The Tea Party: 'Australia Is Such A Big Part Of Our Hearts And Our Soul'

2026 marks The Tea Party’s 35th anniversary, which the band will celebrate with their Elements tour: a mixture of three-piece rock and symphony shows, representing fire and wind, respectively. Frontman Jeff Martin describes the telekinesis that distinguishes their three-piece rock shows and tells us why The Tea Party plus symphony orchestra is “a marriage made in heaven”.

The Tea Party’s frontman, Jeff Martin, has been a permanent resident of Australia since 2008. When we give him a buzz, he’s at home on the Sunshine Coast. “My wife and I, we’ve had this beautiful home up on the Blackall Range for four years now,” he details. “So it’s pretty high up, but it overlooks the hinterland right out to the ocean. It’s pretty gorgeous.”

Over the last couple of days, Martin has been preparing to play a couple of solo shows in Tasmania – one in Hobart, the other in Launceston. “It’s my birthday weekend as well,” he enthuses. Happy 56th birthday, Jeff!

When asked whether he happens to know off the top of his head how many times The Tea Party have toured Australia to date, Martin chuckles before responding, “Oh, Lord! Well, I’m telling you that from 1993 up until 2005 – because we took a little break from 2005 to 2011 – it was certainly once a year if not twice, sometimes. And then, after that, it’s certainly been once every year since 2011. Well, it’s my home, but for Jeff [Burrows, drummer/percussionist] and Stuart [Chatwood, bassist/multi-instrumentalist] and myself as a band, it’s our second home.

“Australia is just such a big part of our hearts and our soul, because, you know, truth be told, when we came out of the starting blocks in 1993 after getting signed to EMI, the first country outside of Canada that truly embraced The Tea Party’s music was Australia, and it hasn’t changed.

“It’s a wonderful thing, because when we play now, it’s all of our same fans that have stayed with us, but then it’s their kids in the front, the first 20 rows, you know what I mean? [laughs] ‘Cause the ones that are our age wisely decided to stand back a little bit, because The Tea Party hasn’t changed its volume at all. But, yeah! So it just keeps growing. Not many bands can say that these days, but we’re pretty fortunate.”

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So how’s Martin’s hearing holding up, given that The Tea Party is best served loud? “I’m sorry, what did you say? Hahaha, do you get it? That was a joke. Yeah, you know what? I have to be honest, my hearing is pretty good for the amount of abuse it’s taken.

“But, I mean, we’re a loud band on stage, but we’re loud in a very balanced way. So, there’s no frequencies that are coming at you that are really damaging; it’s like the best set of headphones on stage. Jeff and Stuart use in-ears because, you know, as a rhythm section, you’ve gotta be pretty precise and hear each other perfectly. But me, as a frontman, I’ve gotta hear the audience.

“I’ve tried in-ears a couple of times and you just don’t get that same feedback from the audience that you do if you just use monitors and whatnot, so I choose to stay old-school and so far it’s working for me.”

The Tea Party’s upcoming Elements tour sees the band playing both three-piece rock shows (Thirroul, Brisbane and Adelaide) and symphony shows (Melbourne and Sydney) – the former representing the element of fire, the latter, wind. In both formats, The Tea Party will play a greatest-hits set.

So, what are some Tea Party songs that Martin feels are particularly suited to the orchestral treatment? “Well, Sister Awake definitely is so massive with an orchestra. And then there’s beautiful moments like The Messenger or Heaven Coming Down, where – people are walking out of a symphony show with The Tea Party with tears running down their faces. It's that emotional, in a very positive way.

“We first tackled using a symphony back in 1999. We did a concert in Montreal, and it was actually filmed for a documentary. And that went so incredibly well that since ‘99, The Tea Party has certainly tackled orchestras at least, I’d say, half a dozen to maybe ten times. It’s a marriage made in heaven, you know?

“Because The Tea Party’s music, the records I’ve produced – they’re massive-sounding: it’s a big production, big orchestration. But when you actually have a symphony behind you, combined with The Tea Party’s music and all those world-instrument elements – you know, the Moroccan and the Middle Eastern and the Indian influences, and all that – it’s a very, very powerful thing to experience.”

