MUEN: So Jeff, where did this tour begin?

Jeff Martin: We started out in Texas and we're working our way up the west coast doing dates with a guitar player named Ian Moore.

MUEN: Well, how are things going so far?

Jeff Martin: A lot is happening. It's kind of surprising - the things that are starting to happen. I don't know what it was, but when the record first came out in the states... a lot of people didn't really believe it. Like they heard the record and didn't "believe" it. Not that it's out-of-this world or anything, people just didn't really get it. You know what I mean?

MUEN: I know. When you came through Toledo two years ago, and played Frankie's, I thought the same thing: "This is unbelievable" a band like this... I was sort of blown away. And I "knew" you'd be back again, and stronger.

Jeff Martin: Cool man. It's been a really cool thing.

MUEN: The L.A. Times gave you guys a really great review.

Jeff Martin: Yes, we were very happy about that! And now, some of the "big" rock stations in L.A. have started playing "The Bazaar" off this album, and that is "really cool."

MUEN: In Toledo and Detroit, The Tea Party is being played heavily on both 89X and BUZZ 106.

Jeff Martin: Yeah, I think the dividing line between "alternative radio" and "rock radio" is getting thinner.

MUEN: So you wouldn't call yourself "alternative" right?

Jeff Martin: Well, it's hard to say... The Tea Party does not sound like The Presidents Of The United States.

MUEN: That is certainly a GOOD thing!

Jeff Martin: But then again, we don't sound like Pearl Jam either. I'm really happy that there isn't anyone on the scene that sounds like us.

MUEN: Well cheers to the A&R person who took a chance on you! Were there any other albums by The Tea Party, before 'Splendor Solis?'

Jeff Martin: 'Splendor Solis was our debut. There was a CD before that, but it was meant more to be a demo.

MUEN: After 'Splendor Solis' was released, I know a lot of people seemed to compare your voice to that of Jim Morrison's, but after awhile, I don't hear that anymore.

Jeff Martin: Yeah, it has died down a lot, especially since the release of 'The Edges Of Twilight.' After they've realized that we are nothing like The Doors.

MUEN: Jeff, Your music sounds heavily influenced by the East to me... Do you find yourself drawn to any particular Eastern religion or culture?

Jeff Martin: You know, to tell you the truth, I am a Theosophist at heart so I tend to take a little bit of each religion and melt them into my own pot. I guess

"in my attempt to find the absolute, I'll raid as many different religions as I possibly can."

I mean these dogmatic trains of thought have been around for thousands of years - to totally devote yourself to one is... I think, a really silly thing.

MUEN: By using drastic tunings on your guitar you are able to simulate such instruments as the sitar, etc., but are there times when you use the actual instrument itself?

Jeff Martin: That was the thing with this record. I did that whole tuning trip on the first record, and I still did that on the new record - basically every song on 'The Edges Of Twilight' has a different tuning on the electric guitar, but what we also did this time around is we used a lot of instruments from the cultures that we are influenced by, such as instruments from India, Pakistan, Morocco and Turkey. I played the sitar on this record, I played the tantura, a sarod, the santoor, and even French instruments like the hurdy gurdy. I think another important part about this record was the percussion element that Jeff Burrows added. He used a lot of different types of drums from different parts of the world like the club dumdek, which is an instrument normally used in folk music in countries like Turkey, Morocco and Egypt. He also used a lot of different drums and kettle drums from Africa.

MUEN: That's all very interesting. Did you teach yourselves how to play these different instruments?

Jeff Martin: Yeah, well the way we went about doing that is, we just listened to a lot of the music. None of us have really been instructed. To learn how to play a sitar properly, you really need to study sitar groove theory for 12 or so years, but our approach was more of an innocent one as opposed to being a technical one. Myself, I've been listening to music from that part of the world since I was about 16. It was always a real passion of mine. So when I picked up an instrument wuch as the sarod or sitar, I knew what I listened to all those years and I knew the mood that the instrument invoked - how it made me feel - I knew how to get that out of the instrument.

MUEN: Growing up in Windsor, Ontario, why do you think yu were and are so drawn to the mystic, darker realms of music like you are?

Jeff Martin: It's melancholy you know, I was always a pretty dark kid (laughs), I just think that the mood and the melancholy inheritance of Eastern music was what attracted me to it. Just like with poetry, I'm more interested in dark poetry.

MUEN: I wanted to ask you about the songs on 'The Edges Of Twilight'... are these songs at all inspired by personal relationships you've had with women or one woman?

Jeff Martin: No, those are all metaphorical man. It's more or less just using the feminine, sexual thing to explain things like inspiration and the creative process. The song "Turn The Lamp Down Low" really comes from an experience I had with... well

"like with any creative thing, you have to really go down, in order to bring something back up."

The state of mind I was in around the time I wrote that song was pretty intense. I went down a little too far. Lyrically, the song is pretty metaphorical and all that, but because it was so heavy, we felt that we needed to offset it with something and we threw in some traditional blues.

Official Tea Party Webpage
www.teaparty.com

Interview by G. Cataline