Juno-nominated Canadian rockers the Tea Party is in the Okanagan for a one-night concert at Kelowna Community Theatre on May 7.
“We’re looking forward to another big tour next year that will embrace everything that’s brought us to that point,” said drummer and percussionist Jeff Burrows.
The band will be celebrating 30 years of making and playing music next year.
“We’re in the final chapter of the North American portion, so I think we have nine shows left including tonight,” Burrow said. “It’s been phenomenal. It’s been a growth actually throughout the whole run.
“It’s nice to get to get to the position where you’re just firing on all cylinders and you don’t have to think too much. There’s not a lot of mental memory. It’s all muscle memory.”
The band, made up of front man Jeff Martin, bass guitar and keyboard player Stuart Chatwood and Burrows on drums, got their start in 1990 in Ontario.
“We grew up in Windsor, across from Detroit, and our goal was to write music that could be played at the ultimate rock concert forever,” Chatwood said. “Led Zeplin was one of our heroes, the Beatles and all these bands that are still relevant nowadays.”
The group had several hits in the 1990s and 2000s, including Heaving Coming Down and the River, becoming internationally known for their unique middle-eastern sound.
After a hiatus from 2005 to 2011, the band was back in action and recently made some waves in the music scene with a new track Black River.
“We’re celebrating, for the first time in a long time, that we have a radio hit,” Chatwood said. “I think it went all the way up to No. 2.”
The band is set to deliver a good old fashioned no-nonsense concert for Okanagan fans.
“It’s like an old school rock show and I’m not dismissing any pop or rock bands or country bands, but they rely on click tracks, they rely on backup vocals that are pre-recorded,” Burrows said. “You won’t get any of that.”
As for the role that music has played in their lives, these Canadian musicians can’t say enough about the privilege of being performers.
“It’s a spiritual thing. When it hits you on the right night it’s transcendental,” Chatwood said. “Just the vibration. Singing is a healthy thing.
“I just saw all these reports on the internet where going to see rock concerts will lengthen your life,” Chatwood said.
“Live longer. Go see the Tea Party.”
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