It Wouldn't Be Christmas (Without You) . . .
As we are fast approaching Christmas here, hopefully you have had a chance to check out our Christmas song "It Wouldn't Be Christmas (Without You)". I thought I'd take a moment and share a funny little story about how we ended up writing and recording our very own Christmas song.
For the last five years since we first started working together, Jimmy has been saying - "Hey, we should write a Christmas song". Like clockwork, every year starting around August - he starts in with it. So with as prolific as we are as songwriters, why did it take five years to write one?
Well, I'm afraid that's my fault. Truth be told, I've never been a big fan of Christmas music for some reason. I do like some of the classics and even some of the new, modern day Christmas songs that have come out, but in general - I'm not a fan and just never envisioned participating in it myself.
I definitely would never be willing to record an album of Christmas covers and I've always thought to myself when Jimmy brought up writing one each year that if we ever did one it would have to be different from what everyone else does. It would have to be extremely good and not cheesy, as a lot of those types of song are in my opinion.
Anyway, every year he pushes for one and every year I say "Yeah" and purposely put it out of my mind and hope the hell he forgets about it, knowing full well that one day the time will come and I won't be able to get out of it. lol
Well, that day finally came. This year, he was even more adamant about it and kept on it and I thought oh shit, he's not gonna let it go this year is he?
I guess I was afraid I couldn't write a Christmas song as good as I can write other stuff, I don't know. It was a mental block or something, but in any case I quickly got the feeling that he had caught on to my method and wasn't gonna let me get away with it this time.
So one evening I get an email with an attachment. It was Jimmy saying he came up something that could possibly work perfect for our Christmas song. I thought Great!
He had the title and the music, but no lyrics or concrete melody line, aside from the line - "It wouldn't be Christmas (without you)" itself. Attached was the demo.
Okay, fine. I'll check it out I thought. The worst that could happen is I can't come up with anything to contribute to it, or maybe it turns into a non Christmas song. I knew it would be good, just for the sheer fact that he never comes up with anything that isn't great.
Upon the first listen I was convinced and sold on the idea. It was different, it was cool and it was very inspiring to me. Right then I knew my fears of not being able to contribute something substantial was unfounded. Still, I wanted my contribution to be every bit as great as his already was, so I didn't jump right in. I let it simmer for several days and just listened to what he had several times and relaxed about it. On the demo he had a programmed drum pattern, Percussion, acoustic guitars and an outstanding bass line. The whole song was basically there, musically, for the most part. The first thought that came to mind was 'Tequila Christmas'. This wasn't going to be a traditional, snowing outside scene. This was more a warm Christmas in the tropics type feeling. It had a real latin feel, which was really cool and I liked it a lot. It reminded me of something the Eagles or Jimmy Buffet would do. How could we lose?
About a week after I received the demo I sat down feeling really inspired. That day I had been thinking a lot about what Christmas means to me, what I've heard Jimmy talk about that it means to him and also, what I observe in everyone else around the holidays. If you think it's easy to think about Christmas when it's the first week of September and it's still 100 degrees out, you'd be wrong to say the least. If you want a song written, recorded and ready for release in time for the holidays - then that's pretty much when you have to start doing it.
The lead vocal on it, like all my vocals is the scratch track. I grab a mic, hold it in my hand and sing, thinking I'm gonna later do a proper set up and technically better performance and finish it off later correctly. Wrong. On our album 'Life Happens Here' I certainly tried. I did later get a better, proper set up and I did re-sing everything and it was technically better but, it was lifeless. All the character, emotion and feel was gone. So my scratch tracks ended up being the finals. Flaws and all, but hey - I will trade technically better, for a performance that makes me feel something every time, hands down. The sincerity of the performance means much more than anything else. At least to me.
This time though, I didn't think that I would actually be doing the lead vocal on it in the end. I thought I would write the lyrics and melody and Jimmy would re-sing it. So as usual, I made my job when mixing later much harder by just grabbing the closest mic and singing as I wrote it.
The song was so good and inspiring I had the whole first verse, pre-chorus and melody in one pass. I then quickly sent that over to Jimmy to see if I was on track, or not. I had a feeling I was and sure enough, he loved it. Okay, on to the next verse.
The second one didn't come as lightning fast as the first, after all - Once I had the first half I had to take it someplace and not just rehash the first verse over again with different words, yet I wanted to keep a similar theme on the pre-chorus while tying in New Years Eve too, since it's such a close part of it all. Within' a half hour though what you hear was done.
Next, Jimmy suggested that we repeat the first verse at the end. Then we had Jim Riley put the real Drums on it and we had Mike Walter sing harmonies on it. We kept the original percussion, acoustic guitars and Bass that Jimmy had and he added additional harmony vocals. Then I finished the song off with the horn section - Sax and Trumpet.
As I had said, I fully expected that Jimmy was gonna sing this one, but when I mentioned it he said "No, no, your voice is perfect for it. Let's leave it as it is". And so it was.
I then mixed and mastered it for release.
All in all, if you put it all together - the whole song was written, recorded, mixed and mastered in a total of five days. I must say, I'm impressed with what we did. It's one of my favorite Christmas songs and one of my favorite songs we've written. We write every imaginable way you can think of. This time was the first time we weren't sitting in the same room together, for at least some of it and I think it's the first where Jimmy wrote all the music and I just wrote the lyrics and melody.
Once it was copy-written and registered with our publishing company - It didn't take long and we were notified of the intent for the song to be licensed for a movie. Now how these things work for those who don't know is - It doesn't mean that it will definitely be in a movie, it just means that a music supervisor for a movie project has selected it for a movie that they are working on and we had to be notified of that to grant our permission to license it to them should they choose to use it in the final cut of the project. We know nothing else other than that we granted permission and if they use it we'll definitely know all about it. If they choose not to in the end, we'll undoubtedly hear nothing more of it. We are assuming at this point since it's a holiday song for probably a holiday themed film, that it's been cut from whatever project it was since Christmas is a week away. Still, the fact that a notice of intent was given on it says a lot about the song. It's great that it made it that far and it's a good sign for the future.
The song turned out really well and is sure to grow in popularity in future years as more people are exposed to it. The video we had made for it is right on the money and definitely my favorite that we've done. So far, we've gotten a tremendous reaction to the song. Not bad for a song I was so reluctant to write in the first place. Go figure lol
It's a great way to cap off an eventful and productive year, as we look forward to a new year and the start of a new decade. One of which we hope we'll be a big musical part of.
In January, we start our next record along with probably five or six non album singles to come. A remixed and remastered, re-release of 'Life Happens Here'. A couple new videos with us in them and some live shows, possible tours and so much more. We're gonna start the new year and decade off more focused, productive and determined than ever before. In the mean time - Enjoy "It Wouldn't Be Christmas (Without You)". Share it with your family and friends. As always, thank you so much for all your support and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Be safe and let the ones you love know just how important they are to you. Be grateful, that's what it's all about . . .
- Bret
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