Many years ago I’d written someone at Aquarius Records for something unrelated to Teaze. In turn someone replied, and in subsequent exchanges, he wrote back and included a CD – The Best of TEAZE – Over 60 Minutes With. At that point I wasn’t familiar with the band at all, but dug the CD, and in time picked up.a few LPs. Fast forward 15, and there’s this new guy at work, Derek. We struck up conversation about music. He had been in radio, so he knows his classic rock bands, and lots of old Canadian bands. Years later, he brings up the name Teaze, and the news that they’re planning a reunion show. Teaze, as it turns out, is his favorite Canadian band. So, we made the trek to Windsor for that first show in 2019. (Checked out a record shops, where I spent hours in the local Dr Disc to Derek’s horror). Got to the show at the Walkerville Theater, sat right up front The band sounded great, energetic, and if this was their first show in nearly 40 years, one might not realize it at the time. We saw them again in 2022. (I had to pass on 2024), but then came the Live At Liege CD. A highly energy set of Teaze’ rockers, from.the band’s four studio albums. I should add that with the reunion shows, founding guitarist Chuck Price made an appearance at a few, but Charlie Lambrick was his replacement and then, with the band planning to.write and record new songs, drummer Mike Kozak bowed out

So…here we are – June, 2026, and TEAZE Has just released a new album – Rev Your Engines. This is getting great reviews. Highly recommended hard rock from Canada. I recently talked with guitarist Mark Bradac; we discussed the band’s initial break-up, their reunion, the new album, album covers, and more. Check it out! (*Links to songs and albums highlighted throughout, and check out the links below.)

I want to go back to when the band split. I imagine there was lots of reasons with the record company and how the last album did and kind of what the main reasons were and how frustrated were you, how did you guys feel about it back then…?

Well, we started in ’75 and the house crumbled in 1980. There was so many reasons; I guess first of all the music that was going on at that period of time – New Wave was really breaking strong; it was like a rocket and so was Disco. So, there was our two arch enemies. TEAZE, a lot of people said we were kind of the last band to get in the door with the big rock and roll budget, which I’ll get into in a minute, but bands like Foreigner – the big production the massive guitars. And we were signed to Capitol Records at the time, and this is what we worked up to for five or six years. This was such a pivotal moment, and we signed with Capitol and the album before (One Night Stands) probably cost us a couple hundred thousand bucks, and we were thinking about producers you know like Roy Thomas Baker, Jack Douglas and Ted Templeman – big Big money. That was that was the way it was done. And all of a sudden everything changed and then The Knack delivered “My Sharona”, the record for like 35 grand to Capitol, so instantly our budget was slashed. That was one of the main reasons. Another main reason was, the album before was done by Myles Goodwyn from April Wine, and you just can’t state enough how tremendous of a record he produced. And Body Shots was definitely – by far, our best writing, but the production ended up being a clam. Maybe Nick was trying to make us sound more New Wave and more contemporary, and trying to go with the times, but it didn’t work. And I don’t know how we would have achieved it with a lower budget and get the sound we got on One Night Stands, but that’s what we should have …

There was so many reasons, like the house of cards just went Whack!, you know!?  And then we got into a little bit of a tiff with Capitol Records, with our producer, and that didn’t help things.  When they heard the record they were not impressed; that’s when Capitol dumped us – when they got Body Shots. They had heard the demo, which the band had given to them. And they were really knocked out about it, and at that point they were saying “Wow you’re going to be the next greatest thing since you know (whatever) …The Police and “Roxanne”, even though they were kind of New Wave at the time. But at the drop of a hat, with all these things that happened, and then we delivered this album and it didn’t happen, and they dropped us.

At that point the money was kind of very strained, so for the first time in probably six years Aquarius said “You’re going to have to go home; you’re going to have to write a new album.”  We were kind of like “What!?”  We just wrote, as far as we were concerned – the best songs we had ever written in our lives; it didn’t happen on the record but we were just so like Wow! We couldn’t believe it, and we couldn’t believe that we were actually contemplating having to go home. But we did come home for a period, and at that point the final blow – Brian Danter had decided that this was not the road he wanted to go anymore, and that’s the fatal blow right there. We could have lived through anything; we could have lived through all the changes in music if we would have stuck together; we could live through the bad record production (the clam) that we delivered. And that record only came out in Canada, so everything just collapsed. We had lost the Japanese market, which was so important to us because that was a lot of our notoriety. We’d lost that because Capitol at the time wanted the rights to Japan, so we dropped our independent you know because uh of course you would for Capitol Records worldwide.

