About Me
To tell the story of how the Tea Merchants started is a difficult task, probably because it was almost completely accidental. Daniel Roelands and Bill Taylor were just two guys who went to the same high school, and an extremely small high school at that, so it is very odd that they did not talk at all for 3 years, before one night, when Billy's sister had a party.This is where they began talking, and soon discovered that they shared one interest, and very passionately. Drumming. They were both to be considered beginners but both very dedicated and wanting to impress very badly, so they agreed on the gnarly idea that they would do a double drum solo for the high school at the assembly. They practiced together a few times, but to be completely honest, there was little or no double drumming chemistry and the interest was being lost. Mark Kennes, a cousin of Daniel's and a close friend of Bill's, seemed very interested in the project however, and due to his similar drive to impress, wanted to add to the combination.There were a few Jams with the three of them but still little progress. Mark was very talented and would definately leave an impression had we have performed, but there was essentially just 3 people making as much noise as possible with little structure to the music. This is where another guitarist Shawn Hendrikx came in.Another close friend of Bill and Mark, Shawn heard of all this double drum/guitar solo nonesense and wanted in. This proved to be the addition that held the pieces together. Shawn made the others realize that they lacked the talent/experience to just go out there and do it, and thus we began working on a structured song. They're version of "O Holy Night" was made and things were going well. However everyone realized it sounded weak and a bass guitar was definately needed. Daniel and Mark had often talked in the past about forming a band with bassist Scotty Johnston. They both agreed that Scotty would consider this the most lamewad form of music ever, after all, they were performing O Holy Night in front of the entire high school.Nonetheless Scotty agreed to do the show simply because music was music and it was about time a band got started. The boys soon hit a speedbump though, when the authority figures of the school would not allow them to perform, however it did get the whole school on their side when everyone was chanting "WE WANT THE BAND".This chant gave these guys exactly what they needed, support and confidence, however, they did realize that they had never heard of a band with 2 drummers and no singer before. Everyone knew something had to happen. There were a few more jams with 2 drummers before Daniel realized he was definately not as good as bill. Shawn had a microphone in his basement and everyone was just kind of screwing around, so Daniel grabbed the microphone and started signing Adam's Song by Blink. After the song Scotty said, "So yeah, Your the singer now." and the Tea Merchants were complete.About a year and a half later here we are, trying to make music we would actually listen to ourselves, and trying to expand on more than just the "Parkhill Scene"
