theteaclub
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We've Been Busy!
🕑 Added 2021-02-18 21:11:29 +0000 UTCPatrons!
We posted this image on the social medias recently, with only the cryptic caption "We've been busy. New music coming soon."
However, for you, our Beloved Patrons, we will give you a little bit more info about what we've been up to.
The band has not been physically in the same room for quite some time. A year on February 27th, to be exact. A lot has happened to us since then. Some of us got married. Some of us bought houses. Some of us had children. Some of us adopted cats. Some of us became martial artists.
But the band is alive and well, and we have kept VERY busy. We have written enough material for TWO albums. Or a double album. (I am the only one in the band who thinks that releasing a double album is a good idea. What do YOU think?)
We are at the tail end of putting the finishing touches on all of our home demos. At the moment, there are nearly 30 demos. The picture above features the song titles of the demos that we have recorded during 2020 and 2021. (There's even a few more missing from that list.)
Once the demos are given their best chance of survival, we will send them to Jeff Aderman, who produced, recorded, and engineered If/When.
He will give us his thoughts about the songs; which ones are good, which ones suck, which ones need work. We will discuss this further as a band, and select the songs that we will move forward with.
We will then set up a time to go up to Jeff's glorious studio, Big Blue North, and begin recording a new album.
What kind of album will this be? I have no idea yet. There are a lot of songs.
Some of them are creepy and electronic. Some are acoustic, featuring dulcimers and mandolins. Some are synth pop songs. Some have sweeping orchestral arrangements. Some are just a piano and a voice. Some are discordant guitar heavy monstrosities with no discernible melody.
The lyrics are paranoid, joyous, rage-filled, biblical, grieving, dreamy, tragic, inspirational, sarcastic, sentimental, horrific, and peaceful.
I can't wait for you all to hear it.
Here's some of the artists I've been listening to and getting inspired by, just to give you an idea of what's been going into my brain:
- "Time"-era ELO
- "Soft Bulletin"-era Flaming Lips b-sides
- Danny Elfman
- Massive Attack
- 60's science fiction TV show soundtracks
- Celtic Christmas instrumentals
- The Buckinghams
- The Coasters
- late period John Lennon
- Eminem
- ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
- "Kid A"-era Radiohead
- Doves
- Smokey Robinson
- Robert Fripp & The League of Crafty Guitarists
- Susanne Sundfør
As terrifying as it may seem, we will posting some demos here on Patreon for you to hear in the near future.
As always, we thank you SO very much for the support that you give us. It means the world to us. The fact that there are people out there listening to what we're doing brings a deep meaning to what we do, and we are so grateful for you.
Thank you!
Dan McGowan
Comments
Record them all but split them into 2 or 3 albums. Release them about a year or so apart so all of us Tea Club fans don't get fat on binging a bunch of songs at once :-).
Exciting news indeed. Would be interested to hear what your producer thinks about the double album idea. It seems like most good double albums could have been pared down to a great single album. If you've still got some of that If/When mojo, I can't wait to hear it, no matter its playing time.
Lot of interesting and thoughtful stuff here, Andrew. Appreciating these two cents! I (Pat) have been wholeheartedly against the double album idea but you’re starting to convince me otherwise....
I would do a double album! But that should be very constant. I am very sure, however, that you will create something great!
Beyond the crazed fan inside me screaming "DOUBLE ALBUM!", I do genuinely feel like it would be a cool direction for the band to go in post-If/When. To me, If/When was a turning point for the band, showing you're willing to defy expectations and release an album full of pseudo-poppy, acoustic numbers that are capped off by an absolutely epic final track that veers back into what the band has done before, while also mixing in elements of the album that came before it. For the new album, doing something unexpected (beyond us Patreon people) yet again and creating this wide-spectrum double album could be just what Dr. Abraham ordered. It yet again shows the band is open to doing something different while not coming off as gimicky...and hey, prog fans LOVE double albums. Just listen to Beardfish's "The Sane Day" for inspiration. It's such a great example of what a creative band can do with a double album. I'll be happy with whatever you guys do and I'll continue to support you no matter what, but I figured I'd toss my two cents in while I could :P.
DOUBLE ALBUM
This is very exciting!!
