Reflections on Christmas Music
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Podsafe for Peace
Today Matthew Ebel reflected on a Christmas song that was produced and distributed as a project called "Podsafe for Peace." The song "If Everyday Were Christmas" was written by Orlando Pagan and Slau. It was first played on the Daily Source Code in 2005. Adam Curry liked it so much that he spearheaded the Podsafe for Peace project so that many independent artists around the world could participate. Proceeds from sales of the song went to UNICEF.
I was fortunate to be part of the project. At the time I didn't know how much to provide for the tune, so I simply provided some harmonies for the chorus. Regardless, it was a great project and I was excited to play a part. Slau provided the structure and a piano track for each participating musician to use as they recorded their tracks to submit for the overall production. We submitted them to him and he produced the final track. It received a tremendous amount of interest and is still being played on podcasts this year.
Slau also reflected on this project and gives a fantastic story and background about it all happened on his recent episode of Sessions with Slau. You can hear how he connected with the many talented musicians and vocalists that participated in the song.
I can't believe it has been four years since we did this song. Want to hear it? You can find it at the end of Slau's episode or you can get your own copy at PodsafeforPeace.org.
Christmas the Whole Year Through
The song included in this post, however, is from a completely different project. The mission, however, was much the same. Musicians from all around the world working together to create a song for the holiday in 2008. It is the second effort brought together and created by talented UK musician Djai Skjellerup.
Djai brought together many musicians known to fans in the virtual world Second Life. His earlier effort, Get It Together, was so successful that a holiday song seemed to be a perfect next step. Each musician did the same as what was done in the Podsafe for Peace effort. Djai provided a basic track and the musicians provided instrumentation and vocals for the song. Toby Lancaster was key in helping to produce the final versions of the track. He certainly had a challenge put to him to merge and sync all the different formats, sounds, timings, and tonalities of the submissions.
I was fortunate to be able to provide bass and synth-bells. (You HAVE to have bells in Christmas songs, right?). I didn't sing on this one (but did sing on Get It Together).
The wonderful thing about "Christmas the Whole Year Through" is that it is available to anyone to download and share. Please do. And be sure to visit the web site to learn about all of the musicians involved last year.
Merry Christmas
It is nice to reflect back on the 2005 effort -- and that from last year -- as I consider how I might finish my own music projects. I have been working for so long on my solo effort. It might be time to actually enlist the efforts of my worldwide musician circle to get my project done. I fully intend to have this project finished and released early in 2010, though. It's been much too long in the works.
I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and hope you discover great prosperity this coming year.
