, the lyrics, of the record," he says. "Whereas Splendor Solis was touching on the esoteric, this record still has those elements but it's a lot more in direct relation to what went down."
Martin, who self-produced The Tea Party's independent debut, as well as Splendor Solis, co-produced the new album with Ed Stasium (Living Colour, Ramones).
"I didn't feel that Splendor Solis lived up to the sonic expectations of the band," he admits. "My production abilities are good in the more ethereal side of the band, bringing in all these instruments and creating the moods, but what I needed from Ed is that powerhouse sound that is inherent in The Tea Party. I wanted to make sure that The Edges of Twilight delivered that side of the band."

back