“No – one writes Christmas songs any more, in the 80’s everyone had one…even Sting!” So says Darren Arthurs, the man behind a cool little single called Christmas Day.
Darren wrote the song last year, and put it on the back burner. This year he returned to the idea and made a demo and put it to the band that he plays in, The Empty Chairs, but with everyone’s schedules being so busy it looked like it would have to wait again. So the logical answer was to just record it as a solo project.
“When writing it I thought, what is it that makes a good Christmas song? The two classic sounds seem to come either from the 50’s crooner era or the energetic pop of the 80’s. Hopefully what I have managed to bring to the song is the style of the former and the infectiousness of the latter.”
But the idea of recording a single was more than just about the drive to do so, it is driven by a great cause. Darren approached Mike Beckley who runs a recording studio to help him turn the demos into a finished song. Mike works closely with Ipsum a charity which helps tackle issues such as addiction recovery through music therapy and with the charity’s director Julie Mattinson giving the idea her full support idea that the single could be used to raise money and awareness for the Ipsum’s work seemed the perfect match.
And Christmas Day really is the perfect blend of old school classic, infectious 80’s fun and the timeless qualities that make Christmas music last…as long as it is confined to the proper slot in the calendar. Lyrically is sparkles with that innocence that we rarely see in music anymore and musically it blends simple melodies with deft musical touches, making it the perfect sing-along but with enough musicality and gravitas to make it work on a creative level too. Hey, Christmas music has standards too! Just ask Shakin’ Stevens! So in short. It’s great. You should buy it!
The single was recorded thanks to free time donated by the studio, Darren played most of the instruments himself, Mike provided the guitar work and Sue Hammond is the additional vocal you can hear. And with only four hours to get the job done there was a real focus on the work at hand. The result is not only rather good, it’s all for rather a good cause.
You can find, listen to and purchase the single at the following sites with all money raised going to Ipsum. Do the right thing, after all…it’s Christmas!
The song is available for download via the band site – http://www.theemptychairs.com and there are links to the Bandcamp page via this page https://www.facebook.com/theemptychairs/
