The Philly Holiday Album Emphasizes The Importance of Hope And Gratitude After A Year of Disconnect
Artwork by Jimmy Scantron
By Emily Herbein
I’ve said it a million times, but if the pandemic has taught specifically local music anything, it’s that there’s an added emphasis on the need to support one another. Whether that means emotionally, financially — whatever. Jon Pritchard’s curation of the Philly Holiday Album (which includes 45 local artists) does exactly that. This year has been a huge loss in every sense of the word, but for music especially. We miss each other. We miss the connection that playing live gives us. Whether you’re on that stage as an artist, or you’re behind it like I am, you feel the weight of that emptiness. But projects like this remind us of all the good that still exists. Remote collaborations to this scale are all the more special considering the space between us all. Philly, without a doubt, always always pulls through, and this is the best showcase of artists that could have been chosen to represent our sense of love and community, especially after a year that took that away.
Jon and I spoke about the conception of the idea for a massive compilation album, and some of the artists involved were kind enough to share their thoughts on the project. All proceeds from the Philly Holiday Album will go towards supporting NIVA (#SaveOurStages) and Toys For Tots Philly. Huge props to Jon and the artists for coming together like this. I’m so thrilled to be a part of it. The album drops 12/20 on Bandcamp and will be live streaming all day on December 25th on YouTube.
Why did you decide to put together a compilation album? What sparked the idea?
Jon: Two months ago, I was messing around on the piano and I stumbled upon the chords to George Michael’s “Last Christmas,” and I figured it would be cool to do a cover of that. And last year Slomo Sapiens did a Christmas show at Boot & Saddle, and I was just really bummed out that we couldn’t do shows. So I thought of the idea for a compilation album. I ran it by my roommates, Colin McCarry of Party Muscles and we talked it over. It was like a drunken idea, but I pulled through with it after I saw Boot & Saddle closed because that hit me hard. So I pulled the trigger on the comp idea, and this is my first time ever doing anything like this.
Emily: The feedback from this has been overwhelming. The first day that I saw any sort of promo — I think that flier was shared around over ten times, just from what I could see. You have so much reach as is, and you definitely chose the right artists to get in on this with you. It just proves how close-knit this city is.
Jon: A couple weeks ago I just took a day to hit up these bands to see if they’d contribute, and I know a ton of artists that I really love and enjoy so I’m really happy everyone is so into it. Slomo Sapiens was also a part of the Love From Philly Live stream series earlier in COVID, and I remember thinking that there is just so much good music in this city that I wanted to do that again and bring people together while we can.
Has this experience made you want to consider planning another compilation project in the future?
Jon: Definitely. We’ll see how this one goes. A holiday comp could be a yearly thing. I’d be into doing this again, but I’d definitely want help. It’s a much bigger project than I’d anticipated. I told people about it and the reaction was “that’s cool!” so I was like, “okay, let’s do it.” But I was surprised no one else in Philly was doing this aside from XPN.
Emily: Holiday-themed releases aren’t typically on my radar, but something like this most definitely is. I think thematic projects like this just go one way or the other, and luckily this one is really, really appealing to people.
What’s the behind the scenes of the project looked like?
Jon: It’s just been a lot of organizational work. Keeping track of the bands and their song submissions. I have a list, but I haven’t shared what artist is doing what song because I wanted everything to be as much of a surprise as it could be.
Emily: The work that you’ve put into it, through the organization to the promotion, it shows. This was a necessary idea and I’m glad that everyone involved has been so hands-on and passionate about maintaining the connection that we’re all really missing. Anything that brings us all together again right now is so necessary. The fact that you’re tackling the curation alone is very admirable.
Poster by Greg Geiger