Lockdown Life: Tee Peters

A true modern-day renaissance man, Tee Peters is a multimedia creative first picking up the metaphorical microphone in 2015. His music and other creative ventures have become a staple across the homes of a dedicated community and fanbase in both London, Nottingham and elsewhere.

He first appeared on BBC East Midlands in 2018 and has since appeared everywhere one would look including being played by Jamz Supernova on Future Bounce. From doing film jobs on behalf of Lil Pump to producing an O2 funded documentary on mental health, Peters does it all. However, like all of us, his life has drastically changed given the onset of the global pandemic. We caught up with him to see how he’s doing.

The man, the myth, the legend. Tee Peters, for those that may not know of you, who are you?

I’m just a guy who makes stuff and documents everything I learn. I’m a student of experience. I’m a documenter, of what I learn in life. I never learned as much inside school and university and stuff like that. Instead I experience the best of worst in life and try to absorb all I can. ‘Things’ happen all the time. I do not think I’m the guy that can easily be defined, however. It’s quite fluid.

In terms of my content, I ‘just’ make music, videos, I’m trialling being a radio host amongst a couple other stints in photography and other camera work, podcasts too. I’ve gained confidence in a lot of things. You could say I’m always looking for the next frontier.

My biggest defining work is my annual project called ‘Working Season’. It’s a music-based project, but not just music though. It came out of conversations with other artists with quite differing philosophies regarding the production of music and a couple other things. It involves making consistent music content for a extended period of time until there's a full body of work out of it. It's recurring project that goes against the grain of the majority of music and the industry and in all honesty, it’s me taking my stand against the rigid structures of what it means to be a part of the industry. It’s a lifestyle. And the consistency helps because it means people cannot forget about me.

The elephant in the room, in the world more like, is the onset of COVID-19 how has this entire situation been for you? How do you as an artist, cope?

Nobody actually tells you that you’re allowed to have a break, and oh trust me I know how to take a break, you'll see me playing Apex Legends online but equally so I may disappear from my console and work for days on end.

In a way this entire situation could be seen as refreshing as far as creativity goes but of course equally we cannot ignore the dire situation the world is in. It has allowed for me, a time of reflection to think about what matters most to me. With regular work or school, your brain has time to forget the deeper worries in life and you can focus on your tasks at hand. Now being at home I do tend to worry about my family, not seeing my family, "am I sick? can I see them?" You really get into what matters most. I’m not about testing friendships as I’ve seen others proclaim they want to do on the internet. However, given this time at home, I am becoming more and more aware of some friendships that I could perhaps put some more effort in. I’ve been locked in to what I care about. The foundation of being an artist and creating in this pandemic is keeping my people close to my heart.

Let’s say we give your discography to an alien, could they tell or pinpoint when the lockdown occurred?

Yeah this is quite easy, one of the first things I did was create a track, ‘Working Season Part 1’, and that’s literally about coronavirus. But I wouldn’t say the sound would show that… (he trails off). Now when I think about it, there have been similar messages or vibes that come through all my music. I’m not the best lyricist or a great singer, but you always know a Tee Peters song. When you hear my first song and my last song, the quality would increase but ultimately it’s always a piece of myself I’m leaving on the track. I want to say my music, and more so during this pandemic, has become more effortless, it’s part of my routine. If anything, being ‘locked in’ has helped, to an extent

Post lockdown, what is happening for Tee Peters?

I hope everything I have been ‘locked in’ with would have grown a bit. I hope the seeds I have just sown would grow. Whether we are talking about familial relationships or my music or even taking care of myself during my breaks hopefully the virus is avoided as best as possible and things in the world of Tee Peters have improved.

I do think, that there could be some things that that I have gained and could only have gained exclusively through conditions like what we are living in. I'm grateful because I cannot avoid the fact that this entire situation has been terrible for a lot of people. In my life, I’ve been blessed enough to see the light at the end of it, to an extent. This situation has taught me to take time to learn about a healthier lifestyle. It has made me think about the frail and weaker and take them into consideration a lot more. This has really humbled me; I realise what’s important. I’m not going to lie, lockdown seemingly has made me lose a couple people, but I’ve gained others I never knew I had. I even found the time to go through my entire following list and dedicate a voice note to each and every one of them personally asking them how things were going for them and showing them my tracks, which could help them. I gained the time to engage with people who I love and love me.

Instead of trying to gain something new, in the conventional sense, as an artist creating during a pandemic, I’ve been able to look at what I already have. I encourage others to do the same.

Tee Peters, who are you?

I’m just an artist trying to build himself into a good person. I am a person trying to influence others for the good. I want to tell others, to be honest, with themselves, and others. Look at what you have before trying to grab more and show love.

Be sure to check out Tee's other work!  Instagram | YouTube | Twitter