O: Welcome everybody to the OKXmas experience!

K: Welcome!

O: You could call it the OKXperience...

K: Well, they could. One could.

O: But we're not gonna.

O: We thought it would be interesting to give some of the inside info into OKXmas... um, it's the first time we've done real true vinyl. And with that we thought, how fun to share the background story, the inside scoop, if you will, to each of the tracks.

K: Yeah. So we're gonna go track by track and give you a little bit of background behind the arrangement, maybe some tidbits about the, uh, recording process. Um, any funny anecdotes that might present themselves...

O: and there are some anecdotes. Get ready. We're just excited to have you along for the ride and we hope you enjoy OKXmas. Happy holidays!

OKXmas - O Come Isabella

Olivia: O Come, Isabella -- one of our faves. This is usually the track that, or the, the tune that we open our holiday uh, shows with. Mm. Rightfully so. I feel like it's very majestic.

Karla: It is very majestic. Do you remember where we put this arrangement together? Trivia!

Olivia: Uh oh, it's trivia about my own life and I don't know. I'm gonna say no to that.

Karla: Really? Phone a friend, call me.

Olivia: Okay. Karla, do you remember?

Karla: I do remember. And, um, it was at Black Label during our residency. Yes. One of our first residencies at Black Label in November. And um, we were like, we really wanna do something with O Come All Ye Faithful. And I really wanted to do something with Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella. And we spent some time being like, how could they go together? And I remember this one moment, you know, like right towards the end of the track where we have that really sweet moment. The cello's playing O Come All Ye Faithful and violin is playing, uh, Bring a Torch.

Olivia: Oh. And then we’re in harmony.

Karla: And then we meet. Yes, we meet for a moment in harmony. And the first time we ever did that, it was unexpected. We didn't know it was gonna, they were gonna line up that way. We just looked at each other and we were like, heart eye emojis all over the place.

Olivia: It's kismet. Yeah. Yeah. I did not remember that. Thank you for reminding me of that.

Karla: You're so welcome.

Olivia: Now I'm like envisioning myself in that space and remembering what it smelled like and how cozy it was. Mm-hmm. , it makes sense. Um, also, so that's toward the end of the tune but the beginning. Um, when the cello comes in, when I play the second verse of O Come All Ye Faithful , it's really, it's, it's spiritual for me. It's, it's not for everyone, but, and that's kind of what we love about our, our holiday music, is that because it doesn't have words, it can mean whatever it needs to mean to everybody during this season. For me it's spiritual and when I play that second verse, I like get chills every single time.

Olivia: So I'm like, I dunno, the buildup of it all. And you go to town and I'm like, you know, ‘Yea Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning’. It just rocks me. Um, so love that. And. This, this tune. It used to be Festive, which we'll talk about later. Um, but I feel like this tune now has kind of become the tune that feels like home for the holidays, you know? We have those few tunes in our repertoire, in our library that just feel really good to play. And I feel like this is one for me.

Karla: This is also the tune that is the background or the soundtrack for our very first like holiday music video.

Olivia: Yes, it is. Ooh, good tidbit.

Karla: Yes.

Karla: So what year was this? Was this 2017?

Olivia: 2017, yeah. So this is on Have Yourself An OK Christmas, which we yes, recorded and released in 2017. .

Karla: Yeah. So if you go to theokfactor.com/epk, there are a few videos sort of right at the top of that. And this is the one, the third one, uh, O Come, Isabella, and it's like straight up music video. Yeah. We worked with David Carey , longtime friend of the Hahn family. Right. Um, to put this together and he had this great vision and we sort of were like, great, let's do it. We didn't, we didn't exactly know what we wanted and we relied on his, uh, storyboarding and, you know, decades of experience in the film storytelling world to help us craft this very cute little video.

Olivia: It is, and I feel like it really embodies kinda that feeling I was talking about of home, right? It's, it sort of goes through the story about a neighbor who might be kinda on their own and lonely, played by our dear friend Dan Fernelius's sweet, wonderful mother Linda - did a little cameo. She did awesome. Um, but just kind of the idea that, you know, some people might be feeling lonely or really physically be by themselves, uh, for the holidays. And so this tune or the CD can kind of be a way music can bring people together. Um, so by the end it's like a little caroling party at this person's house and it's very sweet.

Karla: Yeah. Yeah. We also, we, we brought in some other people to, um, like open a gift. So the like cuts between these different shots of couples. You know, giving each other a gift for the holidays and it just happens, just happens to be , uh, Have Yourself an OK Christmas by The OK Factor. And their reactions are just so sweet. And watching them act in Olivia's house in different parts to make it look different to just, I mean, the whole setup was, was great. There's also a shot of us packing up pre-orders for have Yourself an OK Christmas where we, I tried to artistically make hot cocoa. I remember this very well. And it looked so good. I wanted to drink it and so I did. And then when it came time to film it, it didn't look as good anymore. Oh, so go watch the video and spot the awkward looking hot cocoa .

