Indie band Tokyo Tea Room created a student frenzy when it came to their catchy, 90s psychedelia sound. The band are made up of Beth Plum on vocals, Daniel Elliot on Guitar, Bass is Ben Marshall, Drums with Sam Teather, and Graham Nunn on Guitar and Backing Vocals.
TTR started life as a recording project of Daniel’s: later on with the introduction of Beth, Ben, Sam and finally Graham in 2014, the band were complete and have been performing gigs around Kent to date.
The band can be described as, “A quintet born in a dark and slightly damp basement, with sounds from that summer where you lost it all but gained everything, an evening where your world aligned and went missing simultaneously.”
Tokyo Tea Room have also been featured on Abbie Mccarthy’s BBC Introducing show for Kent, as well as Reprezent Radio in London. Look out for them on CSR (Canterbury Student Radio) in the New Year. The band’s current EP, ‘Key Philosophy’ hasn’t been given a release date yet, but tracks; ‘Sleep’ ‘Key Philosophy’ and ‘Pawn Inside Your Game’ are available on their Soundcloud now.
Laurabeth Evans sat down with guitar-lead, Daniel Elliot to talk some music.
EP: How did you guys meet?
Daniel: Ben and I (Dan) met through my cousin when I first moved to Kent, then Ben introduced me to Beth and Sam who he knew through Uni. I’ve known Graham since secondary school growing up in Brighton.
EP: What influenced the name Tokyo Tea Room?
Daniel: Not really sure, just popped into my head one day. Graham and I first thought of the name years ago but we decided to use it as a track title for our old band instead. Then when I decided to start my own project I recalled the name and decided to use it.
EP: Do you have any aspirations for the band in the future?
Daniel: I would like to release an album eventually, I think all of us are just wanting to take it as far as we can get away with, and hopefully people like it.
EP: How long have you been together and what’s the backstory?
Daniel: We’ve been together for a year roughly now. I wanted to start a band when I moved to Kent and after meeting Ben we started jamming together and getting the fires going, we “auditioned” a singer for the project – more like just having a jam to see if she was interested and Beth just happened to be there. It didn’t work out with the other girl as lovely as she is and we asked Beth if she would join instead. Then we needed a drummer so Ben introduced Sam into the band and I introduced Graham into the band.
EP: Do any of you have any hobbies outside of the music?
Daniel: Slug impersonators. We go around being slugs.
EP: Are any of you in education?
Daniel: We are all at Christchurch University studying Music, except Graham.
EP: Describe your band’s style of music in one line.
Daniel: Fuzzy guitar tones with attention to detail.
EP: If you could, what collaboration would you most like to happen?
Daniel: Would love to work with the BBC concert orchestra.
EP: Any bands that you’re vibing off right now?
Daniel: Quilt, Tame Impala, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Mac DeMarco, Melody’s Echo, Chamber, Radiohead, Tears For Fears
EP: Well, that wraps up the interview, thank you so much!
Daniel: Oh, no worries. Thanks for interviewing us.
You can find Tokyo Tea Room online on Twitter, Facebook, and Soundcloud.
