Behind the music: Making "Peppermint Rendezvous"

I’ve always been obsessed with Christmas music. ANY holiday music instantly transports me back in time. I’m back there where my brother Noah and I put on Christmas vinyls and ran through our living room to jump up and hit the mistletoe chimes decoration that Mom put up (but we had to stop because we were causing skips in the records!). I’m back to the different years of decorating the tree with my family — each year was different, but one thing that was the same was the feeling you got with those Christmas records playing.

Since childhood, I’ve performed so many versions of different traditional and classic holiday songs, and enjoyed them all. About the time I was wrapping up the recording of “Lost in the Woods” in Malta, I decided my next project was going to be a Christmas album. So, starting in the spring of 2018, I began writing my first few holiday songs. I didn’t waste any time, and even started some preproduction on a few songs with Clément Ducasse in Bordeaux after filming the music video for “Can We Collide” at Chateau de Lescours in St. Emilion, France. Early 2019, returned to Bordeaux and knocked out preproduction for about 7 songs. Later that year, finished up a few more, filmed a video in the French Pyrenees for “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” and also stopped in Paris a few days to write “Christmas in Paris with you” with Fab’M and even did preproduction on that song at Alias Studio. But then…Covid happened.

During the Covid break with the travel restrictions, I put the Christmas album on hold since all the producers I was working with were in France. During this break, I wrote the songs for the EP Cathedral and recorded it at PDQ Productions in Miami with Bob St. John. It was amazing to meet and work with some new artists. During this time, one thing I did do for the Christmas album, was to do vocal recordings for “Christmas in Paris with you” at Scott Loudon’s Aashrum Studio in Ortonville, Michigan. It was a very early morning for us in Michigan as we worked the session live over zoom with Bertrand in Paris!

When travel opened back up, I returned in November 2021 to Paris to finally record all the songs for Peppermint Rendezvous, at Alias Studio with producer Bertrand Poncet. It was a very busy 5 weeks — as I did the vocal recordings for 13 of the 14 songs, we filmed a music video on the streets of Paris, and I co-wrote 5 new songs with Fabien Magnani (Fab’M) and did the preproduction and final vocal recordings for that collaborative EP that will release in the summer of 2024. So busy, but so much fun!

So, now, the Christmas album has finally released and I’m just so proud and excited about it. 6 of the songs are originals. “Baby’s First Christmas” was co-written with Linda Doane (Inspiration Worship) and it’s a really fun, upbeat song celebrating little ones at Christmas. “Finding You Santa” was co-written with Gina Weinzierl and is about allowing the stressed grown-up self to meet with the “inner child” self at the North Pole. “What Am I Gonna Wear?” is a fun story about a girl about to see the guy she likes at a Christmas party. “There Was A Child” is a deeply meaningful song to me, talking about the best gift being Jesus. “Ice Cream From The Sky” is a youthful, dancy, pop song about a wintery childhood experience I had (about which I also wrote my first children’s storybook about, in 2022). Finally, the 6th original is “Christmas in Paris with you”, released as a single in 2021, which was co-written and performed with Fab’M, a French pop singer based in Paris (see my other blog for more about that :)

The other 8 songs on the album are covers of some of my favorites, “Sleigh Ride”, “Pat a Pan”, “Carol of the Bells” and more. I had the honor of having some great artists perform on them. My brother, Noah Riemer (aka “Duke Otherwise”, sings some lines of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” on the end of “Pat a Pan”. On “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, the amazing Parisian violinist Velizar Assenov performs a stunning violin solo in the instrumental. Clément Ducasse (CLAY) duets with me on “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”. The last track is “Silent Night” - sung by myself in English and part in French by Fab’M and Marion Magnard for a beautiful, serene way to complete the album.

The vibe of the album is a bit of a smorgasbord (as many holiday albums are). It has some dance and celebration, some holiday drama, some Nativity and worship elements, some quiet and pensive moments, and some Christmas nostalgia. The music of the album is a reflection of this - overall it is pop, but it’s really a combination of electro-pop, light rock, acoustic, and synths. The name “Peppermint Rendezvous” ties it all together. The album is a collection of sweet, holiday meetings between families, between sweethearts, and between God and humanity, in the form of sending us Jesus. I know it’s a lot, it’s kind of like kids and candy canes, they can be a sticky mess, but what would Christmas be without them? :)

The cover art of the album also sums it up. It is an oil-painting created by my beautiful sister-in-law/artist Michaela von Seydlitz. She also did the cover art paintings for my albums & EPs “I Need Your Bloom”, “Lost in the Woods”, and “Cathedral”, as well as a few of my singles. Her art perfectly seems to encapsulate the feeling I’m going for in my music projects, and she nailed it once again with this one! Her cozy family room scene with the French accents and the Nativity is the perfect setting for all of these peppermint meetings.

I hope you enjoy my version of these holiday songs and find some new favorites among my originals! May your holidays (and beyond) be filled with your own Peppermint Rendezvous! Thank you for reading!