Olivia: At any rate, we hope you enjoy O Come, Isabella.

Olivia: Angels. What can we say about this? What can't, what can't we say about it?

Karla: So this one is on Season's Greetings, our little holiday EP from the Covid era. 2020. 2020. Um, I don't even, I don't remember the origin of this one, do you?

Olivia: Well, all I can say is, I had the cello accompaniment written for a long time, and by written, I of course mean just like in my head. I had thought of it a while back and I, for the life of me, couldn't figure out what to put with it. And I think,

Karla: well, it was a double tune.

Olivia: It was because you played -

Karla: I played the second tune. Yeah.

Olivia: Yeah. And so I had these double, yeah, this double tune figured out. I actually think that we tried it with Ellis on flute. When we were co-writing with her. Years ago.

**O should’ve said them. Ellis uses they/them pronouns.

Karla: Yeah. Cause it felt really Irish.

Olivia: It totally did. Yeah. And anyway, nothing ever came of that. And maybe it's still good, but we had this tune lying around and we knew we wanted to do something with Angels We Have Heard On High. and I think it just sort of happened. .

Karla: Yeah. Well, so Season's Greetings was recorded in your basement? Yes. At 2215, um, studios. And, uh, this one was an interesting recording experience, mostly because it was the first time we were recording separately.

Olivia: Yeah. And the first time that we really recorded ourselves. Like truly, truly.

Karla: Yeah, that's true. We, we had ordered these really lovely warm audio WA two something or other microphones, these lovely, um, were they ribbons or condensers? I always forget. I think they were condensers.

Olivia: I think they're condensers,

Karla: But they're, they're styled after this, you know, microphone from like the fifties or something that's, um, just like a sought after microphone for recording studios. And so the, I think that they're a German. I think they're German. This company sort of revamped it for the modern age, um, modern age being now and made it actually affordable for people like us to bring into our home studios. And Olivia, this is your favorite microphone. You will never record on another microphone.

Olivia: I never will. And whenever we go into another studio, I might just be like, listen to this sound. This is what I need to sound like. Yeah. We have never had such good luck getting the cello to sound as true, as close, as real as it does. Um, which is,

Karla: With this one microphone.

Olivia: Right? It's just one and it's not, I mean, it's, it's close to my instrument, but it's, it's nothing fancy, you know, and yet,. I dunno, for whatever reason...

Karla: No, our other setups, um, like, Have Yourself an OK christmas was filmed at Wild Sound Studios in Northeast Minneapolis.

Olivia: Recorded.

Karla: What did I say?

Olivia: Not filmed,

Karla: Did I say filmed?

Olivia: You did.

Karla: Whoops. Recorded -

Olivia: which would be super cool.

Karla: We did some filming there.

Olivia: We, we did, yeah.

Karla: Yeah. Okay. Um, recorded at, uh, Wild Sound Studios Northeast Minneapolis. And, um, we each had two microphones on our instruments, plus at least one or two sets of room mics. And it sounded really lovely, but for some reason, I don't know what it is, these warm audio condenser mics are just really doing it for our string instruments. So yeah, this was the first tune we recorded for Season's Greetings we were like, we gotta start with something that feels great.

Olivia: Poppin'..

Karla: Yeah.

Olivia: Yeah. Um, and I feel like this tune where it falls in the set, it's fairly early on. I think it's usually like second, third, um, typically in our set for holiday shows. And I think the reason I like it so much is that element of, of kind of surprise when you hear the beginning it's like, what could this possibly be? Like what holiday tune could come of this? And then it's so, like, it's not that it's not angelic, but like it's not, I don't think what you think of when you think of angels. Until now.

Karla: And, and there's that great moment in the middle where we, like, we leave Irish fiddle stuff behind and we jump back into our classical roots with this soaring, crescendo and like lovely tight harmonies. Yeah. Like what you would expect from Angles We Have Heard On High. Yeah. Yeah.

Olivia: Just for a moment though. Just a taste.

Karla: For a moment. Just for a taste. And then we, we pop it right back into The OK Factor. Yeah. The factor of O and K.

Olivia: Love it. Love me some angels. We hope you enjoy Angels.

Olivia: All right. Midwinter. What Sweeter Music. Yes.

Karla: What a lovely little arrangement.

Olivia: Yeah. This is one of my faves. It's just so peaceful. I feel really peaceful when I'm playing.

Karla: Yeah. This one is cello and ukulele, right? And, um, it's kind of been reformatted from, uh, what was Midwinter from, Have Yourself an OK Christmas, um, which was violin and cello, and then, We knew we wanted Season's Greetings to be an EP that would be as true to our holiday show as possible. Not that it would have everything on it, but that the tunes that came off of that EP, um, could be reproduced live,

Olivia: Right, could be recreated.

