I consider myself a pretty positive and happy person, but in comparison to Alex Tea I am more like Larry David. I came across Alex Tea and his group KIWI a few weeks ago. When I first listened to his music, I closed my eyes and pictured myself on a beach somewhere drinking coconut water with cute naked children running around me. #purebliss. Seriously though, Alex Tea reminds me of the late and great Bob Marley… his soothing voice,  his happy tunes and positive messaging. I went to Alex Tea’s apartment and studio, we listened to music and I learned all about him, his love for music and capoeira, his green thumb and his hobby of foraging mushrooms.

Is Alex Tea your real name? It’s actually Alex Tyshkov, it’s a Russian name. It started as just the letter T… then I started using Tea, because tea is a mix of different things and it’s what I am and who I am. Music and art, expression is kind of like an herbal mix for me.

Can you tell me about your music and how it started? It started I guess in the womb, my mom is a classical pianist so I grew up listening to a lot of music, playing music and going to music school. I went to music camps when I was a kid. Got into writing in my teens but didn’t get too serious about making moves in music until my early 20’s which is about 10 years ago and since then I’ve been pushing hard. I found myself really connected to roots music, acoustic music, african music and through that I found reggae and soul…

What was your musical influence when you grew up? I guess early on, the stuff that I was born into… early on I was into rock. My early favorites were Guns and Roses, Nirvana …. those kinds of bands. Then I got exposed to music from other parts of the world. The beatles where always and still are my favorite band… I discovered Jimmy Hendrix and 60’s counterculture music when I was maybe 16 or 15. Just at that right time, I got into that psychedelic stuff; folk music and Bob Dylan. I guess from there it was a natural progression to now.

Can you tell me about KIWI? Well Kiwi is about 10 years old as a project, it used to be called Kiwi the child. It was a name that was a tribute to a name of a kid. Two of the people who were original members of the band had children coincidently with the nickname Kiwi…. so kiwi the child is like a tribute to coincidence. Long since those members are gone, it didn’t make sense so we shortened it to Kiwi. Kiwi is a universally acknowledged word… the only place where it is difficult is with New Zealanders because Kiwi is their nickname! Kiwi means music. So you can’t go wrong with that.

Kiwi was inspired by my early travels to Brazil which since about 2003 have been a running theme in my life. Between the people who I know there, the capoeira which is a huge thing I am involved with… that kind of started this feeling that I wanted to write reggae music… I don’t know why I was in Brazil and how it came together like that but it was really there in my early travels that I started feeling like “Man I want to make reggae music, and sing in English and Portuguese” and start bringing this capoeira influences that I was into at the time. I instantly wanted to look into ways to start fusing that into the music and overtime it started working.

What inspires you to write music? It really varies. Sometimes a song will come to me. Sometimes its a super ADD thing where I will have constantly dropping different ideas about different things… and then something will come out of that. It’s usually a swirl of ideas that comes together.

Are you a full-time musician? I am a musician and I run a capoeira school downtown and I also work with Autistic people. Currently only working with one person…. most of my time is music and capoeira… I also do some art.

 

When I come around. What is that song about? It was inspired by a tune by Gilberto Gil and its like a simple country love song. When I come around… A lot of my songs have a lamenting quality about them but I try to find a positive in difficult things. So my songs will go through a difficult emotion and then finding a resolution.

Are you all from Jersey City? I’ve been here 7 years, a bunch of people in the band are in and out of Jersey City.

How do you like living in Jersey City? I really like it, I didn’t thing I would be built for urban life because I am more of a country boy. I grew up in the suburbs, I was born in Russia… I moved around a lot when I was a kid.. but when I was 12 I lived in Livingston which is like the woods compared to here. I always like nature and felt more of a kinship to that then the city… but Jersey City is sweet. I lived downtown at first and it didn’t quite workout but when I moved to the outskirts… its nice to have a garden and space.

What is your favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I am always in the studio here so when I go out its often centered around places near the capoeira space. I love the 58 Coles Scene. A lot of artists and musicians come through there..There is a music studio there… The grassroots community, they are wonderful people. I am not much of a bar guy but I like Lucky 7’s and all those local places.

What about food? I love to cook, I am super into cooking for myself. When I do go out to eat I like the Falafel spots. The nicer restaurants, I will go there once and try to make some for myself. I am really into foraging, so I will go out to find gourmet mushrooms.

Where do you go foraging for gourmet mushrooms? It’s a secret. If I told you…

You would have to kill me? I would have to feed you to the mushrooms.

No ones ever said that to me before.

When is your next JC gig? Probably late September

Can you tell me about this green thumb of yours? I just love plants. I am more connected to plants than animals. and I’ve been trying to work on a garden in the back for a bunch of years. We’ve grown some food….

So you seem like you are a very happy and positive person. Where does that come from? I live in a humble state right now. I recently broke my ankle and it put me in a financial hold. It put a lot of things in perspective… Generally I am an optimistic person but especially after getting injured and recovering I’ve come to appreciate everything that I have. My life is full of music and children and really great stuff. I feel like I am super blessed to be doing what I am doing. I also feel like if I work hard enough everything will come around and I will be able to thrive off of it.

I am happy because I feel so fortunate for the great people who I work with and the different musicians that come into my projects that I feel super honored to be working with and capoeira is a constant inspiration. I’ve been a vegetarian for 13 years and that makes me happy.