When was The Tea Party formed ?
The band first started playing together in 1990. Back then, Jeff Martin (JM) and Stuart Chatwood (SC) were living in Toronto. They called their friend Jeff Burrows (JB) in Windsor to ask him for help because a friend of theirs needed a band to play in his bar. Originally they planned to play just the one show, but the chemistry between the three was overpowering and The Tea Party was formed !

Did any of them play in other bands before ?
JM and JB started playing together in the young age of 12 in a band called The Suspects. SC and JM played in the band The Stickmen at the age of 18. Today, the most active one outside of the band seems to be JM. His vocals can be found on Rhys Fulber’s record “Conjure One” on the bonus track “Premonition” and he added his unmistakable guitar playing to even more songs, as well as other stringed instruments on the album. In the past, JM has played guitar on British singer Roy Harper’s records "The Green Man" and "Poem" and even accompanied him on a small tour across Britain. Jeff Martin also plays guitar on a track called “Nizil Il Matar Fag’a” on Ritesh Das and the Toronto Tabla Ensemble’s latest album, “Weaving”. Besides playing guitar, JM works as a producer for various Canadian bands such as Static In Stereo (2001), David Usher’s song, "Black Black Heart" (he played guitar on that track too). His latest production effort is collaboration with Kitchener band, Hundred Mile House on a song called “War”. JB supported Hundred Mile House behind the drums during their first two shows presenting their new record, “Choke Chain Therapy”.

Have other musicians ever played with The Tea Party ?
JB’s brother, Brad Burrows, used to play harmonica at shows during the Indie era.
Roy Harper performed the spoken word on “The Edges of Twilight”. He also sang the song “Time” on the album “Alhambra” and appeared in the video “The River” dressed as a shaman.
Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Delerium) mixed the songs "Temptation" and "Sister Awake".
During the recording of a new album, a variety of musicians sometimes take part in the process of creating new Tea Party masterpieces, e.g. Ritesh Das of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble.
In fall 2002 they collaborated with various symphony orchestras across Canada during their Orchestra tour.

What kind of instruments do the members of the band play ?
TTP are well known adding a large number of exotic instruments into the mix (check out "The Bazaar"-section).
The following is a small selection of the guitars JM uses the most:
Gibson Harpguitar from 1916
Les Paul’s Classics from 1960
12-string Gibson
J-50 Acoustic Gibson from 1964
71 Fender Telecaster Parsons White B-bender (Prototype)
12-string electric Fender
12-string Rickenbaker

Instruments, used by SC:
Bass: Fender Telecaster from 1972
Keyboards:
Emularot II+
Kurzweul K2000
Akai 2800
Korg Prophecy

How did the members learn to play the exotic instruments?
Normal, the band would hear an instrument on a world music recording and decide to include it in there ideas when it came to writing songs. After finding out what the instruments is called, which usually came from reading the booklet that came with the CD. Incidently, most world music CD's have extensive notes that sometimes would include playing tips, and tunings, with Peter Gabriel's label, Real World, being a great example of this. From there some shopping would occur. And finally, the learning process, which never stops. The tip is to always learn and always ask questions.

Where did the band buy the instruments?
The band's favourite stores are World Music in the Village in New York City, Kala Kendar in Toronto, Ali Akbar School of Music in San Raphael, California and Lark in the Morning. Don't forget to say the Tea Party sent you, for a discount. In addition, while traveling in Australia, Turkey, and Europe, the group has brought back a few different things of antiquity.