Jeff Martin

One might suppose the release of a successful solo album puts paid to the question of whether there is life after the Tea Party. Yet for some reason getting my mitts on 'Exile & The Kingdom' seemed to raise more questions than it answered about former Tea Party guitarist and singer Jeff Martin, he of the outrageously smooth baritone and dark curls, whose band seemed to find a second home here in Australia. Although this is about as far as you can get from their native Canada, the Tea Party always loved touring where they were so popular, where they were always assured of a warm welcome and excellent red wine.

And so here we are, me with his new solo album and a host of questions; he mid-way through an East Coast solo tour in preparation for a full tour later this year.

Jeff Martin sounds sombre.

"I'm not sombre," he protests in that chocolate-smooth voice of his. "Why would I be that? I've got a beautiful family, an eighteen month old son and I feel this life suits me right now.

"Even though I've given up a lot of things one thing I haven't given up is red wine," he confirms with a chuckle.

'Exile & The Kingdom' sounds based in reality, it seems to sum up what Martin is feeling and thinking at the moment, and it seems to reflect upon the circumstances of the Tea Party's breakup in October last year. Under the circumstances he seems to be the self-imposed exile, having removed himself from a situation he no longer found tenable.

Perhaps it's too early to tell whether he's found his kingdom...

"You've got it in one. It's the nail on the head," he laughs.

"It all came to a head in September last year; I just had to rearrange some things in my life - some big things in my life - and the other guys didn't seem to see what I could see. They kept coming back to me saying I had to do this and I had to be there, and I knew it couldn't work like that. I had to get away from some of the things that were causing me troubles and at the same time I was setting up a new life for my wife Nicole and my child.

"One of the things that wasn't working for me..." he starts dancing around the subject then decides the direct approach is best. I hear him draw a deep breath. "I had the beginnings of a real nasty little drug habit going on, so that had to change. I'm loving my life here now."

'Here' is the new property chez Martin, an isolated farmhouse overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Ireland amongst the rolling slopes of County Cork.

"It's just wondrous, it really is the most beautiful place I've discovered. I mean, I fully expected that Nicole and I would move back to Perth - you know I have an Australian wife, right? - but this place is so good for me."

It all sounds very rock star retreat, an idea that's amplified the more so when I discover the new album was recorded in Ireland. I'm channeling thoughts of Led Zeppelin era Bron-Y-Aur stomps and hoedowns... with a hand picked band of minstrels, one of whom is Australian pedal steel player Lucky Oceans.

"It was just such a great vibe to be able to record with a band," Martin confesses, who thought at one stage he might record and produce the entire album himself. As it was, he brought a team in to help out, but make no mistake, his hands are very much holding all the reins, much as they did in the early Tea Party days.

It is perhaps one of the most vexing things about 'Exile & The Kingdom': if you take away all context it could easily be a Tea Party album from around the time of 'Edges Of Twilight'. Which begs several questions; 'why would you record just such an album after effectively breaking up the band?'; 'is this the finest "Tea Party" album?'; and 'what happened to the intervening years?'. Of course, then you listen to the lyrics which strip away all these doubts, as Martin lays bare his rage, his anger, and, of course, his love.

As I'm dealing with these questions I ask another which rates very highly on the 'naff-o-meter'. 'Do you have a favourite track on the album?'.

"The Kingdom," he says, so quietly I have to ask him to repeat himself. Of course it would be... Martin always displays facets of the man in his lyrics, viewing himself at times as the tragic figure of pity, the bluesman, the precocious poet Rimbaud, and the King. Once again, Martin is the master of all he surveys, yet most of these characters are wrapped up in 'Exile & The Kingdom' somewhere, it seems.

"Well, a lot of it's allegorical, of course, but there's a fair bit of me in there. There are songs on this album which were among the first I ever wrote for the Tea Party, but they seemed right for now in a way they were not back then. That's just about the feeling of them, they're still great songs. At the same time, there's a few I wrote in those dark days of last year. Again, they tell you something about the journey I've been on."

Alex Wheaton

Jeff Martin's 'Exile & The Kingdom' is out now through Shock Records