Background and Production
After the 2004 release of Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994-2000, Powderfinger took a hiatus, and several members played in the side projects Drag and The Predators. Fanning decided to work independently and acted on direction he felt unable to explore as a member of Powderfinger. Some of his inspiration was derived from a will to see if he was capable of recording a solo album, considering what he viewed as his limited guitar playing abilities; compared to bandmates Darren Middleton and Ian Haug. The distance from the band, coupled with the more relaxed writing process for Tea & Sympathy helped Fanning to unwind from the stress leftover from 10 years working recording and touring with Powderfinger.
Fanning wanted to create a politically oriented album with which he could attack then Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, following Howard's 2004 election victory over Mark Latham. However, the death of Fanning's brother from cancer in 2002, coupled with the end of a twelve-year relationship saw him steer the album in a different direction. Fanning explained that after going through "a pretty weird time in the past twelve months", he did not intend to talk about his experiences, but to express them through music. The motivation for some songs came from the 2005 Big Day Out; disappointment with the antisocial nature of the event and the heavy metal music played spurred him to "make music that was the opposite of that".
Fanning worked with producer Tchad Blake and was funded by record label Dew Process. Sessions for the album began in February 2005 when Fanning and several other musicians recorded tracks at Blake's Brisbane studio. Four of these—"Not Finished Just Yet", "Believe", "Wash Me Clean", and "Hope & Validation"—appeared on the album after being mixed by Blake. The other tracks were recorded and mixed at Real World Studios near Bath, England. In Bath, Fanning worked with musicians including Jerry Marotta, Keith Duffy, and John Bedggood. While writing Fanning listened to music of guitarists Lightning Hopkins, Tom Petty, and singer-songwriter Gillian Welch, who all influenced his work. "I'd love to play guitar like that, but I simply don't have the skill to do it", said Fanning of Hopkins' work.
The album's title comes from a saying which Fanning explained to The Age as "you offer someone tea and sympathy, you sit down with them, have a cup of tea and you just talk." He noted that there is a credit on an album by The Rolling Stones for the provision of "tea and sympathy". The album cover photography and album inlay photography is by Ami Barwell
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