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 break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Erica Knox.
With siren-like vocals, delicate guitar, and emotional depth, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Erica Knox returns with “Kerosene,” a folk-tinged pop single that turns heartbreak into healing. The track, originally written during college in 2018, finds new life and deeper resonance after being recorded live off the floor at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios.
“It’s a full circle moment,” Knox shares. “I wrote it after my first trip to London, and my first heartbreak. Coming back, and recording at Abbey Road, it feels like the perfect time for this song to be heard.”
Written for a college project on metaphor in music, “Kerosene” weaves poetic double meanings into its sparse, four-word chorus by balancing simplicity with profound emotional weight. The track explores the shame and longing that often follow a first heartbreak, and the fear of being “too much.”
“The lyrics and picking pattern hold a lot of space so we didn’t want to overcrowd it during production,” Knox says, and adds “there’s something about this one that feels like it’s been waiting for the right moment to be heard.”
The final studio version of “Kerosene” stays true to its live roots. Recorded in Studio 3 at Abbey Road and later polished in Toronto with producer Tal Vaisman, the team used AI isolation software to retain the original live guitar and vocal takes – preserving the track’s raw beauty while enhancing it with ambient layers. Knox‘s upcoming debut EP (out this fall) is poised to showcase her range from warm, nostalgic reflection to bold, hook-driven pop.
Stream + share “Kerosene” now:
peach tree – Ethan Regan
This has been a song I’ve been really loving the past few weeks. the guitar tone, the layers of harmonies, the build up in the production, it’s an impressive song. The heavier layers, no specific genre, loose lyrical structure – it’s definitely something I’ve been experimenting with for my future releases.
I remember around the time of writing Kerosene, I was saving a lot of inspirational quotes to my camera roll, some that would fuel my sadness, some that would fuel my anger, and some that gave me solace in my heartbreak. This was one of them. I knew that everything had happened for a reason, and the feelings I had, good and bad, had to be felt. I tend to trust my gut a lot, and would like to think I have good intuition; this image was a reminder that among all the good memories, there were more feelings of hurt and uneasiness throughout the relationship, and at its end.
Tea: Peppermint tea with Honey
Not only do I love using peppermint oil on my neck and abdomen before a performance, and during a studio session, peppermint is also my favourite tea. It’s super fresh, and helps me breathe lighter and easier. I also love pairing it with a spoonful of honey that I luckily get from my boyfriend’s beehives. (I’m sure I drank a lot of peppermint tea to calm my mind around the time of writing Kerosene).
Tea + Me 