During those last couple of albums were you guys staying in Montreal or in Toronto?  

We were in Montreal for now about well for histories like five years six years we were in Toronto for a year and then we were in Montreal for four or five years yeah that’s how that flew all right we started off in Toronto with another outfit, with that first record.

You look at all the Canadian bands that had those three or four albums and then they just kind of like you guys, went off – like A Foot In Coldwater, and then later on you had Coney Hatch and Santers….

We were we were really astonished. The band was meant to go. There was no question in anybody’s mind; it was just a matter of time. And when you lose Brian, I mean – that was it.  And then in the record business things move fast, and there was people in the wings like Corey Hart already, staying close to Aquarius. And then everybody just kind of got deflated at the same time for so many reasons, because there’s so many reasons it takes for a band to make it and all those reasons came into play like timing, management, record company, producers… Everybody’s got to be in the same zone And then when you all are – you have good songs and you have a good band, then you’ve got to rely a bit on luck and the timing; so it’s just a crazy business.

One Night Stands is such a great album – great production. Are you surprised that didn’t take off further?  

Yeah well, at that point it was all up to the States. EMI Capitol had paid for that record and it was just, again New Wave was breaking, it was right there and there’s pros and cons to being with an iconic label like the Capitol Records of the world, you can get lost in the shuffle, that’s what I call it right there’s positive points about signing with the greatest label on earth, and then there’s positive points about signing with the smallest label on eath because you get all the attention. And that’s what did happen with Corey Hart, who I just mentioned, because everybody wanted to sign that dude at the beginning but he went to Aquarius because he wanted to be with a small label because he was hip to the fact…and I think that’s what happened with Capitol – the machine never got rolling. Yeah it was a disappointment, definitely, because now we listen now, it’s 45 years later and One Night Stands just holds up; it’s a great record, it’s a great solid record from front to back.

I know through social media over the years you would kind of mention that you wanted to get it back as far as Teaze goes, and it finally happened starting in 2019. So, what was the whole path or the road back to getting everybody together.

I think it’s always been me Kev, I’ve been the instigator.  Ever since we broke up, like I said we were a band that we’re supposed to make it.  And then you read articles; there was an article in UK that came out, a monthly thing that comes out (or bi-monthly) and it kind of says “The bands that time forgot”. It was just too great of a project – the four of us, the rise and the songs And the people that believed in us, the fans. And you wanted it to happen, so I just never gave up on the fact.

There was a point in 1990 where we almost got back together which would have probably been a whole different story. Rock Candy Records in England reissued One Night Stands, and it hit the retro charts and went to like top 20 and at that point Rock Candy, Derek, had called me and we started chatting and I actually got Teaze to rehearse back then. Again, it was Brian – he just you know whether he was ready or not. Brian just chose a different path; he wanted to raise a family, he was a pastor, there’s no secret to that, and that’s cool. But not to doubt he didn’t like rock music or anything, he just got disillusioned with the whole business, because you’re always chasing that dream.  

As far as when you guys first got together in 2019 to do the first show, what kind of led right to getting everybody in the same room?  

We were always been in the same city. We were born here, raised here, and we’re all still here. We’re all still alive and healthy and we were all still friends. Brian and I didn’t speak that much; I mean we were friends but just didn’t have a day-to-day thing going or anything. And a guy got us back, a fan – Calvin Hood, from the west coast. He started talking to Brian and he started talking to me, and all of a sudden he started talking to the both of us and Brian was receptive. I’ve always been receptive, as I’ve been telling you in this interview. So I thought, Well this is going to be the time.  And that’s what happened, we actually got the four original guys back together, which is unheard of these days. I mean anything goes these days, you don’t have to have anybody in the band as far as you know…

Yeah one guy puts out a whole new lineup…

So Chuck (Price), the other guitar player he had no interest in really going through the whole deal again. He did it for nostalgic’ sake. He wanted to get the band back together, and he wanted his grandkids to see the group which was all cool, so he did the reunion gig. And he did a couple reunion gigs, we played the Walkerville a couple times in the next years so he did those. Mike’s been here for the long haul, the drummer. You know everybody was as important as the other, but Mike he has recently gone, as this new record doesn’t have Mike. The record that we released in a couple years ago in Europe does have Mike. Mike, I guess he didn’t really have a vision for a new record. Again it was, I think nostalgia, he was revisiting the old days yeah and when it really came to push and shove he was happy with that, and he really wasn’t keen on writing any new music, and I knew that it was imperative to write new music – that’s our path forward .

