By Tanya Steele
A sweet little piece of Christmas born from a cross-continental collaboration will screen at this year’s Knox Christmas Carols on Saturday 14 December.
Upwey accordion player James Hampton wrote the melody with author and lyricist Conor Bowman from Ireland at the end of a year of collaboration after he met him him online.
“I met Conor on a songwriting forum during the 2020 lockdowns. Conor is an author and lyricist and was looking for someone who could write music for his lyrics,” Mr Hampton said.
Barrister by day and author-lyricist by night, Mr Bowman has been writing songs since he was a teenager and said Mr Hampton he is the most incredible composer he’s ever worked with.
“James and I have never met, although we’ve spoken by Zoom a few times and I phone him occasionally. So, the relationship is long-distance and yet we share a common interest in music and creativity,” he said.
Over the course of the year, the duo wrote about 50 songs together and by Christmas time, the song A piece of Christmas Tree was born.
“In December 2020, Conor sent me the lyrics for Piece of Christmas Tree,” Mr Hampton said.
“The lyrics struck me as meaningful, they are about two people who are apart at Christmas time and planning to reunite the following year – they seemed especially fitting because of the lockdowns.”
Mr Bowman said he lyrics were inspired by visiting a Christmas tree farm in County Meath where he lives.
“The idea struck me that instead of sending a card you could send a piece of the tree in the mail and see what happens,” he said.
The song itself came about quite quickly and Mr Hampton said he wrote the whole thing in about 15 minutes.
“It doesn’t always happen that easily for me,” he said.
The artist recorded the song the following year and began looking into options for a music video.
“I really wanted to pay for an animation company to make something, but it was out of my budget,” said Mr Hampton.
He then decided to make a very basic animation himself.
“It was fun learning about animation, and I put a lot of time and effort into it.”
“It gave me a new appreciation for graphic design and animation. I’m amazed at what people can do.”
The animation is fun and colourful and features an all-star Christmas movie cast with nods to Macaulay Culkin, Will Ferrell, Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln in the clip.
Mr Bowman said when James made the video he was absolutely floored at his dedication and ingenuity and skill and patience to do it all himself. I couldn’t draw a straight line to save my life,.
“I’m useless with technology -I don’t have a cellphone,” he said.
“The magic he worked to make that video absolutely amazed me. I think the video makes the song even better than it is, if that’s possible.”
The song will screen at this year’s Knox carols alongside a bevy of free entertainment with community choirs, dance schools, the Royal Australian Navy band and more who are performing at the annual carols event.
The talented duo continue to work together and Mr Bowman said they have now hit around 70 songs.
“My hope is that someday we’ll both bring our families on holidays to somewhere halfway between Ireland and Australia and spend a couple of weeks writing songs at a grand piano and drinking cheap wine,” he said.
