By: Josh Gloer
It’s February, almost a full calendar stretch until Christmas. Stockings are packed in boxes, next to bubble wrapped nativities and knotted strands of twinkle lights. The holidays lie dormant, waiting to be unearthed ten months from now. Right?
Wrong.
For Family Force 5, February was the time the band decided to start working on the most upbeat and unconventional holiday album to hit the shelves since… ever. And in early October, the band’s hard work paid off as their Christmas album, Christmas Pageant finally hit the shelves.
“We decided to make a [Christmas] record because we were tired of listing to the same old Christmas music that we’ve always listened to for the last 80 years of our lives,” Solomon “Soul Glow Activatur” Olds, the band’s front man, said. “This one you pop in, and I think its very unexpected and refreshing to hear.”
Recycled, remixed and revamped, holiday favorites like “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Carol of the Bells” and “T’was the Night Before Christmas” fill the track list along with a FF5 holiday original entitled, “The Baby.”
“That track originally developed from trying to do a version of ‘We Three Kings,’” Olds said. “We thought why not do it our way and make the kings gangstas from ATL, bringing silver and gold and have them talking about it in their Cadillac.”
Appropriately, Christmas Pageant was born in motion. The band recorded tracks while on tour in Atlanta, Nashville and the UK. Some of it was even laid down in a portable recording studio in the back of the band’s tour bus. It’s a blend of dance, “ghetto”, upbeat and infectious twists on the timeless tracks American’s associate with Christmas. But, get one thing straight — this isn’t your momma’s Christmas album.
“We wanted to create a Christmas album that you could throw on at a part, or rock at a club,” Olds said. “Have a Christmas dance party with eggnog and all that – all the Christmas shenanigans that go on.”
According to Solomon, the album gets back to the band’s dirrrty ATL roots, straying from the dance licks of their last album, Dance or Die. But that doesn’t mean this album is falling back into old and stale territory as they boys of FF5 combine gangster and grunge.
“A lot of people expect us to do different twists on music,” Olds said. “Our fan’s are loving it. We’ve got ‘glee’ and ‘jolly’ written all over us.”
And keeping with the Christmas Spirit, Christmas Pageant is a family affair. Of course, the ranks of FF5 posess three brothers, but several tracks boast Jerome Olds, the Olds brother’s dad, Olds’ wife under the moniker “Lalipop,” and his baby exercising his young vocals on “The Baby.
For more info on the Christmas Pageant show schedule, check out the band’s MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/familyforce5.
And remember, for FF5 fans, it’s never too early for Christmas.
“It’s been Christmas all year for us. It’s an overload on Christmas, but it was a very fun album to make.”