It was so damn long since we had been together a lot of our base has gotten lost. I mean a lot of bands they might break up but they get back together or maybe they stay in the public eye somehow. But when we were cut at the knees, it was over it was gone and we were gone and that’s been a long time to try and bring that back. Now Charlie, the new Charlie, has been in the mix since day one. So now Charlie’s been in the group longer than the group was ever together back then because we’re together longer now you know we’re serious about this and we’re trying to make a go of it, but dude’s brilliant. He’s been there since day one, I’ve worked with him. Prior to that we’ve known him his whole life. He produced the record he wrote some of the songs, he plays multi-instruments… I just can’t overstate what his value has been to make this reunion happen.

There’s no there’s no old Teaze anymore – there’s Teaze, and it’s Charlie Lambrick, Brian Danter, myself, and now our new drummer Jimmy Bonventre. Jimmy B, he’s been around us all his life too. Charlie and Jimmy, they’re the other half of this Teaze group now. They’re kind of like a half a generation behind us, and they were all big fans. They are from Windsor, so they knew about the band. We grew up with the same kind of background with Detroit, Michigan and you know – Iggy and the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and the Detroit Rock City! The band now is solid.  Rev Your Engines, wow! I don’t think there’s any clams on this record. People are arguably saying this is the best Teaze record.  

I’ve heard that from a few people. One person said it’s so good and it shouldn’t be!

Sometimes I wish the nostalgia thing was out the window, the classic thing. I wish, if we could come out anonymous and the record could stand on it’s own and get the right push it needs then who knows. Sometimes people, I wonder whether you say “classic” to them and immediately they think ‘old’, and just some old crap.  

I think it’s important for older bands that are still going, to make new music, otherwise you’re just going out and doing the same hits all the time.  

A lot do Kevin! I took a poll – all these guys were doing the festival circuit, and I’m asking dudes “How come you don’t do a new record?” “Nobody wants to hear a new record they want to hear our old hits.” Some of these guys I’m talking to they’ve got a lot of hits so it makes life a lot easier when you got a lot of hits in your hip pocket. And then there’s the problem of trying to reach that bar, whether you’re going to reach it. So, a lot don’t. So how many percent do you think?  

I don’t think it’s high, probably less than half but I mean a lot of the bands I still follow like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Alice Cooper – those guys are still putting out albums every few years. To me that’s why doesn’t

Why doesn’t one really break you know!? I talked to someone the other day and we were talking about classic songs being played on classic radio stations as opposed to contemporary radio stations and it doesn’t seem to cross over. It doesn’t even seem possible almost sometimes that a classic rock band can have a new song that can cross over away from classic and just be a good song on its own.

I think radio has kind of lost it’s purpose you know you don’t you can all the artists that put out albums you would never know if you had to listen to radio.

What have kind of been the highlights so far I saw you guys in 2019 and I think the second one um right after COVID and then I missed the third one.  So what have been the highlights since other the Windsor shows?

Europe! We’d never been to Europe. We got some phone calls from people that – luckily for us, were guys that grew up right listening to Teaze, and then we’re in a in a situation where they could say sure let’s book you on this festival. Much like the Anvil story; they were kind of snookered too, and before the documentary. And this guy shows up that does the documentary, that grew up with them and loved them and then does this doc that’s just brilliant. It puts them right back in. So these are these kind of cats in Europe and I kind of always felt in the back of my head ever since we’ve been doing this that that maybe we have to come in through the back door to get accepted over here more, that Europe would be a really great market for Teaze. We could slog it out there.

Canada is so tough to tour in.  I mean it’s so big, so expensive. The tours really aren’t happening, and there’s so many bands that the arena is crowded; everybody’s coming back, and a lot of bands maybe should be doing it before us because they’ve got a lot of hit songs. So, Europe – that was really a highlight. Then I thought, “if we go to Europe we’ve got to tape it, we’ve got to do a live record there”, and maybe reintroduce everybody to the old Teaze songs from all those years ago. Because again, the length of time was just ridiculous and the base – how many people grew up never heard of the group(?), so that really helped. And then it helped us psychologically; when we had heard the live tracks for that Live at Liège, in Belgium – we were astounded on how good it sounded and how strong the band really was.

