It’s the most wonderful time of the year and Serena Ryder is making it even better with her Christmas Kisses album and tour. Beyond Fashion Magazine sat down with the award-winning Canadian artist to talk all things Christmas, from her instant classic album to her own holiday traditions!
Christmas Kisses
Let It Snow, White Christmas, Santa Baby – the list of classic Christmas hits goes on and on. Jammed-packed with the songs we all know and love, Christmas Kisses marks Serena’s first-ever holiday album. “There’s something really magical about this time of year,” she says the best way to celebrate the season is through music, “I think the things that are really important about this time of the year come in the form of art and music, togetherness and family.”
“I was approached by Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper),” she says, gushing with admiration for the Canadian music producer, “He’s a complete legend, I’ve always wanted to work with him.” The Toronto-based singer has also always wanted to make a jazz record, “From the time I was a little kid, I was like ‘Ella Fitzgerald all the way’, like singing in the shower!”
So, what do you do when you adore Christmas and you adore jazz? You make a jazz-inspired Christmas album, naturally. Christmas Kisses was released in October of last year, which means it was Christmas in spring, “It was awesome! In the studio, it was kind of dark and we put Christmas lights everywhere and fairy lights, decorations. We were full-on in Christmas mode.” You’d think it would be difficult to pick which songs make the cut, but for Serena, the choice was simple, “I actually chose just all my favourite songs that I knew all of the words to. You know, they were the songs I knew backwards and forwards for the most part. The ones that have touched me since I was a little kid.”
Blue Christmas is exactly that – a track that brings Serena back to her childhood. However, for all the wrong (and hilarious) reasons. Unsurprisingly, she was given a solo performance in her school’s Christmas show when she was 12 or 13. Surprisingly, they gave her a country rendition of Blue Christmas and named her ‘Loretta Poinsettia’. “They made me wear like a white cowboy hat with a big poinsettia and a white dress,” she continued, “When I was 13 I was like a size 16-18 and that dress was a size 6 or 4 so I was like squeezed into this white dress and I remember yodelling.”
Oh, what I wouldn’t do to see Loretta Poinsettia yodel.
This is why Blue Christmas was a must-have on the album, “I took it and I made it into my soulful version of the song. I could redo the memory and make it a new one.”
Did she redeem herself? There’s no question about it. Infused with a warm, jazzy vibe and Serena’s signature sound, it’s no surprise that Rolling Stone named Christmas Kisses the fifth-best seasonal release of last year, writing: “I put this into the KEEPER pile, based on the original alone.”
Kisses for Christmas
The title track, Christmas Kisses, is an original written by Serena and her best friend, Simon Wilcox (Camila Cabello, Nick Jonas). Not only do they write a mean song together, but they also have each other’s names tattooed on their arms (BFF goals)!
The ridiculously talented duo discussed the idea even before the album was in the works, “She had an idea for a Christmas song that was Kisses for Christmas. She just loved how those two words sounded: Kisses for Christmas, and that’s where we started.”
“No, I don’t have too much. So my love, would it be enough,” the lyrics celebrate the true meaning of Christmas – spending time with loved ones and not focusing on material gifts.
Of course, they had a blast writing the song.
The best part, however, is the heartwarming music video that features rescue dogs from the Ontario SPCA, who also opened a “Christmas Kisses” donation page to help care for rescue animals.
“I think animals are such beautiful, profound, simple creatures in the world and I think they bring joy to so many humans and we need to love them, we need to respect them,” It’s clear that Serena is an animal lover. During our interview, she brought her adorable pup Cholula (yes, like the hot sauce), “They make our worlds better, we should make their worlds better.”
The Christmas Song
Serena just released her brand new music video for The Christmas Song, and it’s just as wholesome as Christmas Kisses. “This time of the year is about your imagination and about the things that live inside of your heart and the things that surprise you and my music video is all of those things encompassed.”
Featuring a playful holiday animation and childlike wonder, the video transforms everyday life into a winter wonderland, “The Christmas Song video animation was an idea the director, Kyla Atlas had to incorporate a mini version of me living in a beautiful make-believe world reliving the spirit of Christmas and taking the naturally beautiful things around me and making them festive. You don’t need a lot to create special memories.”
With her ukulele in hand, Serena serenades the listener through her phone, which is exactly how the song came into fruition, “I sent it to [Bob Ezrin] as a demo and he loved it so much that he insisted it go on my record in its truest and honest form. And that’s the version that ended up on my record. Just me and my phone.” The magical musical video was filmed at Serena’s own multi-purpose creative workspace ArtHaus Studios.
On The Road With Serena Ryder and “Christmas Kisses”
You can get your fill of Christmas Kisses this winter season as Serena Ryder hits the road for her first full tour of the album, “It’s a Christmas show, it’s like full Christmas!”
The Christmas Kisses Tour has officially kicked off with Serena performing in Toronto on December 18th, but you can catch the show up until December 22nd, “We’re really excited because we’re like decorating the stage like it’s Christmas so I’m really excited about that part and it’s going to be a jazz trio.” The multi-platinum singer just came off of a summer tour and jumped right back into things with Christmas Kisses.
When she has some downtime on tour, she says she likes to do nothing, “I really like doing nothing as much as possible. In that, I like sitting and watching movies or reading books or playing with my dog or talking with friends, connecting with people that I love”
On stage, she’s a star but on the tour bus, she’s a chef. “I love eating! It’s like my favourite,” she says her heart belongs to food, “Food is the best thing of life!”
Serena says she loves cooking the food just as much as eating it. Along with her guitar, she packs a hot plate and fills the fridge with food. “Being healthy is something that I really enjoy doing and I find that it really helps not only with your physical health but your mental health,” leading a healthy lifestyle is something that has been paramount for her own mental health – a topic she advocates for and does many keynote speeches on.
Christmas with Serena
Of course, Christmas dinner with Serena is nothing short of a Masterchef meal, “My favourites are the sides though like collard greens, roasted root vegetables with coconut butter and caramelized sweet potatoes with maple syrup and like sea salt. My mouth is watering right now.”
Ours too Serena, ours too.
Being a six-time Juno award winner and sometimes on tour during the holidays, Christmas looks different for her every year.
But, she’ll be home for Christmas this year (another great cover on the album, by the way).
Hosting it at her new home, Serena’s family will be having a massive sleepover with pets included, “We’re going to watch some like full-on Christmas movies on Netflix and be on the couches and have lots of big pajamas that we can’t realize that we’ve gained 10 pounds in two days and like pull up thick, furry blankets and watch movies. Laugh and cry a lot.”
As for gifts, she doesn’t believe there can be a bad one.
The best kind, she says, is something homemade and from the heart, “One of my friends gave me a letter of all her favourite things about me and that was probably 12 or 13 years ago, I still have that letter.”