Karla: Um, so we, we revamped it. We did added the ukulele for some. And love the bari ukulele with the cello. Just a great pairing. And then tacked on What sweeter Music by John Rutter. Um, this What Sweeter Music is, is one of my favorite holiday tunes. It's especially nostalgic because it was one that they did at least twice during Christmas at Luther's. Mm-hmm. Christmas at Luther's during, during Christmas at Luther, when we were, um, in school.

Olivia: This is also one that's very kind of true to O & K in that the cello holds the melody.

Karla: So jealous of it. I love the melody for What Sweeter Music.

Olivia: It is gorgeous. It is lovely. In our original arrangement of Midwinter, the violin ends up taking -

Karla: That's true.

Olivia: The melody. Um, but, I mean, but What Sweeter Music Music isn't a part of that, right? It's just for In the Bleak Midwinter. Um, but I think it's, it's unique or maybe unexpected for the cello to hold the melody throughout the entire thing. And I do feel very honored to be able to play --

Karla: Season's Greetings has like two…a lot of cello features.

Olivia: Yes. I love it. Yeah. Um, it also kind of feels like, right, it feels like the right fit cuz just the reg-, the range, the register. The key. Yep. Yeah. Just feels good.

Karla: Yeah. We even experimented. I think that there was a moment where, In recording Midwinter, because we were doing it separately we were like, well, what if we tack on some violin stuff? Just like for fun. And I think I did two passes and I hated all of it. It's like it just doesn't need it.

Olivia: It was lovely and it would've been, a lovely addition, but I think these melodies in particular really just kind of speak for themselves and that's what we found. Is that in their simplicity they are stunning. And that's what's nice about the uke too, is that it just adds, while it does add rhythm that we wouldn't otherwise have, it kind of like uncomplicates things in a way. You know, like, that's kinda a weird word to use, but that's kind of how it feels. It just feels very like simple. Here it is. You know? Yeah. Which I love. Um, yeah. Love this tune.

Karla: So good. Enjoy. .

Olivia: All I can think about saying for this one is, oh, fer cute. I can't stop saying it.

Karla: Oh, fer cute.

Olivia: Oh, fer cute.

Karla: It is cute. It's so cute.

Olivia: It really is just the sweetest little ditty. This was, this was all Karla, I have to say. This was, yeah.

Karla: All Karls's idea.

Olivia: No wonder it's so cute.

Karla: Well, just, here's the thing about this one. We were getting ready to record Season's Greetings, and I was like, um, could, could we make, could we try The Christmas Waltz? Yeah. There's some, there's some CD from my dad's immense holiday collection, but it, it's like a, it's like a, like a Starbucks cocktail party mix cd.

Karla: I don't know. This was back in the day when Starbucks would put out albums before they could do playlists, you know, like their playlist. You could buy them at a Starbucks. And my dad, you know, like while he is a connoisseur of CDs of all kinds, um, can't pass up a good Starbucks mix tape, basically. It's just, you know, why not?

Karla: It's right there. You just pick it up. So he did that with this one and The Christmas Waltz was on there and it was like a, like it's, can you just, just imagine with me for a moment, little Karla, she's got a bowl cut or like a really short haircut. She's got Harry Potter glasses.

Olivia: Yeah

Karla: She's in the fourth grade.

Olivia: Yes.

Karla: She's got a couple friends.

Olivia: Of course she does

Karla: But not a lot. She's not popular at all.

Olivia: Who needs them.

Karla: And she sits by the Christmas tree at night when it's all like glowing and lit up and she's imagining, you know, the holidays and maybe that cute boy will like me after the new year and

Olivia: Oh my goodness.

Karla: And this song plays and you just, your heart breaks a little bit for young little Karla cuz she's so like. Everything that's lovely about Christmas is her experience. Big family holiday gatherings, some really delicious food, and everyone's happy. And like, you know, there's that feeling at, um, like Christmas Day, everyone's together and you just opened up a bunch of presents and you ate a big meal together.

Karla: And then you go upstairs to the living room at my grandparents' house and you, you sit down and you put on some records and you just listen to it and the adults are drinking coffee. And the kids are falling asleep. But it's like a really happy, sleepy kind of feeling. And, and then this is that song, The Christmas Waltz.

Olivia: Oh my gosh. You just painted a picture.

Karla: A real Charles Ives.

Olivia: I was there. I was there.

Karla: Is that Charles Ives?

Olivia: I dunno.

Karla: The, the painter. The holiday. I don't know. Isn't that a,

Olivia: Okay, cut that, that's fine. Another thing we can do some research on . Um, I love that. Yeah, I mean, this tune just is all about nostalgia, right?

Olivia: And if we know Karla Marie Dietmeyer Colahan , we know that nostalgia is, should be one of your other middle names, , Karla Marie Nostalgia Dietmeyer Colahan. Wow. I mean, really though. It's what you're all about.

Karla: But honestly, Olivia, what makes this song great is not the song itself, but the mouth trumpet.

Olivia: Oh golly. Forgot all about that.

Karla: this particular recording -

Karla: And our arrangement of it is just really the cherry on top.

