Talk about a Surrey treat!
Local BC music company FUSIONpresents has released a Christmas collaboration of 12 BC artists from Surrey, Delta, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver. The cross-genre, cross cultural rendition of the Elvis classic Blue Christmas was envisioned by FP director and producer Sami Ghawi on November 30 as a gift to the community, as families around the world will likely be experiencing a Blue Christmas this year due to travel bans and social distancing.
The whole process, from idea to release took 2 weeks. In a Facebook post on Dec 14, Ghawi writes “2 weeks ago to the day, I had this crazy idea that a whole bunch of us in the FP music family would collaborate on and release a Xmas song before the season ended. It would involve getting artists on board, demoing the song, having all participants learn their parts then record and film themselves, mix and master the track, then compile the footage and produce the video. Everyone I asked said yes – I had 6 artists. The incredible Ben Dunnill and I conceptualized the musical arrangement and within a day/night, we had a workable demo to send to all participants. The vision expanded over the following 2 weeks to include 6 more amazing artists, and after a number of studio and remote Zoom driven recording/filming sessions, I had everything I needed. This is the end result.”
Released under the FUSIONpresents collaboration band, “The Apartment”, the recording features some of BC’s top talented artists, including Elizabeth Irving, a regular national anthem vocalist for many local Vancouver Canucks games who recently received a 2020 Young Artist Academy Award for Outstanding Music Single. The complete list of collaborating artists in order of appearance are:
David Symons (Vancouver) – vocals
Isabelle Symons (Vancouver) – vocals
Loris Gacic Lora (Surrey) – bass
Sami Ghawi (Coquitlam) – guitars, vocals, percussions
Pat Anne Or (Delta) – vocals
Myles Philpott (Port Coquitlam) – drums
Ben Dunnill (Surrey) – piano, keys
Colin David Sankey (Surrey) – bass
Paul Fader (Surrey) – drums
Eddie Lam Halen (Burnaby) – vocals
Khyla Granstrom (Port Coquitlam) – vocals
Elizabeth Irving (Port Coquitlam) – vocals