It’s a good intro to the band even for people that don’t have many of the old albums. And it’s up to date, so it doesn’t sound like it was recorded 50 years ago.

That’s the other funny thing going with Charlie Lambrick – the producer and guitar player in this band, Everybody keeps commenting on “it’s a retro sound with such a fresh production”  I don’t know quite how to analyze that because I’m just, “what do you mean by fresh production(?)” – It sounds good, sounds the way it should. We went back more to two guitars, then again Euro-style. We went back to four piece. You know back in the day we had the fluff with the saxophone and stuff like that, and we were trying to…there was pressure to make hit records and maybe that was our idea to get away from that raw sound.  But we went back to it full force and we’re going to stick there. I’m liking it. It’s more like our roots, for sure.

How long have these songs kind of been in the process for and have some of them been lingering around for years?

Well Mike Kozak who was so important, the old drummer, he’s on three of these songs   because him and I wrote a lot of songs over the years. He was my principal lyric writer, and Kozak’s brilliant at it. I really wanted his footprint to be on the record, regardless. So one song all the way back, “Gotta Rock”, and that was recorded and denied to be on the record – it was supposed to be on Body Shots. And then it got released by our classic label in Canada, Unidisc, on a Best Of record and called it “Don’t Talk”. It’s one of these songs that was just.. it was horrendous but it’s out there, nobody knows it right now but it’s out there.  So “Gotta Rock”, that was one, Mike wrote three songs.

Most of the songs are brand new.  I started the ball rolling again right I said “we’re not going to wait, I’m not waiting we’ve got to do this record!” So I did, I brought five cuts to the table and we recorded them, and that’s when everybody jumped in because they thought I was just going to hog the whole record.  Charlie brought a couple songs and then Brian brought his songs. Brian’s singing is killer! How about the vocals!?

For being away so long are like wow that’s kind of the one of the highlights…

He’s been singing over the years, he didn’t quit singing. He definitely didn’t over-do it, and there’s something to be said that if he’s been singing for the last 40 years in the arena circuit singing rock that he would have lost a little bit, but he’s in great shape. And Brian writes classic easy, rock, hooky songs. He wrote the most poppy song on the record called “Can’t Stop Loving You”, which is getting a lot of attention when I speak to people, so it’s classic Brian. We all shared in the writing, and including Mike, we brought one outside writer in now a new lyricist named Jojo Garrisi. Jojo’s originally from Windsor, and this guy’s a steamroller. He wrote ” Rev Your Engines”, our newest single.

I like that one a lot and I like “Wonder”, and “Man of Vision”, which to me can sit up there with “Heartless World”.  

It’s kind of an extension of that.

I want to ask about the cover of “Man on the Silver Mountain”.  There’s this extended guitar intro, and I’m like When’s the riff going come in(?)

When’s the riff going to come(?) Lol. Really, you thought it was a little long!?  

I didn’t think it was long, it’s just to me when I hear that song I think of the riff right away.

It throws you off, puts you in a whole different vibe. In Europe, I got to talk about who’s doing this record too in the company so don’t let me forget… but in Europe, Khalil at Escape Music (our Pres), he didn’t know we were doing “Man On The Silver Mountain”, and obviously he’s been around it forever and he knows all these cats, he knew Ronnie James Dio, and stuff. And when he seen it – I sent him the list of songs, and he says “You can’t do that song.” “What do you mean?” “That’s my beloved Rainbow, nobody can do that song better.”  So, very dangerous trying that song, it’s so iconic. But what we did was, I think the mid-eastern guitar intro is pretty cool, it sets up a vibe, and then when the drums come in.. So what we did was put a whole new flair on the production, again Charlie Lambrick. He wrote that intro, a whole new fresh production on the guitars and maybe a little quicker. And Brian sang it just like Dio because you can’t sing it any better than Dio, but he did sing it really well.

That stands out for him because to me it’s like a trademark Dio/Rainbow song, you’ve almost got to do something a little different.