Does that mean they have to get in touch with the various orchestras – Orchestra Victoria and The Metropolitan Orchestra in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively – ahead of time to request specific instruments? “Yeah, we do,” Martin confirms. “Timpanis are a big part of it, and we also use tubular bells as well. But with a drummer like Jeff Burrows, you really don’t need much other percussion going on, ‘cause he’s certainly the human octopus and he’s got all the bells and whistles in his drum kit.”

We’re curious about whether being backed by a 50-piece orchestra means that Chatwood can chill out a little bit more during these performances. “He can, yeah,” Martin confirms. “Because instead of Stuart having to cover strings and whatnot – you see, the way Stu plays, if he’s not playing bass and he’s playing keyboards, well, he has bass pedals underneath his keyboards, right? So he’s doing two things at once.

“But with the symphony, it allows Stuart to play more bass guitar, because they’re taking care of all the string parts and everything. So, unless it’s some of the hardcore synth and stuff, like from Transmission or whatever, Stuart tends to be able to relax and play bass more. And also play grand piano, ‘cause he’s quite a fine piano player.”

Given that The Tea Party are renowned for their transportive, fluid live shows during which improvisation is embraced, we’re tipping that the rigidity of an orchestral show poses some challenges in that regard.

“That’s correct, and you know what? That actually is the one thing that stresses me out more than anything,” Martin admits, laughing. “Having to remember, ‘Okay, there’s two verses, there’s a chorus, there’s a bridge, there’s another two verses, there’s an instrumental,’ and it’s kind of mathematical as far as its rigidity. We’re fortunate that we can run through with the symphony [orchestra] a couple times and get that nervous energy gone, but it’s certainly a different approach.

“When it’s just the three of us on stage, songs change every night: we have our signposts that we have to meet in every song, but in between those signposts it’s fair game, you know? And it’s the beauty of a band being together for as long as we have.

“A lot of people don’t realise this, but Jeff Burrows and I – we had our first band together when, I think, I was ten and he was 11. And then we met Stuart in the first year of high school – so when we were about 12, 13 – and the three of us have been in and out of bands ever since then.

“Then it was only in the early ‘90s, around ‘91, where the three of us decided, ‘Okay, you know what? Let’s see if we can do this. Let’s do original music, give it a shot and see if we can make it.’ And fortunately, we did!”

That explains The Tea Party’s next-level synergy, then. “Especially in the rock shows, between the three of us, it’s really like telekinesis. Unless it’s with an orchestra, The Tea Party doesn’t really rehearse. What we do is, we get together just to make sure the equipment is working, you know? Then that’s pretty much it, because to take the spontaneity out of a rock concert, well, it’s kinda losing its vibe for me, that’s for sure.”

2026 marks The Tea Party’s 35th anniversary, which makes us wonder what kind of hopes and dreams they had for the band during early rehearsals. “Well, it was just to take it to the top of the mountain, you know?” Martin reflects.

“And when we started out, our wings were pretty wet with our influences, Led Zeppelin and all that sorta stuff, but when the second record came around – the sophomore effort, The Edges Of Twilight [1995] – that’s when I really feel like the band had its own sound now; we weren’t sounding like anyone else, it was now, ‘There’s a Tea Party sound’. And so much so that, these days, if a rock band comes out and there’s anything that sounds Middle Eastern- or Indian-influenced, they get compared to The Tea Party.”

When asked whether any Tea Party songs, which he perhaps didn’t give enough credit when they first came out, have grown on him over time, Martin ponders, “Um, well, for instance when we did the [25th] anniversary tour for TRIPtych [in 2024], there were some songs on TRIPtych that we had never played live – just because usually with the band there’s such a song catalogue and there’s so many big moments from each record that it can fill out a whole concert, right? But with TRIPtych we decided to go pretty deep – try some deep cuts – and so songs like Samsara… when we played them live, it was like, ‘Woah, what were we waiting for? This is amazing!’ So, yeah, there have been moments like that.”

For those among us who can’t sight-read, watching orchestral musicians read and perform music – sight unseen – is truly astonishing. Can Martin sight-read? “Oh, yeah,” he shares. That’s back to my university days. I got a scholarship to the University of Windsor [Ontario] for classical guitar, and I didn’t last long, though. I think I lasted about six months and decided, ‘You know what? I’m not gonna be a classical musician, I’m gonna be a rockstar.’”

The Tea Party will tour Australia in February 2026. You can find tickets here.