No one’s more fun in the post (or present) apocalypse than Tea Eater. Fronted by Tarra Thiessen of Gustaf and Sharkmuffin, the New York City-based art punk band’s made significant waves with frenetic performances, surf-rock-on-Neptune grooves and sucker punch tracks.
‘Double,’ the first offering from their forthcoming LP, produced and mixed by Drew Vandenburg (Bambara/Faye Webster/Of Montreal), came out of the jaws of lockdown. After a cross-country drive from LA to Lake Placid with members of Gustaf in March 2020, Thiessen submerged herself in meditation, Twin Peaks: The Return, and the expected existential crisis. This resulted in a song with plenty of 90s chord terror, girl group harmonies, and just enough surf rock shredding to tempt Tarantino to stick it in his next soundtrack.
The music video for ‘Double,’ directed, shot and edited by Gustaf’s Tine Hill, returns the band to Lake Placid with a decidedly Lynchian premise: Thiessen on a mission to kill her doppelganger. Written in the moments when social media became the town square, Thiessen thought on personas—or doubles—we create for ourselves. And, you know, the importance of not taking yourself too seriously. “These versions of ourselves tend to make us get in our own way,” Thiessen says. “By shedding our doubles and integrating the icky parts back into ourselves we’re able to become more whole and present people.”