SPILL FEATURE: STEVEN’S GREETINGS – A CONVERSATION WITH STEVEN PAGE

STEVEN’S GREETINGS

A CONVERSATION WITH STEVEN PAGE

With December right around the corner, the festive season is almost here. Of course, that means a whole bunch of new holiday music to listen to! Barenaked Ladies co-founder Steven Page has just that: Steven’s Greetings, his first-ever solo holiday album, featuring new original songs, covers of timeless holiday tunes, and reimagined versions of songs from the Barenaked Ladies and his own catalogue.

“I did [Barenaked For The Holidays] with the Barenaked Ladies in 2004, and we had such a great time making it and touring it,” he states. “We could do a little two-week tour every Christmas and do something fun and memorable with the different communities we played in… When you think of the holidays, it’s really about creating memories and just celebrating family history. It was a nice way to revisit that… On top of that, I kind of feel I’ve hit my stride as a solo artist now, and it was a nice way to be able to show that.”

This idea of creating new memories and celebrating family history during the holidays is a big theme of Steven’s Greetings. One example is Page’s version of “Auld Lang Syne.” He recorded the song with all three of his sons (Isaac, Ben, and Jonah) and some of his closest friends (Craig Northey, Kevin Fox, and Geoffrey Kelly). “It’s already a sentimental song as it is… [and] you can’t help but look back at nearly 40 years of making music for my job and to be able to see the impact it’s had not just on my life but the lives of the people that are important to me,” Page reflects.

Page’s version of “I Have a Little Dreidel” also speaks to this idea of creating memories, as it is one of the first songs he remembers learning. “Whether you are singing ‘Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ ‘Jingle Bells,’ or ‘I Have A Little Dreidel,’ these are the songs that we grew up with, and in a certain way, for many of us, we know the song before we could really even talk,” he says. “To express that and pass it down through the generations is part of what making holiday music is all about.”

Likewise, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s debut album Welcome To The Pleasuredome, particularly the song “The Power Of Love,” was a huge part of Page’s childhood. “The Power Of Love” was one of his favourite songs as a teenager, so he decided to cover the song. “[Welcome To The Pleasuredome] was such an influence on the way I thought about what an album could be, as far as how eclectic an album was allowed to be and how stylistically over the map an album was allowed to be,” he explains. “When people think of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, they think of ‘Relax’ or a dance track like that, but then you have this beautiful ballad which was a Christmas single at the time even though it doesn’t mention Christmas, winter, presents, Jesus, or anything else. The original video for the song had the Three Wise Men going through the desert with camels, so they were using that to kind of create a Christmas mood, but in my mind, it’s always been a Christmas song. I sang it in front of the mirror as a teenager a lot, so to do it for real was a little bit nerve-wracking, but more than anything, just super satisfying.”

Initially, Page’s original song “Cheese Log” started as a gag. “I was pretending to write something in front of my bandmates [Craig Northey and Kevin Fox] that felt ethereal, wintry, and moody, knowing that I had to make some kind of sucker punch of a punchline,” he shares. The song’s title also references one of his favourite holiday foods. “I try to watch what I eat now that I’m getting older, so when it comes to the holiday time, that means I get to go to the cheese shop and go overboard. Making giant charcuterie boards is one of the highlights of the holiday season at my home.”

PURCHASE STEVEN’S GREETINGS

Last year, Page had a cameo in the iconic Canadian television show Murdoch Mysteries in the episode “Sugar Plum Murdoch,” where he played a travelling musician named Steven Page (a fictionalized version of himself). Page wrote and performed the song “Christmas In Toronto” for the episode. He re-recorded the song for Steven’s Greetings. “They asked me, ‘Would you write something called ‘Christmas In Toronto,’’ and my first thought was, ‘Well, they’re gonna love that in Alberta,’” he recalls. “If I have to write a song called ‘Christmas In Toronto,’ I need to write it in a way that people throughout Canada are going to connect to, which is largely an anti-Toronto way, but being my hometown, I can’t hate everything about it. In fact, I love Toronto. It’s a wonderful way to do a little bit of a backhanded compliment to my hometown, but also acknowledging the fact that many people see it as the center of the universe.”

Page channelled the spirit of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and Tom Petty for the original song “Drinking ‘Round The Christmas Tree.” Reflecting on what he was trying to channel, Page explains, “It’s the energy of an up-tempo kind of Motown-influenced rock ‘n’ roll song that Springsteen does so well with his version of ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town’ or a song of his like ‘Hungry Heart’ that has this fullness and rousing quality to it. Nick Lowe, one of my favourite songwriters and performers of all time, has a song, ‘(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding,’ that has that kind of feel. With any of those writers, they really straddle that line between optimism and darkness. They’re looking to punch through the darkness to find the light, but the songs feel like they have already found it, and that’s the thing I was trying to emulate.”

Page wrote the music for “Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind” in 2005 for the Stratford Festival’s production of William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Shakespeare serves as a co-writer for “Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind,” as the song is in the text of the play. Barenaked Ladies recorded a version of the song in 2005. Page re-recorded the song for Steven’s Greetings. “It’s a beautiful piece of poetry,” Page states. “It’s dark and slightly cynical, but I think that’s the interesting thing about making a record for this season is that this season is the darkest time of the year. It’s merry and bright, but also the days are short, and people feel isolated and alone. I really try to kind of balance the lightness and the darkness of the season, and that song does it very nicely.”

Corner Gas fans might recognize the song “Everyone Can Sing At Christmas.” Northey and comedian Brent Butt wrote the song for the beloved Canadian television show Corner Gas Animated episode “Tinsel-itis.” Page did his own spin on the song. “Corner Gas is such a Canadian cultural institution,” Page says. “I’ve known Brent for forever, since the earliest days of the Barenaked Ladies playing comedy nights; we would sometimes be on stage with Brent. I think he’s a national treasure… Craig and I had performed it a few times, like on live streams and stuff, so when we were getting ready to make this record, I said, ‘I would love to do that song.’”

Page says that it would be “a dream come true” if Steven’s Greetings becomes a holiday album that people return to every year. “I’ve been lucky enough that with the Barenaked Ladies’ holiday album [Barenaked For The Holidays], that’s been 22 years now, and I have people who are fully grown adults now who say, ‘I grew up listening to that album every year,’ and to me that means so much because I think of all the stuff I’ve listened to over the years. I always build up my big holiday playlist every year, and if people add [Steven’s Greetings] to their holiday listening, I’d be very flattered and honoured.”

Steven’s Greetings is set to release on November 13. Page is already thinking of doing another holiday album. “I do have a couple more originals that I didn’t quite feel like they were ready for prime time, so maybe I’ll do a second record,” he shares. “I thought about some other covers like some traditional Christmas carols, and I had a version of ‘Last Christmas.’ I kept putting the sequence together, and I felt this was long enough… A good, tight 10 songs feel like an old-fashioned Christmas record.”

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Main Photo Credit: Matt Barnes | Background Photo Credit: David Bergman