Rhodes Bailey and the Frosty Four bring you Columbia's newest Christmas song

“Climate Change don’t take my Christmas away”

We were delighted when Columbia attorney, musician, and former SC house of representatives candidate Rhodes Bailey shared one of his new projects with us – a powerful, yet fun new Christmas song – and could hardly wait to share it with you. We asked Bailey a few questions about the project, and he graciously shared how and why “Climate Change is Killing Christmas” came to be: 

Jasper: What was the impetus or inspiration for this song?  

Bailey: My good friend Jake Erwin (whom I gig with from time to time) texted me not long before Thanksgiving and said we should record a Christmas song. I thought to myself "what if someone did a Christmas song about how it's too hot at Christmastime now because of climate change? No snow, no crisp air, etc., and the singer is pining for cold weather."  The more I thought about Christmas imagery, the more I thought about how 80-degree weather spoils the  mood. I sat down and banged this out in about 30 minutes. I sent an acoustic demo to Jake who laughed and said, "Oh man, I just meant we should cover 'Jingle Bell Rock' or something. I didn't know you were going to write a song."   

Jasper:  Are there more like it -- is this part of a collection or a solo piece? 

Bailey:  This is a solo piece for now. There's a pretty small window for holiday songs (between Thanksgiving and Christmas), so I had to record it, shoot the goofy video, and get it out fast. I'm at an age now where I only write lyrics when I have something original to say. I make up instrumental music all the time, but only spend time on lyrics if an idea strikes me as particularly interesting and I want to share it.

Jasper: Who are the Frosty Five? 

Bailey:  Spencer Collins (drums and backup vocals) 2) Jake Erwin (keyboards and jingle bells) 3) Evan Simmons (bass) 4) Zac Thomas (expert producer and sound engineer at the Jam Room in Columbia, SC) and 5) Me (12 string Rickenbacker guitar* and vocals). It should really be "Rhodes Bailey and the Frosty FOUR", but FIVE sounded better. We worked hard with Zac to get a vintage Christmas studio sound, like the ‘60s girl groups from the album "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" (which everyone should check out by the way) or the Mariah Carey classic. 

(editor’s note — we hear these words when we read them in the late great Tom Petty’s voice. If you know, you know.)

Jasper:  Was this just for fun or is there a serious motive involved? 

Bailey: This is for fun, but obviously climate change is serious and it's on our minds. I try not to be heavy-handed with lyrics. People respond better to humor than preachiness. An unseasonably warm Christmas is a bummer for everyone - even for folks like us in South Carolina that don't see much snow. It didn't snow a ton when I was a kid, but I remember having a white Christmas when I was in the fourth grade and that was "peak Christmas" for me. No subsequent Christmas could match it. As I grew up, my standards lowered to a "chilly Christmas."  Now we have to settle for "Not-hot Christmas."  We've seen 80-degree Decembers and they are a total buzz kill. The character in this song is lamenting the loss of a wintery holiday season but is still an optimist. He/she is holding out hope that snow and cold weather will return just like Darlene Love does for her baby in "Christmas  (Baby Please Come Home)".  

Ony's Bands - King Vulture Plays the Jasper Magazine Release Party Concert Tonight at Art Bar

King Vulture is an eletro-pop group formed by wife and husband, Kate and Jared Pyritz. Their live band includes Evan Simmons (bass), Patrick Funk (guitar), Steve Sancho (drums), and Thomas Hammond (saxophone), giving them a fuller sound, ranging from ethereal pop to a more energetic rock. The project started after Jared encouraged Kate to record some songs that she had written over several years. She wrote them without the intention of starting a band, but they eventually started recording her songs at home, which led them to make King Vulture an official band.

I asked Kate and Jared about their music and their future plans (which right now include awaiting their soon-to-be-born baby) and how they write and record their music, which they answered in the following interview. You can find some of their earlier recordings on their Bandcamp page (https://kingvulturesc.bandcamp.com/), and watch their more evolved performance at the Jasper fall 2016 release party TONIGHT at Art Bar, with other performances by Autocorrect, The Moon Moths, and Tyler Digital performing a DJ set.

Can you describe what your music is like? Jared: It's kind of all over the board. Sometimes sultry and slinky and at other times it's an energetic, fun poppy mess of sound. We try to make each song achieve something different.

Do you have any other shows or releases coming up? Kate: Jared and I are about to have a baby, so we’re actually going to take an extended hiatus following the Jasper Show at Art Bar this Thursday.  As far as releases, we have been in the studio recording our first official album this year.  We’ve completed tracking and are in the middle of mixing and mastering.  We’re shooting for a spring release so we can have time to promote it and play some shows to support it.

What is your philosophy as a band, if you have one? Jared: I think if there is any philosophy we have, it has something to do with approaching collaborative artistic ventures in a rather egoless and democratic way. All ideas (amongst members) are considered valid which allows us to experiment a lot.

Kate: It’s been a communal process. This is my first experience playing in a band--I’ve really lucked out being friends with some incredible musicians.  I’ve learned a lot watching them and listening to how they talk about music.  I know we definitely don’t try to take ourselves too seriously.  That said, we’re really proud of the music we’ve been able to create and play and record.

What is your songwriting process like? Kate: I usually have a small kernel of a song--some lyrics, general chords.  Sometimes it’s a fully realized structure, sometimes it’s just a beginning.  I usually bring it to Jared to get his input to flesh it out a little more before we bring it to the whole band.  Then, when the whole band starts to attack the song we get into orchestration and arrangement.  It’s been a nice formula so far.  These guys have played together in other bands before King Vulture so they have a short hand and a music theory background I just don’t have.  The orchestration and arrangement sessions are a lot of fun for me because I get to see this small idea or chord or lyric I wrote down get turned into something much more realized.

Who/what are some of your musical influences? Kate & Jared: We definitely all have musical likes that inform the spirit of the band:  Gillian Welch, Bowie, David Byrne, St. Vincent, T-Rex, steely Dan.

What are your goals for the band/its future? Kate: Our immediate goals will be to put finishing touches on our record and release it by Spring.  I know it’s important to Jared and I to find time to make music and play shows after our little boy is born.  We’re lucky to have supportive friends and family that will hopefully make that possible.  We’d like to come back with new song ideas--so when we release the album we can show people something different than our typical set list.