Olivia: It's something.

Karla: The star on top of the Christmas tree.

Olivia: It Is something else. You know, I think, yes, I will say that the mouth trumpet is sssspecial.

Karla: It's so good.

Olivia: People. I love doing this one live because people really dunno what to do with themselves. reactions the of it and they see my face, which fun fact, I can't do mouth trumpet and smile it like it must be the perfect embouchure if you will. Even for mouth trumpet. And so I can't look at anybody because the audience wants to laugh. It's funny, right? It. This is the most ridiculous thing, but they also kind of love it, and so they're like not sure whether we're serious or not, and oh, we're just lean into it. . Just lean. Just let it happen. Lean into it.

Karla: Karla's over here singing about frosted window panes and candles gleaming inside, and then you got a muted, a muted trumpet.

Olivia: I mean, it's just too, it's too much. But you know, it's kind of like we're working with what we have as we do.

Karla: We do not have a jazz trumpeter on staff here at The OK Factor.

Olivia: But we do. But we do. Yeah. It's like pulling out all the stops for the nostalgic Christmas tune and it just, you had to be done. Yeah, had to be done. I think we end on the mouth trumpet note.

Karla: That's a good note.

Olivia: We hope you feel warm and fuzzy and full of good food and Christmas spirit. Enjoy.

Karla: What is there to say about Shchedryk? Aside from a lot, there's a lot to say about Shchedryk.

Olivia: There's a lot to unpack here. There's a lot to unpack. So we always joke, we'll just get this joke done right away. Um, that this is about like as hardcore and rock as we get . So, take it all in.

Karla: Which it's true. I mean, and it is, it is pretty rocking. On a scale of one to rock, it rocks . .

Olivia: Yeah, it does get there. Uh, yeah. You know, I don't really remember the origins of this. This is an, an older one though. This was on our Happy Holidays album.

Karla: It was on Happy Holidays. Yes. Yeah. And do you remember recording that

Olivia: In my apartment?

Karla: In your apartment.

Olivia: I sure do.

Karla: and I, I remember rehearsing it in your bedroom of all places. I don't know why. I couldn't tell you why. But I remember your apartment on 32nd Street. Over in the, uh, yeah.

Olivia: Yeah, by Lake Calhoun (Bde Maka Ska). Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, and that was 2015. Was that the first year that you were here?

Karla:

Karla: I was here because at our CD release party for Happy Holidays, and my husband proposed..

Olivia: When you got engaged? Yes. Oh man. Yeah. So

Karla: That's hilarious.

Olivia: It's all coming together. Yeah.

Karla: Yeah. This is an old one, but, um, I feel like this was one that we had spent time recording, like voice memos back and forth.

Olivia: We must have Yeah. While you were still in Colorado. Cause we were putting ideas together well before we recorded and, but I, but I think this. In true OK fashion this was a pretty tight turnaround. As in, we were probably recording in like October

Karla: Yep.

Olivia: Or something.

Karla: To release a CD to release in December. It's fine.

Olivia: It's okay. Haha. didn't even mean to, um, yeah, so I, I don't quite remember how it all came to be. I remember, I actually do remember having this idea of like a nagging. Like that sort of rhythm -

Karla: Manheim Steamroller!

Olivia: Was that an inspiration?

Karla: I think Manheim Steamroller was a huge inspiration for this one because on one of their, is it Fresh Air? Fresh Air Christmas, I don't remember. It's the one with the blue. It's the blue. The blue cover. The blue cover with the big Christmas tree. Yeah. They do Carol of the Bells and it starts off with the The off. Wait, no. They start with bells and it's done. Dun, dun, dun dun. And then they go, dun, dun, dun. Oh. And then they put it together.

Karla: So we loved that separation of it, of really feeling the two against three. So like Olivia starts the tune. With the, um,

Olivia: just a B flat over and over,

Karla: and then you'll hear the violin come in with the melody. But then when we sort of switch violin takes the, the three, which is one little tidbit about this one that I love. Yeah. You know, it's kind of like, um, pulling both pieces apart and then putting them back together. And I don't, there's, there's like two original things that happen in this one. I feel like that's an Olivia tune.

Olivia: Yeah, I think it is. But then it sort of comes back in this fiddle tune part in the second half.

Karla: Yeah, it's kind of like half improvisation. Yeah. Yeah.

Olivia: Um, and I think that was kind of the idea, right? Is that the beginning would be, I won't say pristine because it's, it's not pristine. It's um, yeah, like nagging is the only one I can think of and that's derogatory, but

Karla: I'd also call it traditional. Like this is probably. The first half is fairly traditional to how you expect to hear Carol of the Bells.

Olivia: Yeah. Aside from that little bit where the cello breaks into an original Yeah. Uh, snippet. But then in the, in the second half it was kind of like, okay, go for it. Yeah. , just do your thing. So, um, and something that we really love to do, which is pairing traditional with original and mashing them up and mixing them up and figuring out, you know, like, oh, will people catch this little quote kind of thing. Yep. Um, so I think that's kind of where the second half came from.

