Windsor’s Teaze goes full throttle with long-awaited comeback Rev Your Engines
Nearly 50 years after first emerging from Windsor’s rock scene, Teaze is turning the amp back up to 11 with its new album, Rev Your Engines.
Rev Your Engines, the band’s first release since 1980’s Body Shots, officially launched worldwide on May 22 to much acclaim. Featuring founding members Brian Danter on vocals and bass, and Mark Bradac on guitar, along with guitarist Chuck Lambrick and drummer Jim Bonventre, the new offering blends the group’s classic hard rock roots with a modern production style.
For Bradac, the album represents far more than a reunion project. It’s injecting a little nitro into their catalogue of ‘70’s bangers for the modern audience. “The only path forward for Teaze was new material because we’d been away for so long,” explains. “A lot of bands coming back can rely on catalogs of hit songs, but we needed something new to push us forward.”
Early reactions to the album have already exceeded the band’s expectations. “The reviews have honestly been crazy over the top,” states Bradac. “We keep seeing scores like 10 out of 10.”
Teaze’s energy can be traced directly back to the music culture of their youth—where the band first formed during the 1970s. “The Teaze energy is really just the Windsor-Detroit energy,” Bradac said. “We grew up on bands like Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, and Bob Seger.”
Growing up in Windsor meant being immersed in Detroit rock radio and a thriving local live music scene. “As musicians, we definitely heard more American radio, Michigan radio, more than anything else,” reveals Bonventre. “The scene was really good back then. We had tons of places to play and could work six nights a week without ever leaving the city.”
Bradac believes that Detroit influence gave Teaze a sound that stood apart from many Canadian bands of the era. “We were a breath of fresh air in the Canadian music landscape because of where we came from,” he says. As the band’s reputation grew beyond Windsor, Teaze soon found itself navigating the highs and struggles of the music industry.
One of Bradac’s most memorable moments came during a turning point in the late 1970s after years of grinding it out on the road. “We’d been slugging it out on the road for a couple years, we were broke, frustrated and unhappy with our management situation,” he recalls.
The band arranged a meeting in Toronto with representatives from Aquarius Records and Donald K. Donald Productions at the Windsor Arms Hotel, unaware of who else would be attending. “When they escorted us into the private room, sitting there were Mick Jagger and Ron Wood from The Rolling Stones,” says Bradac.
At the time, The Rolling Stones were secretly preparing for their famous El Mocambo concerts in Toronto. “We went from being broke and in rock-and-roll despair to suddenly sitting with the biggest rock band in the world having drinks,” remembers Bradac.
Teaze eventually signed with Capitol Records and toured internationally, including Japan, before the original version of the band ended abruptly. Still, Bradac never believed the story was truly over. “I always thought there was something magical about the band,” he explains. “When we got back together in 2019, that energy was still there.”
The reunited lineup brought together longtime friendships and lifelong fans of the original band. “Jimmy and Chuck are the perfect guys for this band,” Bradac said. “The band feels beautiful right now.”
For Bonventre, joining Teaze carried personal significance. “I’m not joking when I say I used to dream about being on stage with Teaze,” he said.
That chemistry became the foundation for Rev Your Engines, which combines classic arena-rock energy with updated songwriting and production. “I think the album has a lot of the same energy Teaze had before, except the sound is a little more modern,” Bonventre said.
The album’s first single, “Man of Vision,” was followed by the energetic title track “Rev Your Engines.”
A striking moment in the album hits when the band does a sizzling cover of Rainbow’s “Man on the Silver Mountain.” One of early metal’s most iconic songs, it also served as one of the first songs the band learned when they formed in the ‘70’s. “We modernized the music a bit,” says Bradac. “Brian sang it very faithfully because you can’t really improve on Ronnie James Dio.”
The album also revisits “Sweet Misery,” one of Teaze’s best-known songs, in a dramatically different form. “‘Sweet Misery’ was probably the most contentious song Teaze ever recorded, but it was also our biggest song,” Bradac said. “This time we stripped everything down to piano and cello and turned it into a beautiful ballad.”
Now, with the album released and gaining traction internationally, Teaze is ready to take it on the road. After decades away from the spotlight, these hometown rockers are pushing full speed into a next chapter.
