Christmas Joy

 

The tune for this song was actually the very first tune I ever wrote, way back when I was just eleven years old! Back then I used to play it at a much faster tempo, but because of the simplistic chords that made it sound quite cheesy (hopefully in it's slowed-down form it's that delighful, cozy Christmassy kind of cheesy!)

 

This song also used to have a completely different set of lyrics (it was originally called 'Bringing Out Christmas') but I re-wrote them earlier this year when I decided I wanted one of the double singles I released to have a Christmas/New Years theme. Even though the new lyrics aren't exactly ground-breaking, they're sweet and sincere and I think they fit the melody pretty well.

 

When we were arranging this song, my main aim was to try and differentiate it from my previous song 'The Yellow Umbrella', which has a similar tempo and feel. To do this we added a banjo, a violin and viola melody, and the obligatory Christmas bells! It feels very strange to hear this melody that I've lived with for almost two decades in it's final form, but I'm very pleased with it.

 

(All The Best For) New Years

There are hundreds of Christmas songs out there, but as far as I know there aren't many songs which are specifically about New Years Eve (offhand, the only one I can think of is Abba's 'Happy New Year'). To remedy this, I decided to write a big, uplifting sing-along anthem - the kind of song you could belt out with a group of friends as you're watching the minutes tick down to midnight!

 

To get that big sound I was after, we piled on everything - lots of layers of vocals, lashings of guitars, stadium-sounding drums, and even a saxophone solo and a children's choir at the end! (The children's voices are actually just me and my producer Joe's voices sped up to make them higher! And yes, the similarity to the melody the children's choir sings at the end of Wizzard's 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' is intentional!)