It’s almost the time of year to start decking the halls as Christmas is a little over a month away. This year, a group of Opelika teens is taking Christmas spirit to another level by recording its own Christmas album, “Advent.”
The album includes the musical talents of Abby Miracle, Judith Fuller, Isaac Hayes of Pepperspice, Marleigh Jones of StreetParty in Liverpool and Cooper Prater, Cullen Marquis and Caleb Etris of C Squared + C.
Miracle originally had the idea for the project.
“I was brainstorming, because I love recording, writing and making music," Miracle said. "I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, because I always write my own Christmas songs ... I thought about this, because last year there was a lady who was helping teen musicans get gigs and stuff but we have never had the money to do it.”
Miracle created a GoFundMe page for the project, and the group ended up raising more than enough money to record and produce the album.
“Advent” will feature seven Christmas songs, including an introduction. All of the songs will be covers except for Miracle’s own Christmas song.
“Everybody is technically a different genre of music, like C Squared + C is British rock, which is really cool because they get to play The Beatles and all of that good stuff,” Miracle said. “My band is pop-rock and StreetParty in Liverpool is folk, and so it is all these different genres and I get to listen to all of their different talents and their different sounds. And it's really cool.”
Christmas songs covered on the album include, “Please Come Home for Christmas” by The Eagles, “Go Tell It on the Mountain” by John Wesley Work Jr. and “Happy Christmas, (War is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Jones said she hopes people have a nostalgic feeling after hearing “Advent.”
“The main point of Christmas albums in general is to make everyone feel happy, and there is a lot of nostalgia that comes with certain songs," Jones said. “We picked the songs for 'Advent' with that in mind so that listeners would think of things like where they were when they first heard that song or who they were with when they first heard that song, things like that.”
The group has been recording the album locally in Auburn and Opelika. The album is set to release Nov. 27, which is Black Friday.
Miracle and Jones both said they hope to continue making albums with the group.
“I hope we do more albums after this," Miracle said. "Hopefully it can be something that won’t be as rushed. We started recording 'Advent' at the beginning of October, so this album has been really rushed.”
Jones said she enjoyed the process of recording the album.
“The recording process was my favorite part," Jones said. "Abby is my best friend, and getting to do anything with people you enjoy is just great in general. My solo song on the album is 'Go Tell It on a Mountain,' and Abby added this really great harmony to it that I love, so really the production of the album was my favorite part.”
Jones said she would like to do a similar project next year.
“I feel like we will try to keep doing this every holiday just because it's fun,” Jones said.
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