The Tea Ship formed in 2012, in Chernigov, Ukraine. After a few rehearsals,performed attheir first concert in the cult local pub and it brought them a lot of fans in the city because of bands energy and their movement on stage.After this, the band started to give lots of concerts and create a lot of new songs.
Until 2015 the band was just like a live-band, but in 2015 guys decided to record some of their songs. Their first record was a homemade single called “Set me free”, the song was on Ukrainian and it stood out among the rest of their material, but despite this, the song become popular in social networks. Six month after this, the Tea Ship recorded their first EP album, which included the most popular songs of the band at the time (“Yellow car”, “Call me” and “People say”).
The Tea Ship is:
Vladislav Eremenko – guitar, vocalMikhail Borodavchuk – bass, back vocal
Sergey Dvornik – drums, back vocal
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
The Tea Ship: (Sergey) From Twitter. Exposed Vocals offered us an interview.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) We all grew up in Chernihiv, Ukraine. I wrote poetry since childhood and at age 12, I started playing guitar, going camping and playing ballads by the campfire.
Misha knew from childhood that will be either an astronaut or a president or a musician. I think the last is the best for him. And Sergey since childhood addicted to Black Sabbath, so it was the beginning of his musical path.
Three years ago we gathered just to jam a bit for fun, but then it all turned into a crazy garage rock and roll and we’re not going to stop on this.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) In time when we started playing together, I was keen on different sorts of tea. The tea ceremony became a part of the creative process of creating songs. A ship – a symbol of travel and adventure associated with various characters such as Marco Polo and pirates. We are pirates in music!
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) Sharing music online is just awesome thing in our time. People from all over the world can get to know about the different kinds of music from another country or even continent and share it with their family, friends, etc. Music is a special language for humanity. It connects people.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) You should be more sociable with local musicians, if possible. Musical get-togethers are a cool way to find out some concerts for you. Just express yourself with confidence and be punchy. And of course, you’d better make a couple of demos.
(Vlad) It is important to play the music that you like. Make music with special motives is not interesting. That is the real way to success!
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) Nobody plays perfectly at live performances, even the world famous rock stars. If you’re not able to play your solo well today, play it rolling on the floor or while stage diving. The main thing is don’t show that you made a mistake! We can play anywhere and with any equipment. We just need something where we can plug in our jack and something hard for drumsticks.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) We get inspiration from music, life and different experiences. If I am happy or angry, I’d rather share my emotions in a song than go fight. It’s like a kind of therapy. Songwriting process is easy for me. It always starts with the guitar part, then a vocal part and so on. Sometimes, there are some difficulties, so it’s a sign for me to wait and continue my song later. My best songs I wrote spontaneously. For 10 minutes.
Also, during rehearsals, we usually jam a lot and then a song can come from riffs taken from our jam sessions.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
The Tea Ship: (Sergey) Unfortunately, we don’t have our own website, but we have accounts in the most popular social networks. For example, you can listen our new EP on SoundCloud, here: https://soundcloud.com/theteaship
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
The Tea Ship: (Sergey) I think it may be “Barbie girl” by Aqua. I don’t know why I like this song. It’s so positive.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) Do you know, 9 out of 10 people won the lottery just spend the money on different kind of garbage. I choose investments. Do you have a half a million dollars? Make a million.
And later it is possible to make your own recording studio or buy an island and make a studio there. But if I really have given so much money the first thing I’d buy my mom a gift
(Vlad) I’d have bought a van, musical equipment, and went on a tour of the Balkans and Africa. And I would buy surf and tried it in the Pacific Ocean on the coast of Hawaii.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) Right now, we’re working on new songs and going to release a single. After the single – full length album.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) Mainly, it’s social networks and live performances. Live performances works best, because people can see you and what can you do, unlike studio recordings and photos, where everything looks awesome.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) It is a difficult choice, but perhaps it would be like this: Kurt Cobain on guitar, Layne Staley and Scott Weiland as singers, John Bonham on drums and I as the bassist. I’m sure we could make a cool jam. Where? Even at the end of the world.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
The Tea Ship: (Misha) I’d be the same nice guy, but with different oddities. Well, you know…
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
The Tea Ship: (Sergey) Yes. It was “The Song Remains the Same” live CD by Led Zeppelin. There were so many emotions, I really don’t know how explain it, but I can listen this CD in every moment, every mood, everywhere and when I listen to it, I know every sound there.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
The Tea Ship: (Vlad) Sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, but I think, if you do nothing except music, you can’t make really good songs, because you have no changes in your life, no good things, no bad things, nothing.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
The Tea Ship: (Sergey) LP. Video. Tour.
