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!
One of our longest standing traditions on the Advent Calendar is the annual festive treat from inimitable indie-pop chameleon Piney Gir and once again she’s come up with the yuletide goods for our 2023 edition. This year she’s aided and abetted by Oxford band Premium Leisure, with whom she’s teamed up for a cover of Big Star’s ‘September Gurls’ with a little added seasonal sparkle. You can download it below – if you enjoy it you may want to head to The Bullingdon in Oxford on 14th December, where Premium Leisure will be launching their debut album with support from Blue Bayou and Shock Horror, tickets are available here.
We caught up with Piney and Premium Leisure’s Chris Barker to find out more about their track.
What have you been up to this year?
Piney Gir – It feels like I’ve been on tour for most of the year. I sing backing vocals with Gaz Coombes and also Noel Gallagher, who both have new albums out this year, as well as doing my own Piney thing, and juggling a day job (luckily I can hot desk remotely for work)… it’s a lot, but it’s good to be busy right? I released an EP at the end of last year Alchemy Hand with Reckless Yes & then supported Gaz Coombes on his spring tour to promote it, followed by summer gigs and festivals with both Gaz & Noel. I then found a week to go to Berlin and record a new Piney EP with my long-time collaborators, Garo Nahoulakian, Mike Monaghan & Tomas Greenhalf… Mike & Tom live in Berlin and have a studio there. It was really fun to go to Berlin for a change of scene, to concentrate on creating some new music without too much distraction. The EP is being mixed right now by Tom and I can’t wait to share it with you next year! After that I did a European tour with Gaz and then Noel; then hopped on a plane to Australia for a 3 weeks tour with Gaz supporting Robbie Williams. I’m home for a few days before playing The New Theatre in Oxford with Gaz & doing a UK arena tour with Noel, which will end just before Christmas. Oh & I started doing the LOUD WOMEN radio show for Louder Than War Radio with Emma Brammer from Roxys, it’s been great to participate in LOUD WOMEN, helping to create a platform for women & the LGBTQ+ community, giving our tribe a louder voice. This year has been so fun, but I knew I would need help getting my Joyzine holiday track together for the advent calendar because I’ve simply been gone most of the year. Thankfully Chris Barker from Premium Leisure pulled through and whipped the home demo I started with Garo into a fully-fledged Christmas track, with a little added help from Jonny Payne on bass, who also did the artwork. Thanks guys!
Chris Barker – It has been a year of digging out a lot of recordings that had been put aside, whilst producing some fresh ones to go alongside them to make up our debut album. It’s been really enjoyable rekindling excitement for these old songs, which I didn’t release through previous runs, and giving them a fresh lick of paint to finish them off. It has also been very nice to tick the album release check box, which at many points in my life I thought I’d never do. Releases have been the main focus for PL this year, which has included some fun video shoots and some great gigs dotted about too. I’ve been working with a wider array of musicians as well through my production and mixing work, which has been really good for inspiration and drive to get writing more.
What have you got planned for 2024?
PG – I look forward to being home a bit more, although some tour dates are starting to trickle in for 2024, it seems like it’s not going to be nearly as busy as 2023… I just moved house and there are boxes everywhere! I want to focus on settling into my flat, my plants need me, ha! I also can.not.wait. to get that new Piney EP done to share with y’all early next year and am working towards getting a full album together for release end of next year. I have grand plans for the album and bonus materials, quirky merch, oracle cards, aura spray, etc… but for now it’s EP time! I can get overwhelmed when I overthink future plans, so one thing at a time. I like to have an idea of what’s next though, I’ve got a lot to do!
CB – I hope to get into the studio with my drummer Casper Miles and start laying down some new songs for the next EP or album. It’s the perfect time to get recording and writing in a lovely toasty studio. I’m sure we’ll start booking some more shows too.
Tell us about your track
PG – The Joyzine Advent calendar has become a bit of a Piney Christmas tradition, I love taking part in it each year; it’s such a fun concept. I knew I was going to be on tour in the lead up to the December so I asked Chris Barker, frontman of Premium Leisure, to help me put together this cover of “September Gurls” originally by Big Star. It’s not an obvious Christmas song, but I think our re-imagining of the track gives it a bit of extra Christmas sparkle… Premium Leisure have a bit of Big Star vibes about them, so it seemed an obvious pairing for us to collab on it!
CB – I was flattered to ‘get the call’ from Piney to do this track, what an honour. It was an interesting approach that we had to take as we were both touring in the lead up to December, so we both recorded our parts the night before we jumped in our respective tour mobiles and tweaked remotely on the road. It’s a great song of course, right up my street, so the parts all came together quite naturally in my home studio and our pal Jonny Payne (a great musician from Oxford) contributed some great Whitney inspired bass lines remotely. The track had to have sleigh bells and tubular bells in it, no question about it, and of course a George Harrison hat tilt in the form of some slide guitar.
This year Joyzine has been celebrating our 20th birthday – what were you up to in 2003?
PG – 2003 was the year Vic Twenty (my first band – a synth pop duo) supported Erasure around the UK and Europe. We released a single on CSU (a side-label of Mute Records). After that 6 week tour we split up (we didn’t fall out, but he wanted a break and I didn’t). So after our final performance at Truck Festival, I booked my first gig as Piney Gir (at the Kosmische Club in London) and had 3 months to come up with songs for a live set (I have always worked well towards a deadline). I then got offered a gig at The Cellar in Oxford, which was where I was offered a solo record deal with Truck Records. For the rest of that year I was in Truck Studios with A Scholar & A Physician recording/producing the debut Piney album Peakahokahoo which came out in 2004. It was a big year for me and I was so wide-eyed about it all, I’m really grateful to the good people at Truck & also to Steve Dawson and Oli Horton for producing that first album. Making that album helped me find myself & discover my purpose. Joyzine was there, every step of the way!
CB – 2003 is the year I started secondary school. I distinctly remember this period where my routine consisted of getting home from school, having endless games of solitaire on the family desktop computer and playing Permission to Land by ‘The Darkness’ on repeat. I later tried to learn all the guitar parts and solos from the album, some really great licks in there that I still find myself noodling around today.
Any new year’s resolution?
PG – I want to find a hobby, I am always so busy doing music stuff (which I love) but it’s all-consuming & it’s not ‘a hobby’… I’d love to find something that I can do where I can really switch off and relax, maybe I’ll join a bowling team like in The Big Lebowski, or invent a D ‘n’ D style board game, I could get really good at baking babka, or maybe just learn how to knit a cape… it’s tough to decide right now, so we’ll see what happens!
CB – I’ve been meaning to build a studio in my back garden for the whole of this year. If it’s not done by this time next year I’ll be pretty disappointed with myself, so my resolution is to get that done… and exercise more.
Download ‘September Gurls‘
Make a donation to HOPE not hate
Find out more about Piney Gir on her official website and follow her on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Youtube
Follow Premium Leisure on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Youtube
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
5: The Fades – Last Christmas (On The Beach)
6: AK/DK – Auld Lang Syne
7: Modesty Blaise – I’ll Be Home for Christmas
8: The Awkward Silences – I’ll Be Getting a Divorce for Christmas
9: Dead Horse – Eating The Reindeer
10: Palm Ghosts – Always Christmas Time
11: Charley Stone – Merry Christmas Actually
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