It’s Christmas time again was originally written written way back in 2021, but I’m now proud to announce its completion and release.
I’ve always wanted to write a song about Christmas, or more specifically about the joy of kids at Christmas, of waiting for Santa, building snowmen, and sledging till sundown. Of course, a Christmas song has a very tight release window, which I’ve missed for the last 3 years due to work and the chaotic Christmas build up.
Fast forward to 2024 and as the kids got older, I was starting to panic that I would miss out on the opportunity of having a song out there, for them, a kind of musical message in a bottle captured in time forever.
Here’s the very rough first live take from back in 2021.
Having a songwriting deadline is never a good thing. It doesn’t promote a relaxed vibe needed for recording, so I procrastinated with blaming and replacing equipment, even moving over to a condensor mic for the first time to try and alleviate the harsh, compressed-sounding vocals that have plagued recent recordings and killed my enthusiasm. With everything finally in place and no excuses left, I got to work.
You may notice I’ve credited my son Luke in the video, that’s because when writing the song I really wanted a child’s input into the lyrics, rather than my own biased and cynical observations. I wanted it to be about them and for them.
Recording music always takes you down unexpected paths. In this case my intention was for the song to be a gentle ballad but in practice it really needed something extra in the form of an overdriven Les Paul and even some lead work right at the end, so this was the first run out for my Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60’s with my Strat covering the cleans.
Anyway, here is the finished article. Hope it get’s the message across and hope you enjoy it.
Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Equipment used: iPad, Garageband DAW, Presonus iOne USB Audio Interface, Garageband Guitar amp and Mooer GE Labs Guitar apps, Fender Player Strat for the clean parts, Epiphone Les Paul 60’s Standard for the overdrive, Stagg Bass, Behringer C1 condensor mic.