A quick interview with Jeff Martin of the Tea Party

How do you feel about the MP3 ‘revolution?’
“I want to make sure that artists get paid the royalties that they need to exist. You know if you’re in the cottage industry and you make bedroom sets that’s a different story, but when you try to do rock music like my band does or REM… or whoever else, those types of records will become obsolete, or an endangered species if they are just downloaded without regulation. So regulation is needed.”

Do you feel that the Canadian music scene is developing at a good rate or does it need improvement?
“There’s room for improvement because I think that there is such a concern for what is going down, down south. I see a lot of young bands growing up just trying to mimic and imitate American success stories and what they need to learn is that American success stories are very fleeting. But there are shining moments and glimpses of good things in the future.”