It’s a crap-shoot. People could have said “No this is shite”, but they didn’t so that’s cool. And we got a thumbs up from the music from the record company. By the way the record has worldwide distribution; it’s really promising.  We’re on Escape Music in Europe, the UK, and in southeast Asia. and we’re on the Deko / Warner label in North America.

Deco’s got a lot of good stuff on there.

They’re doing a hell of a job. The president at Deko is Charlie Calv, he plays in Angel. He knows what to do and how to do it and he’s on board, and I can’t thank him enough.

Unidisc is a Canadian company. They’ve picked up all the catalogs of Aquarius and a bunch of others from the early seventies. They reissue all this stuff.

I’m not in contact with them a lot. They do a nice job on the remastering and all that kind of thing, but they really don’t get involved with the bands at all.

So, you guys don’t get anything out of that obviously, right?

Well, we get a little bit, we get a lot of paperwork! (Lol), You seem to see very little checks in there, but there’s a lot of paperwork telling you where all the money went.

Who knows what happened back in the day, but when we broke up back in the day, we owed quite a bit of money to the company. There was an argument on where we owed it because we were kind of, for the company itself, they were sitting on so many fences, I don’t even know how legal it was. They were our management company. they were our record company and they were our promoters and it was all in-house. At the end of the day, I think the records always made money, the catalog that Unidisc owns now, but the managers were still pouring money into the band, which were kind of the same people sitting on other sides, both sides of the fence.  So, I think when it came to push and shove at the end and the band was finished, I think maybe that management, that management debt kind of snuck over to the record debt where they could recoup it against royalties. That’s my theory.

Would you ever consider doing what Blue Oyster Cult and Asia have done, where each band has done special nights and played the first album in full, the second album in full, the third…and they’ve recorded and released them?

Well, why not?  Yeah, for sure.

It would give you guys something to gain out of.

I have tried. Some of the songs, like the songs on On the Loose, the really heavy songs, and people conceive them as heavy, but when I hear them, I don’t hear them exactly how; they should have been heavier. George (Lagios) really wasn’t a rock producer, so there was a point in time where I was trying to put a compilation record together of all the heaviest songs Teaze did., that we wanted to re-do, put them on one record and put it out in Europe. It didn’t come to fruition, but I thought it would be a pretty cool idea. If you want to know what I mean, you would listen to Live at Liège and listen to “Ready to Move”, the opener, and then listen to the On The Loose version, and then you would know exactly what I’m talking about – how much heavier and how much energy it has than the On the Loose cut, you know!? Probably the On the Loose cut has lost a little bit of energy, because it was probably our 50th take or something, who knows!?  We weren’t virtuosos in the studio at that time, we were kids.

That’d be a cool idea for sure.

I’ve told Derek before, “tell Mark to play a full album, record it, and put it out.”

Well, the Live at Liège record was kind of the same thing. But it was all this, the idea was to reintroduce the band, because it had been so long, kind of the same principle, but yeah, I would love to be able to do that for sure – the more records, the better.

Do you think back then that, when you mentioned that it could have been heavier, that maybe the label wanted something that they could see as being radio-friendly during that time?

Absolutely. You know, a Teaze record always consisted of a few components, and one of them definitely is the harder edge, the faster rock that was ready to move, “Lady Killer”, “Boys Night Out”, “Flames Keep Growing”. There’s a million songs, and even on Body Shots, there was very heavy songs like “Calling All Nurses”, but it never was heavy because they kind of ripped the guitars out of that whole production. And that was probably the whole problem with Body Shots, our sound had changed so drastically.

You guys redid “Sweet Misery” on this album. Why is that? Obviously, it was the one that was a hit.

I think nostalgia. I think it’s a 50-50 so far on that one. That one has the most controversy, I think. Some people think it just doesn’t fit because the record is so heavy. Some other critics probably have said, “why do you want to relive that experience?” There was so much contention with the single when it first came out with Teaze, and it being so different than what we were, but it still was our most popular song. We were definitely happy. It was our hit song, and it was a terrific song. It just wasn’t really, it didn’t represent the band the way we wanted, and this was kind of a good idea to revisit it. Nostalgic, people know it, and put a different slant on it that maybe, you know, we just wanted to put a different slant on it, a little more melodic, not so bouncy, really a true ballad, and it’s kind of cool to end the record that way. That was the idea, to not put it in between other songs because we really wanted to kick butt on this record, and then at the end have a little nostalgic moment, a little kumbaya thing going on there, “Oh yeah, I remember that song by Teaze!?  Now it’s really a ballad, and it was cool because Brian sang it with his daughter, and that was a seller too, to hear the two sing together, so that was important to us.