Karla: And then we bring it all back together, but still in like the, the rocking and sort of finish it in a really big flourish.

Olivia: It's very dramatic. Yes. Yeah. Drama.

Karla: We always say on stage we're like, so this is, you know, Carol of the Bells, Ukrainian Carol. And when we were recording this, you know, we did some research about the tune and found out that it's actually about the story of a sparrow coming into your home and bringing good news, good tidings of a plentiful harvest to come.

Karla: And, um, we were like, we always thought that was really interesting because.

Olivia: Because it seems, it sounds very foreboding.

Karla: It does sound foreboding. Yeah. And I wonder if there's some like cultural stuff in there that, um, that, that's leaning into like the, the musicality is, could be, you know, of Ukraine and their history and things that I don't know about.

Karla: But I just, I just get that sense. Like if you listen to like Shostakovich or like other, like Russian composers specifically, sometimes their stuff is um, a little bit dark. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And Ukrainian Carol, Carol of the Bells definitely has a little bit of a darker feel to it, even though the message is a little more, you know, positive.

Karla: That's just, I think they must just spend a lot of their year in the dark. Could be quite literally the sun. Is not out very much.

Olivia: I also think even if it weren't, uh, you know, it, it's so all the intervals are so close together, which I think makes it feel kind of like anxious . Um, which we definitely lean into cuz I'm playing a b-flat against an A. It's this very dissonant, tight half step. Yeah. Um, but I think just the fact that it's a Christmas song in minor, in a minor key makes us feel a little off . But I, I think that's again why we kind of love it. Yeah. Right. Cause it's sort of like, gotta get that balance. There can be. Yeah. There can. Christmas can exist in a minor key.

Karla: Totally. After all, A minor key is just a specific pairing of half steps and whole steps after all. So is a major key after all. So they're really not that different and they related. It's like two sides of the same coin. It's true. Gotta have the dark and the light.

Karla: Two things are true. We hope you enjoy Shchedryk.

Karla: This one is literally the best.

Olivia: It's too much.

Karla: So the recording on the vinyl, OKXmas is a brand new recording from 2022. Specifically recorded for

Olivia: For the vinyl.

Karla: For the vinyl, yeah. However, the origin of this tune dates way back.

Olivia: This is like one of the oldest

Karla: to when Karla lived at home in Georgia after college. There's a video somewhere of um, me layering this stuff on GarageBand and then I've got headphones in and I've got a cute little like fleece thing on . I'm just like rocking out to it. Yeah, it was like a teaser for this tune that we put on social media. I mean it was, it was like layers of violin and I sent it to Olivia and she sent me back layers of cello and like I'm pretty sure the original like demo version of this was done apart, but I think we recorded it separately back in your apartment?

Olivia: Yeah, we did because there were, there are literally like, I think this one was a, was a contest to see how many layers we could get in one tune , which again is like, I think that's why we love it so much. It just, it makes it nearly impossible to recreate without like a loop pedal. Which we did experiment with for a holiday show and quickly shut that down. Uh, it was not the right time to be experimenting with that, but um, it's so fun to listen to with that many layers. So yeah. There's like, let's break it down. There's violin harmonics . There's the that violin lick. There's your melody.

Karla: There's the melody. I think that's it. I think I only have three. . But then the cello does,

Olivia: and I have like low droney fifths.

Karla: You got low droney fifths, you've got pizz.

Olivia: Ding, ding. Yep, I got that.

Karla: And then, um, there's like a, like a mid,

Olivia: There's a mid harmony, right? Mid harmony, yeah. And then the melody. . Yeah. And I don't know if I know your experience with Ding Dong Merrily On High. But I heard that for the first time actually at a- I don't remember what they call..Christmas Fest is what St. Olaf calls their Christmas program. There's a little bit of, you know, beef between St. Olaf and Luther, but I do have two sisters who went to St. Olaf and so I attended a fair share of Christmas Fests and, um, and I, that's where I first heard it, the choir sang it, and it was so like, like very,

Karla: Very ding dong-y.

Olivia: It did sound like that , you know? Um, so anyway, I always just think of that. I literally always picture the, like, I can see it in my mind, um, them doing this. Yeah. What, how did you, how do you know this tune?

Karla: I mean, Ding dong Merrily On High. It's just like a, like a staple. My dad-

Olivia: When you say that, I wonder if it's a staple for everyone. It's not like Jingle bells, you know? I mean,

Karla: Well it's a staple in the Dietmeyer family.

Olivia: Exactly.

Karla: Not even it's, I wouldn't even say like it's a favorite. It's just, it's on every choral cd. Like every choir Ding Dong Merrily On High. Yeah. Um, but the part about Heralds that, that really speaks to me is Hark the Herald Angels sing by the one and only Felix Mendelssohn

Olivia: Hey, share your Mendelssohn story.

