Songwriter's Christmas tune a bittersweet ballad for 2020
Xavier encourages fellow Calgarians to share good and bad of this unusual year
Lisette Xavier admits she was a little down in the dumps when she wrote Almost Christmas.
In any other year, this might seem like a strange mindset for writing a festive tune. But this is 2020. Like everyone else, the Calgary-based singer-songwriter and music teacher had plenty of downtime to contemplate how this year's holidays were going to be quite different.
“I got on my piano, not even thinking that I was going to write a song,” she says. “I just went to it to practise and feel better, because that's what music does for me. Pretty quickly, this song came out and I thought it was pretty interesting that I was starting to really appreciate things that I had previously taken for granted. So that's the tone that the song took.
“As weird and disappointing as certain aspects of this year are, it's kind of a cool thing that the things that make this year really different are going to make me appreciate everything moving forward.
“It came together pretty organically, but it definitely just started with me being sad,” she adds.
The bittersweet piano ballad, Almost Christmas, eventually grew into a more communal celebration. Xavier decided to put out a call on social media to Calgarians to share their own experiences, which she put together for a video that had them sharing their 2020 highs and lows in handwritten notes.
The responses definitely ran the gamut. Participating Calgarians wrote about what they missed most in 2020. Some were heartbreaking, such as the young girl who writes that this was the first Christmas she had “without seeing Nana” or the man facing his first Christmas without seeing his niece and nephew. Others just listed specific events or groups they missed, everything from the Calgary Youth Orchestra to Calgary Horror Con to the Calgary Folk Music Festival.
The video then switches to happier musings, with participants focusing on the positives of 2020. Again, the responses are varied. One woman says she finally sought proper treatment for mental illness, one man celebrates 2020 as the first year of him going meatfree, while another woman reports that she fell in love.
“It was cool to see how people took it on,” Xavier says. “There were some people you could tell were just in the thick of it, but the common message I got from everyone who submitted videos was, `Thank you for letting me be a part of this because it actually made me feel better.'
“Even though the video starts with the sad questions, where we acknowledge the losses and the things we're letting go of, it ended on a positive. I think it's important to acknowledge the sadness so we can move on from it. For myself, that helped. I was trying to be like, `Just be happy. It's OK. Everything is fine.' No. I am sad and I'm going to be sad for a few minutes. I felt that way, but I'm ready to not feel that way anymore.”
The video includes dozens of
contributions from Calgarians. It was pulled together over five days and received hundreds of views.
Xavier, who also teaches voice and piano, has released a number of pop singles and EPS, including a 2014 collection called Covers that found her offering takes on tunes by Selena Gomez, Sam Smith and One Republic. For the past four years, she's been a mentor for Girls Rock Camp Calgary and has also received several YYC Music Award nominations, including for female
artist of the year, pop song of the year and music video of the year.
Almost Christmas was more off the cuff, with Xavier deciding she was just going to release it to the world with little fanfare and see what happened.
“I usually spend months planning a really elaborate marketing thing so it was nice to say, `Oh I'm just going to put it out there,'” she says. “It's there for the people who need it and will always be there for people who need it.”