Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon tea break with our Afternoon Tea curators.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Victoria Staff.
Toronto artist Victoria Staff writes music for the same reasons that we all run and bake and hang out with friends and family – it makes us feel better. Writing music has always supported her through mental health issues, and it gave her a way to process complex emotions at a really young age. She writes music to help herself, and she shares it to help other people. On her latest ethereal and sorrowful single “Campfire” she does just that, lending a voice to those in silence by a far too prevalent atrocity.
When I was 16, I was sexually assaulted. At the time, I had no idea how to process what had happened to me and no way of telling people. I wrote “Campfire” as a coping mechanism, a way to tell the people around me what I had experienced, what I was going through. What inspired me to release it is looking back I felt like there were lots of songs about overcoming trauma and being the bigger person in the face of hardship, but I wanted a song that talked about how it felt to be in the eye of the storm. I want this song to support people who don’t have a way to voice their experience and are still in the place of processing.
Stream + share “Campfire” now:
Tea – Chamomile Tea: As much as I’m a “black tea over black coffee” kind of girl, a chamomile tea in the evening always warms my soul. It gives me the time for self care and means that I’m not rushing myself to bed but settling down. I feel like I’ve been running so fast lately, I’ve barely taken the time to appreciate my bedtime routine. However, a chamomile tea in the evening makes me slow down and appreciate it (plus, if I rush I’ll end up spilling the tea everywhere and that’s just a mess nobody wants to deal with).
Art – Blue Nudes: My sisters and I went to the Matisse museum in France and I fell in love. Later in life when he became ill, Matisse couldn’t paint, so he took to rearranging cut up shapes to create art and that is how he created Blue Nudes. Life is terribly unexpected and sometimes you don’t get to tackle it the way you wanted to. Blue Nudes is a wonderful (albeit naked) reminder that you can still find and make wonderful things out of the unexpected.
Jason Isbell – Speed Trap Town: If I’m going to take an evening to reflect on my day, drink some tea, and look at my art, I will be listening to 2010’s Jason Isbell. Something about his voice and the way he tells stories makes me feel reflective. Some honourable mentions of his are Elephant, 24 Frames, and Cover Me Up. Just the songs that make you think a little bit about life and feel like they pair well with a glass of whiskey (don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten that we’re drinking tea, but what else do you have two hands for if not for holding two cups?). All in all, there are certain songs that just get to me after a long day and Speed Trap Town is one of them.
Tea + Me 