Karla: About my violin?

Olivia: Yes. I just think this is a good time and place to, to share that little, this is a tidbit if there ever was one,

Karla: If there ever was a tidbit, yeah. It would be that Karla's first full size violin. Sorry. I don't know why I talk about myself in the third person, but sometimes it just happens. My first full size violin. Um, I got in the fourth grade and I played it all the way through junior year of college. Um, and I had named it Felix. After Felix Mendelssohn, because Mendelssohn was my favorite composer. I just, I don't know. I really, I fell in love with the Mendelssohn violin concerto at a really young age and um, really wanted to play it and eventually did. And, um, when I discovered that he wrote the, the tune for Hark the Herald Angels Sing, it was just like, you know, could I love the holidays anymore?

Karla: No, it's not possible, but it, yet it is. Then junior year I got a new violin, um, handcrafted by Stephanie Voss out of Atlanta, who I bought my first full size from. And, um, this instrument was decidedly female. Like there was just something about it, kind of temperamental, kind of, um, I mean, it was a brand new instrument, so of course it was gonna be temperamental, but, uh, I don't know.

Karla: It just, it had, it had a vibe that was much more feminine than my other instrument, which was made. I don't know, 1780 something or other, just like older, had had like an old white man kind of feel to it. Okay. It did. So anyway, I decided to name this one Fanny, right? Yeah. Or is it Fanny? Or Fanny? Fran.

Karla: Franny. No, Franny was my car. No. Fanny. Fanny. Fanny is um, is your violin? Is my violin. And is the sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Younger sister? I believe so. Um, wow. That was a long tidbit.

Olivia: That was a, that was a long tidbit, but, and tidbits are, I think, supposed to be short. That was a tad bit long. A tod, a tad, a Todd.

Olivia: But why, why is, um, so that's why Hark the Herald Cause they're just really long angels High. No wait. Hark the Herald.

Karla: And it, you, you don't hear a lot of Hark the Herald in this tune. There's like, uh, the violin, you know, like quotes it, and then the cello takes the melody in a, you know, like a full verse of it.

Olivia: But it, but it uses that same like abbreviated

Karla: Oh yeah, yeah.

Olivia: Yeah. He's like, but we like shorten the first...

Karla: and that's it. Yeah. I just, I think Mendelson was such a crafty composer with how he like transitioned to things like there's like secondary dominants in there and that feel really good. Like all the things that feel really good about a holiday tune are in Hark the Hearld Angels Sing

Olivia: yeah, that's true. Um, I spaced out for one second just now because I was trying to think of the chord progression and why we love that part of the cello melody so much.

Olivia: It goes to e major riding that, that It's not the seven though. I

Karla: know, but like you hit the, the G-sharp.

Olivia: It's a five right. But why does the five to one feel so wonderful there? I mean, five one is

Olivia: pretty typical

Karla: Because you're holding onto the third, which is G Sharp, and G-sharp wants to go to a A, and the way you've harmonized the chord...

Olivia: yeah, because B is on the bottom. And so like, and so I'm playing a B in the bass. Yeah. Sorry y'all, you probably don't care about this, but I just wanted to know, this is very typical of O&K. And that is that I don't understand the theory behind it. What I understand is that my ear and my body like it, and so I do it, and then usually I have to lean on Karla to explain to me why that is.

Karla: Yeah. Except that , 10 years out of college, I can't remember half the stuff anymore.

Olivia: Yes, you can. I am not a very theoretical mind, but we just have to break it down and figure it out. And so I think we came to the conclusion that the B is constant in the bass. I'm doing a bar, I'm doing a fifth so it's B and F sharp. And then I go to G Sharp. And then you want that to resolve to A, which it does. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm with you. It's good. At any rate, that's one of our favorite parts, and I think it was kind of a surprise because I'm pretty sure I remember putting this together when I lived in Memphis.

Karla: Ooh.

Olivia: I think we. Like it finally came to fruition when I was,

Karla: cause I was living at home. Yeah.

Olivia: Right. That makes sense. Mm-hmm. , I mean, I guess came to fruition in that we didn't actually record it for anything. Well, that's not true, Karla. We, we've done a lot of holiday in our day, in our 10 years.

Karla: Was it a music Monday?

Olivia: It was a music Monday for band camp. Okay. Yeah. And then we, um, [00:09:00] burned our own CDs. Oh, that's, if you'll recall did Yeah. The one with them before the holiday album. Yeah. And that was the one with the, OK. Like we printed out our own labels

Karla: With the Santa hat?.

Olivia: Oh, correct. With hat on it. Oh yeah, the gold tape. Yep. Yeah. If you only knew, some of you listening to this are probably OG OK fans. And you will recall these sweet little demos that we made.

Karla: And if you're not, you can go to theokfactor.bandcamp.com and search through the archives. Yes, you, there's our, um, our holiday, whatever holiday demo. I don't even remember what we called it. Um,

Olivia: I don't either.

