INTERVIEW: Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra

Image by Stephan Zwickirsch

Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra have been a much-loved, hard touring band for almost fifteen years now, with five albums under their belt, and it was clear they needed a change.

“We needed a new album and we’d booked Blank Studios, where we’ve recorded the last five albums,” Heron explains. “But Tom [Cronin, mandolin and harmonica player and Tea Pad co-founder] suggested trying something different this time, and he was right. I was on Instagram at about 4am, when I couldn’t sleep, and saw that a German rockabilly I know called Jason Starday had been recording at Lightning Recorders in Berlin, an all-analogue studio. And I just realised that’s what we should do. At 5am I was looking up the price of flights and accommodation in Berlin and emailed Axel at Lightning Recorders and by the morning I had a plan.”

The extra expenses associated with the flights and accommodation saw the band launch their first Crowdfunder which contributed £5k towards the project, and by early April a slightly irregular version of the band were ensconced in Lightning Recorders. Long-term bassist Ted Harbot was floored by pneumonia at the last minute, so Adam from Howlin’ Ric & The Rocketeers joined them at very short notice alongside fellow Rocketeer and now full-time Tea Pad member Ben Powling.

a lot of the songs ended up sounding very different to how I thought they would once we’d started jamming them in the studio

Heron’s enthusiasm for the Lightning Recorders set-up is palpable. “It was a great experience, very different to recording in Newcastle, in a normal modern studio. It’s all 1950s and early 60s equipment… a lot of American gear, but a lot of German stuff too. Even the preamps and the cables are original and it’s all to tape.”

With only four days studio time booked, they had to work fast. “I have a bad habit of not writing until there’s a deadline. I think six of the songs were played when we toured in February and March, the rest weren’t properly written and weren’t arranged at all – in fact, a lot of the songs ended up sounding very different to how I thought they would once we’d started jamming them in the studio. We were arranging them half an hour before we recorded. But that gave the engineer Axel the chance to mix it because there’s no post-production mixing, it’s all to one track on tape – which I didn’t realise until halfway through and asked to adjust a vocal!”

Feet First certainly sounds like a band reborn and is much more rockabilly/rhythm & blues in style than usual, with less of the country swing sound of old. The songs are also a lot shorter. “I remember when the band first started every song had to have a guitar, mandolin and accordion song so they were all five minutes long. Now I just write a song without even a lead guitar break, or only a quick couple of bars.” German baritone sax player Doc Pukey guests on half the songs and the twin-sax sound is another really exciting element on the album.

“In the end, we did it all in two and a half days, including some minimal overdubs.” Heron adds. “And it sounds so authentic, especially the way the vocals are mixed. And then we went wild in Berlin, like any young English band would!”

Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra release Feet First on the Sleazy Records label on 4^th October. They play at The Witham, Barnard Castle on Saturday 23^rd November and their annual Christmas show at The Cluny, Newcastle on Friday 6^th December.