EXCLUSIVE: The Rising Talk New Single ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’
On Friday, December 10th country/rock duo The Rising will get into the festive spirit with the release of their cover of the classic ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ which will be shared alongside the EP ‘Christmas Brought You Here’ which will be available as a physical CD only from their website.
Here we chat exclusively with The Rising’s Chris and Chantelle to discuss the forthcoming offering in more detail:
What’s been the driving force behind releasing a Christmas single this year?
Chantelle: We are both huge Christmas nuts and love everything about the season. Come December 1st our classic Christmas playlist comes out and it doesn’t stop, we really milk it. It’s been a pretty mixed year with some very big highs but also some very low lows. Now that it’s Christmas, we just wanted to share some Christmas cheer because we made it through some hardships and want a chance to enjoy and celebrate a special holiday.
Chris: We are strange because we actually love Christmas music. So pretty early on when we got together to write and start the project. We decided that we wanted to try and release a Christmas song every year. Ideally an original song but also to reimagine our favourite songs.
How did you decide on which song to cover?
Chantelle: Releasing this song for me was something I had to do. It was my Grandad’s favourite Christmas song and he always wanted to hear me singing it each Christmas. So when he passed away this year, I knew in my heart that this was the song I had to sing. By putting it out
into the world.
Chris: Releasing this song was really important to Chantelle. Sadly, her Grandfather passed away who she was really close to. She told me how it became a tradition to sing it to him every Christmas. So by releasing the single, in a way, it is sending a message to Chantelle’s Grandfather to let him know that we are thinking about him.
How did you find the studio recording sessions for this track?
Chantelle: The studio is a safe space for both of us, so sessions do get quite emotional from time to time. This one caught me a little because of my grandad but this was a good thing. The vocal has emotion and it’s real. It only took a couple of days to record and most of it came from one take. What some people might find strange is that I like to make sure the ambience in the studio is right for recording. It calms me down and allows me to connect with the song being recorded. For this one, we stuck up fairly lights and recorded mostly in the dark to create that
cosy Christmas vibe, which I think you can hear in the recording. I think it transports you to that world.
Chris: As Chantelle describes this one was pretty emotionally charged. So much so that the vocal is one take. We set the mood right and Chantelle came in and got caught in the moment.
What elements of the song have you changed to suit your style?
Chris: We produce our music fully independently. So whatever we release goes through the ‘Rising Filter’ automatically as we are so hands-on with everything. With this song, we felt that you can’t mess too much with the perfection of the classic recordings by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. But we wanted to add in our own stamp such as the ambient guitars. But, there are certain aspects of the song that we had to change for budgetary reasons. Namely, we would have loved to record this with an orchestra. But there is no way we could’ve afforded that. So we used sample libraries and tried to recreate an Orchestral feel with the technology. We also kept it classic and researched the reverb units that were used in the original recordings and we used these on Chantelle’s vocals. Overall, we really tried to combine the classic with our own filter, trying to capture that warm and cosy Christmas feeling on record.
What are you hoping fans take away from your version?
Chantelle: The songs original message is that we can all reconnect with old or new friends, family and loved ones. In the hope that we can all enjoy this special time of year and be filled with joy, cheer and happiness. Especially after the year or two that we’ve had, it puts a lot of things into perspective. Hopefully, next year will be better.
Chris: Totally, many families haven’t seen each other in two years. Many may not be with us. So we felt that it is super important this year to connect with the true meaning of Christmas. Leave all the commercialisation of the season to one side and simply connect with each other.
Do you have any set goals in mind for this release?
Chris: Unlike a lot of artists we aren’t really concerned by hitting a number one on iTunes or landing a Spotify editorial playlist. Those things are nice, of course, but we feel that they are driven by your own ego. For us the most important thing is that people hear the song, connect
with it and make it part of their family Christmas for years to come. Hopefully, the song becomes attached to memories.
Chantelle: As a duo, our long term goal would be that we would love to have an album like “Phil Spector’s Christmas Album” with all our versions of Christmas classics and originals on it. Simply because that vinyl is never off in Rising HQ at Christmas time.
What can we expect from you as we head into the New Year?
Chantelle: There’s a lot of pressure on us following our continued release strategy throughout 2020 and 2021. So we plan on upping the game further in the new year. We have new releases lined up, an album and a possible short film. There’s going to be a mini-docuseries happening.
Possible tour? World permitting… it would be great to get back on the road with the full band!
Chris: Everyone is going to be sick of the sight of us in 2022. lol. But seriously, we are planning to up our game even further. We don’t believe in the big reveal and keeping secrets. So we can promise an album on Vinyl and lots of stand-alone singles. As artists, we have really loved the creative freedom of constantly writing and releasing music. So we plan to continue that.
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