By Kyle Young
Students are in for a treat this Friday, and it has nothing to do with the end of classes. The University of Calgary will host the Tea Party this week as they hit Calgary on the promotional tour of their latest album, The Interzone Mantras. According to bass/keyboard/harmonium player Stuart Chatwood, Tea Party wil be in fine form.
"The band is playing better now than ever [before]," he proclaims.
Fans attending the concert can look forward to a two-hour set heavily padded with material from the new album. According to Chatwood, the album was crafted with this in mind.
"This album is more oriented towards the live show than some of the stuff we’ve done recently, focusing a lot more on Jeff [Martin’s] guitar playing," says Chatwood.
However, fans can still look forward to the band’s more exotic roots. Although not an instrument, they claim to have played the hookah, a water pipe, when making one record.
"In terms of exotic instruments, there’s probably about six or seven [on tour], though Canadian weather is pretty bad for our instruments," he says. "The hookah has been with the band for awhile," so Smoking ‘Apple Tobacco’ is sort of a pastime now." Apparently the hookah has its own road case for the tours.
Touring aside, the new album offers fans something they may not have expected.
Interzone Mantras represents what Chatwood describes as a new starting point for the band. When looking to the future of Tea Party’s progressive, experimental rock sound, Chatwood hints at a return to some of the band’s favourite and more experimental works.
"The band’s favourite albums in our career were The Edges of Twilight [1995] and Transmission [1997]," he describes. "There’s going to be certain points of those albums reflected on the new album."
Although this approach gernered criticism in the past, Chatwood says that the band will no longer be steered by critics.
"For the longest time people have always been trying to influence us to sound less exotic," explains Chatwood. "The band has finally just said ‘fuck off.’"
Although the band isnt’t bowing down to public opinion, the Tea Party does want to expand their fan base by trying to seek out new crowds.
"It was good to get in front of some new faces," quips Chatwood about opening for Ozzy Osborne on the Canadian leg of his recent tour, Ozzfest. "People aren’t aware of how heavy we really are ’cause they’re only aware of stuff like ‘Heaven Coming Down’ and ‘The Messenger.’"