20 +3 (Christmas Again?!)

20 +3 (Christmas Again?!)

After almost a year of inactivity, we came back to say... Merry Christmas.... Again?!

It finally felt right to "set the wheels in motion" as they say.

Domm was very keen on the idea of a Christmas EP last year (2022), and with a lot of my work, whether it be with the band or my YouTube, I always like to do something for Christmas, so I figured the best way to get back in the swing of things would be to do another little Christmas EP.

While not as "social" as the previous Christmas EP, I think the music variety of this one is pretty interesting.

Hurry Up Nick

I opened the EP with a crazy jazzy number that I wrote, I'm not sure why but there were a couple of weeks in November 2023 when I wanted to make a few Jazzy songs, and this was one of them.

This is also the first time we used some session musicians.

Domm and I talked about trying session musicians towards the beginning of 2023, and how we wanted to make our own "Pet Sounds" style wall of sound.

Although this came across more like a jazz club house band on speed, haha.

The lyrics were just my observations on various topics haha. 

I remember once seeing Santa flying through the sky, oddly enough there was a helicopter above him at all times.

Christmas Message (In Tune)

I wasn't sure how to present this year's message without Domm being here, he was the social "showman" after all.

Then Rokudai gave me an idea, we should just present our messages as little song snippets, a style we've used in the past on songs like Colors (In Theory).

So I just recorded mine while hammering away on my electric piano, Rokudai recorded his and played a bit of Silent Night on his recorder, and for Domm I used a snippet of a demo from mid-2022.

(I'm Having) A Toasty Little Christmas

I love the chords of this one, perhaps some of the most addicting chords I've ever written lyrics to.

In late November 2023, I thought it would be funny to write a song about a guy who burns down his house because he bought the wrong kind of bulbs for his Christmas tree lights (they overheat or something).

The inspiration came from a certain lamp in my house that has a warning sticker that says "RISK OF FIRE IF WRONG WATTAGE OF BULB USED".

I was originally going to sing the whole thing, but I wanted Rokudai to at least have one "lead" vocal on the EP.

Rokudai was very busy around the time of the sessions for this EP, so he wasn't able to write a song of his own. 

S.S. Holiday (One Year Later)

This is more or less the "prototype" version of The S.S. Holiday.

I originally wrote it as a NASCAR parody, since many of my friends are Appalachians and they are... er, well, "passionate" about their NASCAR.

Later, I reused the melody while jamming with Domm, and eventually, we came up with the whole S.S. Holiday thing.

The vocals used on this version of the song are from when I first showed Domm the song in its original form.

I thought my original acoustic guitar track was horrible, so I "spruced up" the backing track with an "all in one" synth that I found recently, and I really liked how it turned out.

In the end, I really liked how it turned out, it was like all three of us were really together again.

With this year finally over, hopefully, there is something new, and positive, on the horizon.