Could this be the quirkiest take on the Christmas 'single'?
HAILING from Newbury and Basingstoke, indie/rock band New Shores – Jim Bartholomew (lead guitar), Mark Keavney (vocals, bass and drums) and Pete Cooke (rhythm guitar) – have been together since 2019.
Their name is a play on words relating to the Shaw area of Newbury where they practice – Shaw, Newbury, turned around and tweaked became New Shores.
The band have already released two albums First Step (2020) and Painting By Numbers (2021), both comprising totally original self-written material, and they are currently completing their third album, to be released before Christmas.
Their new single, Christmas! On My Own (At Last) is, they believe, a unique and slightly humorous take on the sensitive subject of being alone at Christmas.
“Most Christmas songs portray being on your own at Christmas to be a bad thing as being alone can be perceived as being lonely,” explains James. “Our song is a complete 180-degree take on this, where being alone would be preferable if you were in an unhappy personal relationship.”
The song portrays renewed positive feelings of hope and wellbeing that someone might feel if their troublesome ‘significant other’ suddenly left them on Christmas Day, allowing them to be themselves for the first time by imbuing them with the spirit of Christmas and enabling them to make a new start in the New Year, turning life around for the better.
James says the Christmas song was actually written in 2019. “Instead of the usual themes of most Christmas songs of the last 50 years or so by all the big well-known bands that we love and like to listen to, Pete decided to write a witty take on Christmas about a couple that had a mutual understanding – that they didn’t really want to be together at Christmas. They got on well, but were happier on their own. No one gets hurt, they both want to be single again.
“All of us have been in bands before and writing and playing original songs. I have over the years been in lots of groups, playing and recording my own songs.” (Find them on Soundcloud.)
“Pete and I were forming a band in late 2018 just to play, write and record our own songs.
“Mark joined in early 2019. We were only all looking to play original songs – individually we’d lots already written and thought why not give it a go again at getting some recognition.”
“I believe we have some very good songs. With the third album now finished, there’s still lots of songs to record and we’re all still writing.”
The new album, called 3, will be released on December 8.
You can hear the Christmas single on most popular streaming services including:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4ZJdpyfpc4D0QnZvJyzGwE
https://music.apple.com/us/album/christmas-on-my-own-at-last-single/1591838217
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhkQ3AFINo
https://deezer.page.link/7cXrQAyQ15BNi4JC7
