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 Teagan Johnston.
Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist Teagan Johnston shares her latest offering, “Beat a Dead Horse,” a deeply reflective and emotionally charged single that examines the lingering impact of past relationships and the process of releasing what no longer serves you. Rooted in indie rock and singer-songwriter sensibilities, the track moves through grief, awareness, and ultimately toward a renewed sense of hope and forward motion.
The song was sparked by an unexpected moment during a psychic reading in New York City. “I’m not sure what I believe when it comes to psychics,” Teagan shares, “but something she said really hit me. She told me I was allowing old experiences of dark and painful love to dictate how I love now and in the future.” In that moment, Teagan felt a renewed urgency to step out of cycles of emotional repetition and into something more present and alive.
Stream + share “Beat a Dead Horse” now:
That sense of reflection carried directly into the song’s visual world. The accompanying video was filmed during a trip to Spain with Teagan’s parents, revisiting a place she hadn’t been since her time living there between the ages of 13-14. “Those years in Spain were before the trauma I reference in the song,” she explains. “It felt like the perfect place to reconnect with feelings of optimism and openness.”
Armed only with a digital camera, Teagan approached the shoot with a return-to-basics mindset, documenting beauty, colour, and everyday moments with a sense of curiosity and emotional clarity. The result is a visual companion that mirrors the song’s central theme: revisiting the past not to live in it, but to finally move beyond it.
Sonically, “Beat a Dead Horse” blends emotional lyricism with energetic indie rock and pop-inflected arrangements. The track balances vulnerability with momentum, reflecting the tension between holding on and letting go, while ultimately leaning toward release.
– one piece of music
Our Hell by Emily Haines
– one visual
Photograph by Francesca Woodman
– one type of tea to pair with the post
Earl Grey
My choices are made up of just my favourite art music and tea. This song, photograph and tea I think all have a kind of bittersweet, tragic beauty and duality to them which is what I enjoy most in art – life is tricky and I love something that can be uplifting and heart breaking all at once. I also highly encourage everyone to do a deep dive into all of Emily Haine’s solo work as well as Francesca Woodman’s photography, they are two of my favourite artists and their whole body of work is amazing.
Tea + Me 