Jars of Yule
Fans have clamored for a Jars of Clay Christmas album for over a decade. Dan Haseltine talks about why it was so long in coming, about going indie, and more.
by Mark Moring | posted 12/10/2007
 1 of 3
It's been 12 years since Jars of Clay released the four-song Drummer Boy EP, and ever since then, fans have clamored for a full-length Christmas album. The wait is now over with Christmas Songs, which marks several firsts for Jars. Not only is it their first yuletide album, but also their first project as an independent band after a dozen years with Essential Records. Jars has formed its own indie imprint, Gray Matters, under the Nettwerk umbrella. The band also celebrates a couple of publishing firsts—their first book as a band (Peace Is Here: Christmas Reflections), and frontman Dan Haseltine's first children's book (The One, The Only Magnificent Me!). We recently chatted with Haseltine about the Christmas album, about their new indie status, about the adventure of writing for kids, and more.
Now that Jars of Clay is on their own record label, Matt Odmark (left), Steve Mason, Charlie Lowell, and Dan Haseltine have finally made the Christmas album they've always wanted to make.
Why'd it take so long to do a Christmas album?
Dan Haseltine After Drummer Boy, our fans kept asking, "Are you going to do a full-length Christmas album?" Every year we asked Essential, "Can we do it this year?" But they always had something else they were promoting. We were ready to do one in 2002 when we were part of the City on a Hill Christmas record. We had come up with some concepts for our Christmas album then, but the label said, "No, we want to push the City on a Hill Christmas album, and we don't want a competing Christmas album at the same time."
Now that we're independent with our own label, we felt like this was the first thing that we really wanted to do for our fans.
With a Christmas album, there's always a question of balance between traditional and original music.
Haseltine We had a lot of conversations about that. People don't buy a Christmas record to hear all brand new songs; I know I don't. So we wanted have quite a bit of nostalgic material—not just the songs, but also the textures, the types of string arrangements, the different kind of synthesizers. We wanted to tap into different eras of Christmas music, to allow this album to have a nostalgic feel, but at the same time not simply re-recording songs that everybody has recorded a million times.
How did you choose the songs?
Haseltine A lot of it was centered around two things. One, we wanted it to be a little bit more lighthearted than a traditional Jars record. But at the same time, we've got all these things we say about Christmas—like peace and goodwill toward men—but what do those things mean in the midst of war and conflict? How do we say these "Christmas things" and mean it? We tried to pick songs where people had already wrestled with these things. That's why we chose "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." And we felt like we had to write a few that would capture that tension a bit further, with a little more depth.
Fair enough, but that doesn't explain the inclusion of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime." Dan, don't you know that's considered one of the worst Christmas songs ever?!
Haseltine (laughing) Yeah, I know! I wonder if any of the reviews will mention it?
I can't promise that! But I hear it was (guitarist) Steve Mason's favorite Christmas song. So, did each of you get to pick one personal favorite for the album?
Haseltine Not really. We all had these Christmas albums we had grown up with, and they were pretty eclectic. My pool of influence included the Jackson 5 Christmas album, John Denver, the Muppets, and this bizarre Christmas album called Switched on Santa by a guy named Sy Mann. It's just all these Christmas songs on the Moog synthesizer. We weren't going to do anything that eclectic and weird, but we wanted to pull some of those textures in. Yes, Steve wanted to do that McCartney song. And when we started working on it, we found that there really was a song inside of that strange production McCartney had used. We felt like it turned into something pretty exciting.
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Try 3 Issues of Christianity Today Free!
|
 |
|
Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.
Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.
If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
