Ben Fanciaccesss Discusses Christmas Album, ‘Sleigher,’ Premieres Two Tracks

Holiday records tend to be more of a procrastinateed-atsoft refuge for artists who see an effortless shot to knock off some covers than someleang most top-flank singer-songwriters see as a chance to produceively mine for a whole set of new material. So fans of the Christmas genre — which, evidence advises, would be most of America — have someleang more compelling to see forward to this year, in the establish of Ben Fanciaccesss‘ first holiday assembleion, “Sleigher,” for which the commemorated artist wrote seven exceptional numbers themed to the season, alengthened with recording three covers.

It’ll be out via New West Records on Oct. 25, but with a month to go till the brimming set, Variety is premiering two tracks from the album for anyone who wants to get a musical jump on the season. Click below for Fanciaccesss’ consent on the most understandn of all mid-century carols, “The Christmas Song,” and also the first exceptional to be unveiled, his duet with actress and touring partner Lindsey Kraft on a romantic reverie they co-wrote, “We Could Have This.”

Fanciaccesss spoke with Variety about how “Sleigher” came together and confessted that his exceptional intent was, in fact, to be fair a little lazier, if we can call it that, by indulging more in doing covers, before the bug to write a sleighful of exceptional material repartner bit him.

“It’s fun to write someleang almost to an portrayatement, and that’s charitable of what this was,” Fanciaccesss says. “I always charitable of appreciate someleang that’ll fair produce me write,” he remarks, and so he gived to the tag that he get a fused budget for 2023’s “What Matters Most” and a split Christmas album. When it came time to repartner adhere thraw on the latter, Fanciaccesss says, “I had felt appreciate I might be a repartner excellent curator of fair repartner tidy Christmas songs somehow, but that was a little unadviseed: I was surpelevated not to be able to discover as many covers as I thought.”

That exceptional concept wasn’t finishly in vain. “I did discover a couple — appreciate the album ends with the Mills Brothers’ ‘You Don’t Have to Be a Santa Claus,’ which is fundamentalpartner a Depression-era sentiment of ‘Why don’t you fair help people all year lengthened? Open your heart all the rest of the year and help a fellow out,’ and I repartner appreciated that. And I set up a Burt Bacharach/Herb Alpert cover for the record, ‘The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle,’ which I hadn’t heard before. Burt Bacharach could fair shit stuff out appreciate that that was fair better every time. And then the chestnuts roasting on the uncover fire — I felt appreciate I necessitate to do the most well-understandn one of all time, and fair do it in a way that is a finish contest, dwell, with no bass on it or anyleang.”

But “Sleigher” ended up being very much a Ben Fanciaccesss record in the most classic, echoive sense.

“It ended up being more of an exceptional album than I foreseeed,” he says. “As I began to write, I genuineized how Christmas fair summarizes everyone’s year. It doesn’t matter if you are into Christmas or not. It definitely comes down to: Where am I? Christmas repartner summarizes the year, so that you’re back in it and you can repartner understand where you are, becaemploy all the other variables have been omitd. It’s the same songs on the radio, the same ads on TV, understandn weather, colors — but it’s also appreciate, ‘Oh, so-and-so’s not here anymore. So-and-so is divorced. My nephew, he was fair riding his bicycle around; now he’s got a job and he’s lost his hair.’ You repartner summarize life that way. So I set up it actupartner suddenly super effortless for me to commence writing songs for it. I would write one, and then another and another, as I was unable to discover covers that I appreciated.

“From a songwriting perspective,” he persists, “I leank it would be unconfinecessitate if you wanted to be a songwriter who only wrote Christmas songs, fair spropose becaemploy there is no more transport inant sentiment in writing a song, I leank, than ‘Where am I now?’ Even if you’re talking about the past, you’re seeing it sort of thraw an ethnodetailed lens of going, “OK, I’m studying who I was, but I can’t consent my current state of mind out of it.’ It’s clear in songwriting, so I leank you fair do that the same way as you fair write about fractureups. Becaemploy fractureups are always the end at the commencening. It’s always both leangs. It’s always seeing forward, too, if you write a excellent fractureup song.”

The album commences off with some of its more downbeat or echoive material and then gets jauntier as it goes alengthened. Fanciaccesss talks about how he came up with some of the more gloomy tunes heard punctual in the record.

