It’s December, which round these parts means it’s time once again for The Joyzine Advent Calendar! This year we’re celebrating our 20th edition, so we’ve scoured the archives to mix in some calendar classics along with a few fresh festive cuts from our favourite artists.
As always every track on the calendar will be absolutely free to download, and we don’t force you to sign up for our mailing list (though you can if you want, here) or hand over all of your personal data. The calendar is our Christmas gift to the world (or at least the part of it that enjoys seasonal songs by obscure indie musicians), but if you’re also in the giving mood we’d love you to make a donation to our chosen cause, the excellent anti-racism charity HOPE not hate, which you can do here.
On with the free festive tunes!
Today’s free advent calendar download treat is another seasonal original, this time from veterans of many a Joyzine gig (including our joint 20th birthday bash at The Lexington earlier this year), The Fades. The South London punk soul rockers have created a festive heartbreaker for your enjoyment, ‘Last Christmas (On The Beach)’, which you can download absolutely free below.
We caught up with frontman Dave Lightfoot to find out more.
What have you been up to this year?
LOADS!! We’ve been promoting our latest record Night Terrors with gigs across the UK, plus we released a couple of brand new singles ‘Off the Record’ and ‘Small Again’.
What have you got planned for 2024?
We are going in to the studio with the legendary Paul Tipler (80’s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Idlewild) to record a brand new single in January, plus we have some very special gigs coming up, with potential trips to Scotland, LA and Norway on the cards.
Tell us about your track
‘Last Christmas (On the Beach)’ was partly inspired by a very wet and windy trip to the seaside one time. I wanted to imagine a sort of miserable British Christmas lament about lost love and local aggro on the coast. It’s a little tongue in cheek; a mix of Fairytale of New York and Pulp with the Fades.
This year Joyzine has been celebrating our 20th birthday – what were you up to in 2003?
Meeting and hanging out with you! We did loads of gigs with a plethora of exciting new bands that you guys had on your radar, including Art Brut, Rhesus, Eight Legs, Vincent Vincent and the Villains, Metro Riots, Mystery Jets, Bloc Party, The Others and many more. We released our debut single ‘You Say’ and it was all over XFM – good times! We started at the same time as you did. Happy Birthday to all of us!
Any new year’s resolution?
Mainly to just try and live in the moment and really enjoy what we’re doing while we’re doing it.
Download ‘Last Christmas (On The Beach)‘
Make a donation to HOPE not hate
Find out more about The Fades on their official website
Check back tomorrow for another free festive download!
Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:
1: MJ Hibbett – I Got You What You Want For Christmas
2: Matt Edible & The Obtuse Angels – Advent Beard
3: Old Man May – Laden Sleigh
4: Michael M (SLIME CITY) – It’s Easy To Hate This Time of Year
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