Artist: Joe Robinson
Hometown: Temagog, New South Wales, Australia
Song: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
Album: Christmas au chalet
In Their Words: “For about two years, my fiancĆ©e Genevieve and I have been trying to secure her a K-1 VISA so we can get married and live in the US. 2020 was a particularly tough year to be not able to see each other because of closed borders — I live in Nashville. In August 2021, I drove up to Canada to visit her and help her with the VISA process and getting moved to Tennessee. During my three-month stay we visited a small chalet and I realized how much quieter it was than Genevieveās apartment in the art district of Quebec City. Sitting there in nature I couldn’t put my guitar down. There is something about being away from the hustle and bustle that makes me love playing music so much more! This is the way I grew up in rural Australia.
“After a nice stay in the chalet, we returned to Quebec City and as I was working on my Christmas arrangements, I kept thinking how cool it would be to actually record this music in the chalet. So we loaded up my car with enough food for the week, my Maton JR Signature guitar, some high-fidelity recording equipment and a pair of DPA microphones, and headed into the Quebec mountains. Because of the cabin’s remoteness, it runs on solar power. It’s a cool setup and was a fun routine turning my equipment on to record, then switching it all off to not risk running the batteries down. I set about recording 13 Christmas songs over five days in October 2021. The weather was absolutely perfect — it was a really special time.” — Joe Robinson
