'Flowering' EP
by teasea
“Flowering” EP by teasea
Released via Ambient Pasta
Written by Britnee Meiser(she/her)
“Slow down, listen close,” teasea sings. “I need you to tell me a story.”
The lyrics come from “Always,” the final track on teasea’s debut EP, Flowering. Ruminative and melancholy, the song feels like a proper ending to the shoegaze rock collection. But for me, these words were just the beginning. A simple request for a story blurred the line between artist and listener and took me back to the start. Suddenly I was teasea, and teasea was me, and we’d found ourselves here for the same reason. We wanted a story, a way to escape the chaos and make sense of things. It was only natural that we turned to music.
This is the transformative power of Flowering. What seems like the end is really just a metamorphosis between what once was and what is yet to be. The songs are evocative, untamed; they glide easily into each other in a way that mirrors the natural ebb and flow of love and grief. There’s hope, recklessness, naivety, confusion, ecstasy, and finally, acceptance––not of the end, but of the inevitability of the cyclical nature of things. As if to say, this will all happen again, and when it does, these songs will be here to tell you a story.
That was certainly the case for teasea when he was making the EP. In early 2023, he changed jobs, ended a relationship, and was feeling lost and delirious. To find his way back to himself, he started a new creative routine. Every Sunday he’d write a song, and then take a long, cold walk around Brooklyn to listen to what he made. He ended up with twenty songs.
“I found it grounding to consistently carve out time to write and essentially jam with myself,” teasea said. “I wanted to embrace the sonics of my roots and rekindle my relationship with rock music.”
The whole process was a huge growth period for teasea, as a human being and a songwriter. Flowering is his first structured release as a solo artist. Before Flowering, he’d only ever taken supportive roles in creative projects. Collaborations with SQORE, his brother Weeze, and his band Ritual Talk showed his chops as a drummer and co-writer, but this EP showcases his full range of talents as a singer/songwriter, producer, mix engineer, and more.
At its core, Flowering is about love––romantic, platonic, intrapersonal, and everything in between. Through lush and hazy shoegaze melodies, it grapples with big questions about finding and maintaining that love in a broken world, but it doesn’t trouble itself with needing an answer. Flowering isn’t about the answers; it’s about getting comfortable with the in-between.
The recording process for these songs emphasizes that reality. Most of Flowering was made in teasea’s Bedstuy apartment, with the instruments recorded in a single take. He wanted his sound to have a live, organic feel. “So much of music aims to sound perfect, and I wanted the little mistakes.” teasea explained. “So much [of the EP] was on the spot, how I was feeling, which I believe comes through in a natural way.”
And it certainly does. The six tracks are layered and expansive; peel them back and you uncover something new. The spacey synths in “Parallel Sameness,” adding dreamy undertones to the emotional lyricism; the haunting cello in “Always,” played movingly by Julie Kim; and of course the drums, subtly yet effortlessly anchoring every song in which they appear. I’ve said before that teasea’s songs are like a meditation, and I stand by that. Four of the tracks are over five minutes long, but they never drag. Just the opposite: they beckon you forward, lulling you deeper into their warm-and-fuzzy sonic landscapes until, before you know it, you’ve reached the end. At which point, all you want to do is go back to the beginning and start again.
This is Flowering’s ultimate achievement: it’s a reflection of the staying power of music in times of tumult, a reminder of how it connects us all. Like all the best stories, it’s impossible to listen to Flowering and not feel a deep sense of connection. Love and gratitude emanate from its very core.
‘Flowering’ is out now via Ambient Pasta. It was written, recorded, co-mixed, and produced by teasea, and was mixed and co-produced by Rain Johannes, who also played bass on “What If, Could Be.” Katie Sadler co-wrote and performed vocals on “Inches Away.” Finally, Laura Wolf and Julie Kim played cello; Laura on “Parallel Sameness” and Julie on “Inches Away” and “Always.”
Written by Britnee Meiser
