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 Heliara.
Ottawa singer-songwriter Heliara returns with the playful and empowering, “Self-Love,” the lead single of her upcoming Everything’s a Love Song EP. Intimate, authentic, and fun, the track blends pop and rock sensibilities with infectious energy, capturing the ups and downs of everyday life and the beauty of embracing oneself fully even when the going gets tough.
“Loving oneself is not always easy, no matter what stage you are at in life. This song is raw, authentic, and vulnerable,” Heliara shares. “Written from the perspective of a mother with two young children feeling stretched in every aspect of her life (me!) and inspired by the beauty and chaos of motherhood, ‘Self-Love‘ is a song for all people: we are all together on this human journey.”
Stream + share “Self-Love” now:
Written during the chaos of household chores, Heliara came up with the melody while washing dishes. Encouraged by positive feedback on an a cappella clip, she brought the track to producer Steve Foley at Audio Valley Recording Studio. Together, they crafted a sound that balances attitude and catchiness: punchy drums, electric guitars, punk-inspired harmonies, and playful vocal lines.
“This song is both whimsical and honest,” Heliara elaborates. “And it has a little bit of attitude that I hope will resonate with mothers and really anyone embracing the chaos and challenges that life brings.”
“Self-Love” is the lead single from Heliara‘s upcoming EP, Everything’s a Love Song. Her EP is an exploration of different types of love across genres and it reveals vulnerability, authenticity, fun and passion in equal measure.
Lately, I’ve been starting my mornings with a cup of Eupherbia Saffron Green Tea; I love the herbaceous, vivifying, and bittersweet combination of the two flavours, and I find it a nice alternative to coffee.
The artwork I’d like to share is entitled “Love Knot”. I’m fortunate to live with this piece; it hangs in my home and has been with me for over a decade. It was a wedding gift from a talented family friend, Greg Ludlow, who had been reading about knot theory at the time and made a series of paintings using closed and interconnected loops. Greg now divides his time between studios in London and Los Angeles and is represented by Creative Art Partners (CAP) in LA.
To accompany “Love Knot,” I’ve chosen Arvo Pärt’s “Für Alina” — a profoundly meditative and introspective piano work by the Estonian composer. Its quiet power and simplicity feel deeply cleansing to me. Like the loops in “Love Knot,” both hands move together in harmony, playing single notes at the same time, with the left hand forming a B minor triad beneath a sparse right-hand melody. That sense of interplay mirrors the visual rhythms of “Love Knot,” and echoes a line from my upcoming single, “I Know That You Love Me”, off my upcoming EP “Everything’s a Love Song”:
“and over time / our souls entwined / to perfect imperfection.”
While I wouldn’t dare compare my next release to Pärt’s masterpiece in any way, I hope you’ll find beauty in both pieces of music.
Tea + Me 