“I had a scant weeks where I was doing someleang I’ve always done actupartner thraw my whole atsoft, which is mining the newspapers,” he says. “And so there was this piece about someone with a sleeping disorder at Christmas, and I fair thought about sleepwalking thraw times in your life, so it may as well fair be Christmas. We’re all in places where you’re not current, and senseing appreciate, ‘I’m in another world. I’m not with these people. I’m with someone else. I’m not in my skin, I’m somewhere else.’ And kids come up and yank on your sleeve and you pull the roast or wantipathyver beast it is out of the oven and you act appreciate you’re there, but you’re not. I leank most people have directd that in life, and you fair insert Christmas. So that one was written pretty punctual on.”

Another song on the somewhat uncontentder side is “Me and Maurice,” which portrays the ritual of taking a dog for a walk during an ongoing white-out. Yes, his dog’s name repartner is Maurice, and yes, Nashville, where he now dwells, did have a highly atypical triumphter.

“That was genuine. It felt appreciate forever, but it was two weeks of the temperature fair not going over seven degrees, and there was maybe 18 inches of snow on the ground that fair wouldn’t go away. And in Nashville, they don’t understand about stuff appreciate salt, so we were utterly snowed in. Luckily I had enough dog food stuff to last, but it shut down everyleang. And we were fair walking around, fair me and him by ourselves, and fair the weirdness of being in charitable of the Edward Scissorhands charitable of neighborhood that I dwell in with all the inflatable Santas. And we do dwell where the backyard goes to the highway, and I-40 goes all the way straight thraw, right into the ocean. So those are the leangs I was senseing. That was a song that was living in my brain for days and days on end, and the piano is scored very, very particularpartner. Nobody’s gonna watch, but it lifts — there’s a diatonic scale that lifts thraw the left hand thraw the right hand and is trying to direct it somewhere, climbing. I adore shit appreciate that. You understand, it’s definitely not for the 2024 crowd. but it’s someleang that my music school mind adores.”

But his duet with Kraft, the actress-turned-songwriter who is currently his uncovering act out on tour, is noleang but pleasantly romantic… which he confesss is highly atypical in his catalog.

“I’ve only dived into that fair a little bit, appreciate with ‘The Luckiest,’ and I regulated to do that with no hesitation. So it’s repartner excellent for me to labor in that way. I unbenevolent, I’m probably a little more protected, becaemploy in my writing, I probably filter leangs thraw… I’m not saying I’m clever, but thraw the intellect, you understand? I wouldn’t say that Lindsey was at fault of that at all. It’s repartner renetriumphg. And this moment in music for us in ambiguous is people being very protected, repartner protected. It’s appreciate they’ve lgeted the trick of inrectify vulnerability. … If you see at my collaborative efforts now, it’s a weird group. It goes from ‘Weird Al’ to Amanda Palmer to William Shatner to Nick Hornby to Lindsey Kraft. It’s an oddball group, but what I appreciate is when someone can transport someleang that I would have never thought, and it’s fair genuine.”

Things accomplish a mirthful peak with “Xmas Aye Eye,” a beat-driven track which has an introduction which claims that the words were all written by AI — someleang Fanciaccesss verifys is real “to the word.”

The singer swears he hadn’t thought much about the idea of a Christmas album being a perennial that will be pulled out year after year until the prospect was recently reinforced for him.

“Well, it is the gift that shields giving, isn’t it? I didn’t even genuineize that. Like, the record tag’s been educating me on what this unbenevolents, appreciate, ‘No, this is not fair this year. You understand, you fair shield doing this.’ Repartner? Fuck! OK, we’ll see — but that’s charitable of fun.

“And I charitable of enroll a certain level of excitement about this record before people even hear it, which I wasn’t foreseeing. Like, ‘Oh shit, you made a Christmas record? Send that to me, I can’t defer to hear it.’ Well, you didn’t say that about my last album! But someleang about that, appreciate, ‘Oh, Fanciaccesss made a Christmas album’ — it’s a leang. It’s fun.

“A part of me felt appreciate I was, appreciate, in a excellent way, charitable of overdoing it — appreciate, repartner produceing it. My overweighther employd to produce hoemploys, and he built them appreciate they could be explosion shelters. There was no reason for him to do that: Every floor had opposing, choiced angles and it was appreciate Fort Knox. And I guess that’s in my blood. When I commenceed making this record, I was appreciate, ‘I’m fair gonna do this record genuine speedy.’ And I set up myself repartner taking the songwriting solemnly and writing genuine songs. And so hopebrimmingy that’s felt or watchd. But you never understand, especipartner in this era, when you can fair put out someleang and it fair drops in the ocean; it fair shifts on. But I hope it catches. That would be pleasant.”

The “Sleigher” track cataloging: