Anatomy Of A Christmas Cover Song

Being in the spirit of Christmas, my good buddy Matt [Courage Call] and I decided to record a last minute Christmas Song. Now, when choosing a cover song, one must abide by a few key rules...
1. The song cant be too too famous.
2. The artist must no longer be performing said song.
3. [and most important] The song MUST date back to a time period between 1986 - 1994.
Using these guidelines, we were forced to choose none other than Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas." An Obvious choice.


At first, the thought was just to do a shot gun recording for our Myspaces, but as we got more involved in the arrangement and ideas started to pour, we decided to do a full production and invite some of our friends down to join in.

I used my computer to snap some shots throughout the session for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to Apple's Photobooth, we are all now left handed.

Enjoy!


Our good friend Tyler [Amaradio] came down to play some drums for us. All the arrangements are square so its time to start tracking.



Matt thought it'd be funny to hold the headphone chord while i was playing. Unfortunately it was. Turns out, many things are funny at 2am.


Here, matt demonstrates how large his... triton is. Again...2am.

Matt had a great idea where the bridge of the song drops out to just stomps, claps and a large gang vocal. So we threw up a couple mics on a wooden stage and got to stompin'.

Next Comes the Vocals!!!


Hey! Amanda showed up!


Problem... Turns out Mariah was very talented and sang some challenging vocal lines. At this point we're having a hard time with a melody in the third verse.

hmmm....


NICE!!! Now for a little background vocals...


A couple of last minute edits and voi la!!! Its as simple as that! Take a LISTEN and let us know what you think... and then buy me something for Christmas.