Karla: But it's on there. You can listen to it.

Olivia: Yeah. And I think there actually is a picture of the demo, yes or no. It's not a demo of the It's the album art. Yeah, it's the album art for the, anyway, y'all, it is something special. Um, but love this tune. And loved rerecording. It. It was really fun. Yeah. You know, another interesting thing about this is that we had a heck of a time kinda like deciding on tempo.

Karla: Oh my God. It's actually a lot slower.

Olivia: It felt really slow. Right?

Karla: This new recording is slower than the original.

Olivia: Yeah. But it, it felt good. Yeah. Kind of grooved. .

Karla: Yeah. It's not as, um, hurried.

Olivia: Right. Yes. Yeah. It's kind of nice. Yeah. It's just like, take it down one notch.

Karla: Just one.

Olivia: And enjoy your Christmas. Truly enjoy your Christmas. We hope you like it.

Olivia: We've come to what I think is the most pared down arrangement, maybe like ever, for sure. Mm-hmm. of our holiday selections.

Karla: We spend a good like third of this tune in unison.

Olivia: Yeah. Which ironically enough, yeah, I do too. Is it's difficult. Like you're gonna be in unison. It really has to be in unison. We gotta be on. Yeah. Yeah. But I also love that.

Karla: This was another one that, or the second one that sort of came out of that time at Black Label, which we haven't really explained what Black Label is, but it was, you know, the digital music library downtown Minneapolis. Um, they, they work with a lot of big companies to license music for tv, film and commercials. And we had just finished up a residency composing new music for their library when the holidays were approaching. And so we were like experimenting with some new stuff for our shows

Olivia: yeah. Kinda like in between writing tracks. Yeah. We would, yeah. Come up with ideas or just as a break.

Karla: So around this time was when we found out that Weston Noble had passed away and Weston Noble was kind of like, for lack of a better term, the patriarch of Luther College.

Karla: Um, he, you know, was one of, if not the original choir director. Of Nordic Choir. Um, didn't he do band too? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. . Um, had a long career there and was Professor Emeritus, I think, and sort of stuck around campus and lived actually very close by. Was a fixture in Decorah in general.

Olivia: Came to our first show.

Karla: Yeah, he did.

Olivia: When we first became a duo. Which felt like really special. Yeah.

Karla: So when we found that out, it was like, we need to do something. Um, and this was a, a tune that I had loved for a really long time. Again, thanks to Karl Peter Dietmeyer and his massive collection of coral holiday classics. Um, but I think our, our intent was to, uh, simplify it as much as possible and provide like a really.

Karla: Uh, I don't know, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, uh, poignant kind of Yeah. Piece to remember or to honor Weston Noble. Um, and then, you know, when we've played it in years since it's like a remembrance for people who have lost somebody that they loved, you know? The holidays are a really tough time in that respect.

Karla: Um, especially if holidays were happy and you had people you loved and they're no longer around, like, ah, it's hard. So, um, having something in our set to again, show the both and do the, you know, the duality of, of what, um, what the holiday season is can be, was. All wrapped up into one, one tune.

Olivia: Yeah. I think this is another one too, where like the simplicity and the beauty of the melody just really speaks for itself. I also love the dynamic range of this one. you know, I, we try to be intentional about dynamics when we play, but a lot of times just given, I think the genre that we've fall into, which is a lot. Folk inspired or folk influenced music? Um, I'd say it's a little less dynamic heavy. It's just a little less reliant on that to communicate what it's trying to communicate.

Karla: Except for the end or like the, uh, not the very end, but like the, just before the very end, you know, we do a big crescendo.

Olivia: Well, yeah. So I'm just saying folk music in general, I feel like, oh, music, yes. Yeah. But this tune, I think we kind of harken back to our, our classical roots. Yeah. And, and actually rely on dynamics very much. Mm-hmm. , um, the beginning is softer and Yeah. Just kind of contemplative and very much in unison. I think the whole thing is kind of a big crescendo.

Karla: Yeah, very much so.

Olivia: And then like the. The max. the highest we go, right? Lasts only for a short while and then it comes way back. Um, yeah, I don't know. I just, I, I appreciate this for giving us mm-hmm. the opportunity, the kinda explore that way. Yeah. Yeah.

Karla: We hope you enjoy.

Olivia: Well, we've come to kind of the, the pinnacle of Christmas here.

Karla: It really, really is

Olivia: O Holy Night. A soprano's dream . Um, you know, but truly, When we were thinking it. So this is the other tune on the vinyl, you know, on uh, Season's Greetings this is on season's greetings. Mm-hmm. , where the cello takes the melody.

Karla: And we have bari ukulele once again.

Olivia: Again. Yes. Ukulele accompaniment. Uh, I'm a little surprised by like that we landed on that because this is the quintessential. Yeah. Like Sopranos solo at Christmas Eve service kind of thing, you know?

