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 Shealagh Rose.
Shealagh Rose is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hailing from Hamilton, Ontario. Developing her voice and songwriting in Toronto at Humber College’s Bachelor of Music program, she worked with mentors like Rik Emmett (Triumph), and had the opportunity to record backup vocals with legendary producer Ken Scott. She was a regional finalist in CBC’s 2017 Searchlight competition with the song, “Dream,” off of her debut IslandEP. Lush with soulful vocals, addicting progressions, and beautiful string sections, the record boasts the aesthetic of indie folk anthems.
Shealagh‘s sophomore release teases of her earlier works while introducing grittier sounds and blending the lines between folk music and contemporary pop. On “Radio Silence,” the first single from her upcoming sophomore EP, Shealagh‘s motivation to write the single came from a fallout with a friend where neither was speaking to each other. Sonically, the track was purposefully written with gritty guitar, synth, pads and a more emotional vocal performance to encapture the feeling of an argument in the composition.
Stream + share “Radio Silence” now:
Now, more than ever, I’m sure we’ve all experienced that feeling of isolation or feeling cut off from people; when efforts to reach out are met with an indifferent or brief response. Or even when it becomes too much that making the effort to reach out to people just becomes bothersome, leading to a vicious cycle. – Shealagh Rose
Tea: Vanilla Rooibos
My favourite tea! I’m limited to one cup of caffeine a day (coffee in the mornings) and drink my tea at night, so I’m limited to herbal and/or decaf. Rooibos has all the warm flavours I look for in a drink – smoky and sweet, with a hint of floral.
Music: Heaven and Light – River Whyless I listened to this song a lot last year. The album it’s off of was my go-to comfort album and hiking playlist. The band uses lyrical imagery with traditional acoustic instrumentation, and world music sounds. It’s such a beautiful piece; it helped me feel connected to nature and myself when I needed to step away from the noisy world for a bit.
Lyrics below:
Held in eternal hands
How we believe and build in the sand
How we conceive and live to defend
Time and again it’s true
The quicker the judge, the quicker the fool
Longing to leave it all, longing for you
As you show me a kinder day
In the end now,
don’t we fade to the same heaven and light?
Blind love is love alike
but no man is made in one maker’s eye
We are a parasite, we are divine
But this is the line of blood
This is the half-mast by which we stood
Hand on our heart, did what we could
As you show me a kinder day
Ain’t it freedom
that we fade to the same heaven and light?
As you show me a kinder day
When you lay me down
to find my way to heaven and light
Visual: A Comfortable Place Inside my Head – Melanie Cheung 2023
Melanie Cheung is a Hamilton, Ontario-based abstract artist. I love subtle, calming colours and strokes that she uses in her pieces. This specific body of work, as she states: “centres around subconscious thoughts, memories, dreams and emotions that are difficult to understand. It is about all of the thoughts that are constantly swirling around in our heads that sometimes contradict each other and are sometimes unwelcome. It is about how we have so many thoughts layered on top of each other at any given time and how overwhelming that can be.”
Tea + Me 