My new album “Best Christmas Songs Ever” has been way more than just my yearly personal recording project; it has been a year-long journey of seeing how far I can push myself creatively.
It started last Christmas Eve, when I wrote “Don’t Mess with the Cookies for Christmas” because my Grandma wanted to change up her famous cookie recipe. The song practically wrote itself. So I wrote a few more: “I Want That Jingle Jangle”, “It Feels Like Christmas” and “Santa Wants a Ho Ho Ho.” I thought “Dang, these are the Best Christmas Songs Ever!”, and “Whoa, that’d be a cool album title!” Lo-and-behold, the www.bestchristmassongsever.com domain name was available for purchase. I was extremely excited because not only was it a cool idea, but the marketing potential behind the name was so perfect!
A few days before New Year’s Eve, my friends Mason Douglas, Kim Gipper and I went on a road trip. I told them about my Christmas album (at that point, an EP), and we wrote five more songs on the way out to North Carolina: “Santa Still Believes”, “Bob the 10th Reindeer”, “Elf U”, “Snow Means Yes” and “The Reindeer Song!”. Suddenly I had a full album on my hands.
I brought Mason in as a co-producer, and we started recording in April 2011 at my studio (Prime Cut Studio). Over the next couple of months, I hired two of my favorite players in Nashville, Rodger Morris on keys and Charlie Worsham on electric guitar and mandolin. The rest of the instruments, I played. I rented a Manley Cardioid Reference microphone for vocal day, which I instantly fell in love with for my voice. Mason rounded out the BGVs, and we cut party tracks for “Santa Still Believes”, “Santa Wants a Ho Ho Ho” and “The Reindeer Song” on a hot, mid-July evening, wrapping up the recording. Mastered in August by Erik Wolf at Wolf Mastering. Off to the presses at Discmakers, and a few weeks later, it looked like Santa made a delivery to my front porch!
But it didn’t stop there. My Dad bought some book-binding equipment, so I made an illustrative, lyric companion book to the CD (the “Best Christmas Book Ever“). I carried those design elements over to the website design. Then Mason and I made a music video for the single “The Reindeer Song!” featuring our rap alter egos Sno’Rida and Mista’Toe. (Shoutouts to Sammy Passamano III for camera work and Kevin Sage for post).
This album has become bigger and better than I could have ever imagined and has felt exciting at every stage of the creating and promotion process, and I have Mason and Kim to thank for that.
So what’s the moral of the story?
For your next project, think about ways to shake things up. Try new production techniques. Hire a different musician. Rent a new microphone. Think about how far outside the box you can go. And most importantly, if you’re having fun while creating, it’ll show in the final product.
Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Like what you heard in the videos? Click here to download Daniel Dennis’ “Best Christmas Songs Ever” on iTunes!
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