At the time you guys recorded that one, way back, how natural did that come for you guys, or was there pressure to put on something like a ballad or something that could be a single?

Well, that song came about for that exact reason. We kind of were sitting there and it was getting close to the end of the record, we were probably 80 percent through, and the record company was listening to it and said, “I just don’t know if there’s a hit.” And then I’m sure that happens with a lot of bands, so in the 11th hour, Chuck brought this lick for “Sweet Misery”, which was very rough and kind of scatterbrained, and we put it together and it kind of ended up in the studio, and there really wasn’t an idea for it.  It was a song that was born in the studio, besides Chuck wrote it and Mike helped finish it,  but it was born in the studio, and hence all of a sudden we’re putting in a piano, and all the back-up vocals with the girl backup singers, and then it just took on a life of its own, and it was such a cool song, we couldn’t deny it, so we kind of just shoved it to the side, “well, it’s really not like Teaze,

One of our biggest mistakes we ever made was when we went out on our first tour with April Wine, which was one of our biggest, probably 35-40 cities of all the big arenas across Canada, we never played our hit song, which was really weird. That’s kind of a story I tell now, but we were just so adamant on rock, and then we kind of felt it was interfering with the show, because we were a high-energy rock band, so it was weird. I think a lot of bands have that kind of song. Yeah, that was the hit. As soon as it was released to CHUM, at that time, CHUM radio had probably 10 or 12 stations across the country, and as soon as they turned it on, it was, Wow! it just took off, so what do you do!?

Did you guys get much radio play with “Heartless World”?

Well, “Heartless World” is our next biggest tune. In those days, there was AM and FM, everything’s just generic now, everything’s the same, but “Sweet Misery” was an AM hit, and “Heartless World” was the FM hit. “Heartless World” is such a, you know, the vocal that Brian achieved on that song is just so – it’s for the ages. There’s just only certain songs like that, when “Child In Time” by Deep Purple, when Ian Gillan sings that. Songs like that, that put Brian into a whole different category with all them guys, Ronnie James Dio, And today he’s still got that voice, it’s incredible! We’re blessed that Brian still has that ability.

Well, that’s probably my favorite in the catalog, and obviously, because of that vocal and the strings you got in there and that….

The strings are funny. That song started on the On The Loose sessions, that’s “Sweet Misery”, and “Stay Here”, and that started there with George, and George was the one that brought in the strings, and we probably spent like 10 or 20 grand just on bringing in a section of the Montreal Symphony. And then when Myles finished that song, and it was on One Night Stands, and he was against all that, “You’re a guitar band, you’re going to be a guitar band, no keyboards, we’ll simulate keyboard parts on guitars.” And it was brilliant, because that’s what we were, we were a guitar band. But you do hear the strings in “Heartless World”, but they’re kind of buried, but at the end of the day, I guess when you spend 20k on some strings, you’ve got to put them somewhere.

They were also on that song, “Loose Change”, on One Night Stands, and you hear all those pizzicato, and those violins plucking and stuff, yeah, crazy, I don’t know, we were experimenting, the band was changing from album to album, we were growing, and yeah, we were still experimenting, we didn’t really have a handle on it, didn’t know exactly where we were going.

Did you guys have much input into the album covers back then?

And why so!? (ha)

Well, they’re not bad, I’m just saying, I know Aquarius had their own in-house…

Well, let’s start with the first one; the first one is crazy. The first one was done with a different company; that was the only album not done with Aquarius. That’s the one that was a demo, was done out of Toronto. We had our own label called Force One, it was distributed through London Records at the time, that went belly up. But that one – No, we had no say. It was pretty funny, because the guy who drew that record cover was a kind of a medical artist; he was drawing human body parts in for medical journals. And it’s a true story – he was dying at the time, and I think he was just really sedated, and it was one of the last things he ever did in his life, was do that album cover for our management. And when when people seen it, you know, we took a lot of bullying for that cover. People were calling us the Bay City, and I remember Brian seeing it for the first time, and his hair was black, and he had blonde hair, and he was just so devastated that his hair was black.

