Matt Brandyberry took some time during the From Ashes To New’s headlining tour to chat about their latest single which is a cover of Mariah Carey’s Christmas smash hit ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ and recording a new album and finally being able to tour on their latest which came out in 2020. FATN’s last album was called Panic which came out in ’20, the one before that was called The Future and both have an almost prophetic sense to them, in themes and titles, so I had to ask him about that.
‘…if you go back through our discography and you listen to the music and then you look at the year, and then you go, ‘Man they may have been on to something!’…I can’t tell you the name of the album we are hoping to release early 2023 but I will tell you that I said to Danny (lead vocalist) I said, “if this album title is prophetic, I’m done.” (laughs) This is gonna be terrible if this is prophetic!’
We also chatted about the new ways of getting your music out through new channels of marketing like TikTok.
(talking about the song Panic) The funny thing about that song (Panic) it doesn’t matter which different way I post it, to whatever video, it always has some type of virality to it. Just like (blow up sfx) so yea that song was just the perfect storm it just works so well with this band, it’s the perfect way to introduce new fans to the band.’
We got to the end of the interview and I had to ask him about the recording of ‘All I Want For Christmas’ and he gave me the lowdown on how fun it was to record and how the lack of pressure gave them more creative freedom.
‘The studio time was booked for something else but something came up….we didn’t want to waste it, since it was paid for…Lance and I chatted and said, “maybe it’s time we do a Christmas song”…So we asked our fans on Facebook what Christmas song we should. A lot of the norms…Nightmare Before Christmas song, Carol of the Bells…so I commented as the band and said “What about ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’?” And the reaction was so polarized…it was so polar opposite, like one person was like “I absolutely love that song, I need it!” and another was like “I will absolutely disown your band!” So with both of them being so extreme…we decided to just go after the low hanging fruit. Let’s just do it and see what happens. But the cool thing was we went into the studio with no expectation…The first few hours we were in there we struggled, probably and hour or two, to find the chord progression, because we knew we wanted to do the melody in a minor key. So…we were back and forth, back and forth, but it never got frustrating like when you’re trying to create something else that you know you have a deadline on…then we got it and we were like “Without the words this song would’ve been really sweet as our own original song!” So it ended up being a lot of fun because there was no pressure to do it. And that’s when I think the best things happen, you’re just creating…Putting an artist in a box like that really brings down the art…’
A very fun and open chat with a guy in a band that’s definitely on the up and up! Check out their cover and the interview below!
