Merry Xmas and a Never Shout New Year: Christofer Drew readies a holiday EP and 2014 projects

The year might be winding down, but it’s actually marking an onslaught of activity from NEVER SHOUT NEVER. On November 25, the band will issue The Xmas EP, a four-song selection of holiday-themed tunes featuring standards and a new track “Meet Me Under The Misteltoe” which was co-written and performed with Dia Frampton. Since recording the songs, NSN CEO Christofer Drew has moved his whole creative operation to Malibu, California, where he will be working and refining several projects including the next NSN album, the new installment from his hardcore-tinged project Eat Me Raw (formerly known as Eat Me While I’m Hot) and an album that is being designated as a “Christofer Drew solo album.”

Confused? Don’t worry: Jason Pettigrew asked the singer all about his plans, while Drew was driving through New Mexico, hauling parts of his recording console to his new SoCal base of operations.

So then: Why a Christmas record?
We were just thinking of something that was really low pressure, so we could get some music out and I could experiment a little more. I was trying to think of something I could do, and then Danny [Rukasin, manager] and I were like, “A Christmas record would be cool.” I had a couple Christmas songs that I really liked. We put out one song in 2009 [“30 Days”], and the fans really liked that, as well. I think they really like the Christmas vibe.

You cover John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and “Winter Wonderland.” Do those songs have personal resonance with you, as far as Christmas memories go?
[I chose] “War Is Over” because when I was 16, I really got into the Beatles and that was the song I learned on guitar. It was a song I was interested in learning, so it was fun to bring it back and jam out. I just think “Winter Wonderland” is awesome. I think the lyrics are great. It’s so lighthearted and has a really classic feel to it. I totally sang it as a kid; my dad used to bust out the acoustic guitar on holidays, and we’d all sings songs together. It was pretty fun.

Are you a Christmas kind of dude? Is that your favorite time of year?
I like it because I have a lot of good memories, and it’s nostalgic in a sense of having really close times with family–very pure times.

There’s a propensity for other bands to make Christmas records and play it for laughs, make them all jokey. But your EP is really sincere and pleasant. If your fans could care less about the holiday, the vibe of the record sounds like your earlier work.
It was the first thing I’d [recorded] at my place, by myself. That was exciting for me. I wanted to show off a couple skills playing some more intricate stuff, but I just wanted to keep it super-simple. That was kind of the game plan going into it: keeping it minimal but still adding what I wanted with that mindset. It was really a chill process. It was just my buddy Ben [Bauder, engineer] and I in the studio. We busted it out in two weeks.

You co-wrote “Meet Me Under The Mistletoe” with Dia Frampton. I was told you two wrote it in a park and recorded it the next day.
We were right outside of Hollywood in Griffith Park. We wrote it in two hours during the afternoon the day before, and recorded it the next morning. We recorded [a demo version] over my phone, and we just winged it. I had a decent chord progression, and we came up with some cool lyrics pretty quick because it was just for fun. There was no pressure on us to make anything other than a cute Christmas song—which is pretty easy to write. I thought it turned out pretty nice. I think it’s the first duet I’ve done with a girl, recorded, up to this point. >>> 

What were the events leading up to the duet?
Never Shout had done a tour in the past when Dia was playing with her sister in Meg And Dia, back in 2009, and we were friends from that. We reconnected because I was thinking a duet could be a nice touch for the Christmas vibe. I just hit her up, we got together and it was super-chill. I wasn’t expecting it to go so smoothly, but it just flowed out.

You’ve got all sorts of things happening in 2014.
Yeah, it’s going to be an awesome year. I’m getting warmed up for it because I’ve just been writing nonstop. We already got the Raw stuff recorded—all the instrumentals—so we just have to do the vocals on that. But we’re going to take our sweet-ass time getting that done. That stuff’s pretty sick: It’s like punk rock; it’s got, like, a protest message to it. It’s riffy, kind of like Rage Against The Machine, but then the vocals sound like Tool. It’s really odd, but I’ve enjoyed doing it so far. It’s just for fun. Literally, there’s no pressure on that. I’m really pumped about the new Never Shout Never stuff, too. We’re just going for a basic, old school, rock ’n’ roll sound. It’s a little more intricate than Sunflower. On Sunflower, I was trying to get down to the basics of the three-piece sound. On this new stuff, we’re going to go crazy with the instrumentation by adding whatever we want instead of keeping it minimal, but still having that three-piece sound, letting the guitar, bass and drums rock the whole thing. We’re going to even it out with some acoustic songs with storytelling. So, I think it’s going to be a pretty nice mix. We’re just trying to keep developing. I feel like we’re getting back to the basic 12-bar blues. We’ve already got some fun songs, too. They’re Rolling Stones influenced, and kind of like the more upbeat, heavier Beatles songs.

You also said you’re making a Christofer Drew solo record. What makes that different from a Never Shout Never record?
I’m looking at it as another outlet to try out some other stuff. We’re going to do some really unique things, like having a slight reggae undertone with a lot of world instruments and a really ‘ammy guitar or acoustic with an acoustic guitar or piano. There will be a lot of changing dynamics, female backup singers. [The solo record] is going to have a different feel. It sounds like madness. That’s why I don’t really like trying to explain it. I’m just going to see what happens. I have 20 songs for it, and I think they’re all pretty cool. They have really interesting chords and nice melodies. I’m pretty focused on making the lyrics and telling a nice story in every song or expressing my views on certain things.

Last question: Where are you going to be Dec. 25?
I think I’m going to be in Joplin with my family. That’s the game plan right now; that’s what I told them. I gotta see my fam. They’re really important to me, and I started to miss them a while ago. alt