The rest of the covers, there was an art department at Aquarius Records, and Bob Lemm was an equal partner in Aquarius Records, and he did all the album covers for Teaze, and he did all of the Frank Marino-Mahogany Rush album covers, and many more covers for them…April Wine, of course.  So yeah, we had a say. On The Loose, the cartoon thing, I don’t know how that came about. The first two albums are both kind of cartoony. On The Loose – see where that is kind of like a billboard picture(?). That was supposed to pop out at the time, and they were going to make it like a hang up thing for marketing, and you’d hang it in your room, but it was too much money, and we never ended up doing it, and ended up with that.

One Night Stands – our idea, Body Shots was weird; we were playing with this idea about mannequins. We were going to take this cover of all these mannequins that were in this warehouse, or something, but it looked so gruesome, and it was kind of like death. I think the Beatles almost did something like that once too. We always used the mannequins, that was the idea about Body Shots; we were trying to make it our brand. And on stage we wanted to have mannequin light stands, and mannequin guitar stands, and they were cool, it was just an idea, a branding kind of thing that we were going to use.

They didn’t use the logo on Body Shots either.

No, because it was meant to look like that magazine, like it was a Playboy or something. We changed up the logo a few times over the years. There’s definitely that one, I think the Japanese came up with the one that that’s mostly used, the most famous one.  

The art on the last one, how much input did you guys have in that?

Oh, that’s all us. Actually, that thing on Live at Liège came up by our drummer, Mike Kozak, and he had the idea of it being a tattoo, that’s what it’s supposed to be, and it’s very cool. If somebody got a Teaze tattoo. That was the whole idea behind it. It was ours, and then he found a graphic artist who would draw it up, someone that did tattoos, and very cool, I liked it.

And then we were going to continue on with it on the new record, Rev Your Engines, the front cover was the back cover, and then we were going to continue using that tattoo. I think Queen did it one time, they put their brand – their coat of arms, on three records in a row.  And that was the idea, just to stick with that tattoo, that brand, but that didn’t fly either, and the back cover ended up the front cover.  I have a very good friend I’ve got to give a shout out to, his name is Chris Edwards, and he’s doing all this, and he’s kind of in the book business, and he’s got a Walkerville Publishing. He also did the videos with me, “Man of Vision”, and he did “Rev Your Engines”. We’ve done both videos together. He’s done both CDs, Big props to him, he’s really, really helped us out. Chris did the new one, Chris did Live at Liège. We’re working together. We’ve got a good little thing going on with this band. We’ve got everything happening. right, we’ve got people, I’m taking care of the managing, kind of, Charlie’s taking care of the production, the music, the arranging, we’re all writing songs.. I mean, it’s just a really complete band at this point. We have some fresh ideas with Jimmy and Charlie, and then we got Brian and me holding up the old school.

How much of the new album do you guys think you’re going to be playing live?

That’s interesting, we’re just getting there now.  The old set – the Live at Liège show, as much as it’s strong from front to back, not all bona fide hits. Teaze just didn’t have that in our catalog. I’m talking to you before I’m even talking to the band about this. I’m almost feeling like we should play the whole new record, and just go for it, and not be classic, just be mainstream, do what we’re doing now, and then maybe throw in the couple obvious ones, like “Heartless World”, or whatever.  Play the whole damn record! It might be an idea to consider. It’s not something a band would usually do, but in our case, with the 45 years, and the old catalog not all being bona fide hits, I’m thinking we have nothing to lose, all our path forward is with the new record. It might work; it could work.

It’s interesting, because these old bands that come out with new albums, and they go out and play one or two songs…

Well, that’s the conundrum. People don’t want to hear the new songs, some do, maybe you do, but in general, I think the majority just want to hear the hits. And if they’re getting chiseled on hearing some of their favorites for a new song, they might be pissed off because they want to hear all the old songs. And obviously, a lot of bands don’t have time to play all the songs that they’re known for. But I think it’s a strong album, just the way it sits, the sequence. If we did a show just with all that, and maybe throw in a couple like “Boy’s Night Out” and “Heartless World”, it might be a smoking show.

Do you have a bunch of shows lined up for the summer?

No, we took time off to do the record. The reason for doing the record is because the shows, we need more shows, obviously. We’ve been playing sporadically ever since we’ve been back together. That’s the long haul right there, we need to get out and work more. And it’s a crowded field; there’s a lot of deserving bands out there that are coming back, too, from our era, and there’s more coming back from even more recent eras. It’s getting more crowded, and the gigs are becoming less. The gigs are becoming more expensive, so for a place like Canada – it’s tough, to get from city to city. There’s not a lot of tours anymore, that is definitely the exception to the rule, there’s just a lot of weekends. There’s festivals, but when you fly into a festival, you just got to fly home, so anywhere you fly in Canada is like six grand for a band or something, and that’s economy, if you’re willing to fly economy, and we are, obviously, because we’re willing to do what it takes. But that’s the idea, we need to work more, a pivotal moment right now for the group, because the record really has to come through, the phones have to start ringing more. Thank God for Bernie at the Canadian Classic Rock Agency, he’s believed in us, he’s booked us, he’s put us on some great festivals, he got the ball rolling, and then the albums… Going to Europe for the first time was tremendous. Hopefully Europe, it’s a very easy place to play; you can keep the price down, you can go from country to country, and everything’s 100 kilometers from each other. You can just go there and kick it out, and maybe you make some noise. Then hopefully come back to Canada and tour, and everything will happen in 2026, because everything’s already done. So there’s going to be sporadic dates here and there, but…

 What do you still listen to, do you still follow, keep up on new stuff or old stuff, and what did you kind of grow up on?

Well, you try to keep up, but there’s just so much now, and you’re so busy with your own. We’re constantly busy now. Writing new songs, and I’m saying we need the next record in the can; we don’t have it yet, it’s kind of premature, but I don’t want to wait till someone says, “Hey, you did pretty good, but you need another record.” I like to be able to say, “Here it is!” Let’s go fast, let’s just keep pumping them out, that’s what you got to do.

In my day, well, all the Detroit bands, mostly. That’s the whole energy of Teaze, is Detroit, Michigan. That’s how we grew up; that’s our mentality on stage, that’s our mentality when we’re recording. My favorites were like Johnny Winter, Ronnie Montrose, Leslie West, and I loved the Allman Brothers. I love melodic stuff, and Teaze is very melodic in a lot of ways, in the harmony leads and all that, so that’s probably where that came from. Used to really love Dickie Betts and Dwayne Allman, which is kind of off the beaten path, and my all-time favorite was Johnny Winter as a rock and roll star. Johnny Winter had two lives – for a moment he was a rock and roll star, and for 80 percent of the career, he was just a blues man, and I loved his blues, but I loved his blues when it was rock and roll style, and he was just so cool and so flamboyant, I couldn’t get enough of the guy – especially when he was with Rick Derringer, they were kicking out some great rock, man, wow, yeah, I know,

I interviewed, what’s the name, Mark Farner there a couple months ago,

That’s one of Brian’s heroes. Grand Funk – definitely! Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, MC5, Brownsville Station, even goes back farther…

So, what’s next on the agenda as far as promoting?

Just going to get a feel for what’s going on, I really haven’t sat down with the record companies yet to see what they’re hearing, I know the interviews have been fantastic and the phones are ringing, so that’s the most important thing. I don’t know if it’s possible to get on mainstream radio, I’m not sure, but I’m hoping. It’s an important record for the future of the band, definitely. Got to get working, that’s the only way bands make money these days, you sure don’t make money on streaming.

Has there been discussion of a vinyl issue for this album?

Yeah, I’m always pushing for it. I guess they just got to see if it’s worthy. depends on the sales, the interest. Like I said, I didn’t talk to the company yet, but a lot of people refuse to buy CD, they want it on vinyl. They’re adamant about it, which is cool, I love to have vinyl, I love looking at that big thing, it’s a very cool to have, I’m always pushing for it. I would like to see a limited print for sure, but we’re not there yet.

*TEAZE play a Free show, August 22nd, in Leamington, Ontario https://www.facebook.com/events/2032039390753157

LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61584334695250

https://www.dekoentertainment.com/inthesquare/teaze

https://www.escape-music.com/newrelease.htm

https://citizenfreak.com/artists/104026-teaze

https://www.canadianclassicrock.com/artist-roster/teaze

*Photos (galleries), from Windsor, Ontario, 2022, courtesy of Stay Vibrant Photography. https://www.instagram.com/cheeziethechiweenie/