Karla: But that's what we do. We flip things on their head,

Olivia: right?

Karla: We do them differently.

Olivia: Like, take that, oh, holy Night. Mm-hmm. . Anyway, ,

Karla: But we paired this one with um, Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen, right?

Olivia: Yeah. By Leonard Cohen. And I truly don't remember how that, I, I think honestly, how that happened was you were playing the changes on the uke and I just like randomly was like, oh, that kind of sounds like, so I started playing it and then it was like we had to figure it out. Should we? We should.

Karla: It really stretched my ukulele playing abilities and I learned so many new chords.

Olivia: Karla is a ukulele pro.

Karla: Well, I

Olivia: you are,

Karla: I'm not a pro.

Olivia: I think though that

Karla: I do know a lot of chords.

Olivia: Yes. Since we figured this tune out and, and you also do a different tuning,

Karla: Oh yeah, right.

Olivia: Don't you like, do a funky,

Karla: um, yes. Uh, the baritone is tuned like the top four strings of a guitar, which I couldn't tell you what they are, but I usually tune the bottom one up or down. I think it's down so that I've got, um, an open C instead of a D or a b I don't remember what it is. Yeah, there's, there is a, a different.

Olivia: But I mean, the fact that you like, use a different tuning, figure out the chords.

Karla: The problem between the bari and the soprano, the soprano is mostly open, you know, like you can, yeah. The bari is not so much because it's a lot like the guitar and I was not about that.

Olivia: No. At any rate, uh, the pairing just kind of worked. And you know what I think it is, for me anyway, it’s like. Hallelujah is such a vulnerable tune. It's like about being in such a vulnerable place. Paired with Oh Holy Night, which is like pristine and like, Describing this perfect, holy happening. You know what I mean? But it wasn't perfect. Yes, right. It was also vulnerable. No, like. Let me tell you. I've had two children and there's nothing perfect about that

Olivia: It's actually can be horrifying. Like it was wonderful. You get what I'm saying, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There is pain and there is muck, and there's all sorts of stuff with life in general, either the bringing life into the world or living it. And I think it's good to be reminded that, again, two things are true.

Olivia: You know, the holy is sometimes the mundane. The holy is the living, you know? Wow.

Karla: Sometimes it's a cello and ukulele pairing instead of orchestra and soprano.

Olivia: Sometimes it is. So I think that's partly why we wanted to kind of explore it, aside from the fact that just like musically it sounded, it sounded really, really great.

Karla: You know what we should have called it?

Olivia: What?

Karla: Oh, lowly night.

Olivia: Oh my. Oh wow. I think we would've gotten some flack for that.

Karla: Missed opportunity.

Olivia: Missed opportunity.

Karla: Low end, you know, like cello. I am and like the lowly manger. Yes, it was. Oh, lowly night.

Olivia: Can we rename it? Is it too late? Yes, it's too late. Everything's already done. Okay. Well you heard it here first. Just a little too little, too late. Yeah. I mean, what else is there to say about this one?

Karla: It makes a fantastic encore.

Olivia: Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. So did we always do that? No, we, cause we've had, let's see, 2020. Is when we recorded season's Greetings, but, but we had played a holiday show with some of the tunes on season's Greetings in 2019, right?

Olivia: Yes. Okay. Yep. And this was one of them? Yes. That had already been done.

Karla: And we did this one specifically for an encore at Wausau. The Grand Theater and it was like a special, magical moment because, not only did that show have a costume change, but it also had like, we sat for the first set and then stood for the second set and then, you know, played a bunch of ukulele stuff and like had fun with singalongs and then like

Olivia: We had like our own little set.

Karla: Yes. It was so cute.

Olivia: Yeah, it felt like a re it felt like the first time we had a real like show. Yeah. It wasn't just us kind of up there playing. Yeah. Felt like more of a production.

Karla: And then like standing ovations and we bow and like I don't even, I don't think we walked off. No, we did walk off.

Olivia: Yeah, we did.

Karla: We walked off and they were still clapping and so we came back on and this was the one that we had set aside in the event that we would need something extra. And it was like this really special.

Olivia: Well, because I think people kind of thought, especially with us, we're kind of like, you know, carefree sort of. Whatever. I, I think they probably envisioned that we would play something a little more upbeat or like send people off dancing. I don't know. Yep. And it's not that we wanted to bum anybody out, but more than it was kind of an opportunity to sort of just like reflect and, and come away from the, from the concert feeling like refreshed, I think too, because a lot of times the holidays are like stressful. Yeah. And just, yeah. Yeah. And so it's sort of an opportunity to just sort of like be mm-hmm. . Yeah.

Olivia: So maybe it'll be that for you. Wherever you are listening to this final, listening to this commentary. We hope you love it.

Karla: Oh, Lowly Night.

Karla: Well, here we happen upon Silver Bells. Just, you know, like it's kind of another nostalgic tune, but it's also just classic is the only word I can think of for. And you, Olivia, do not care for this arrangement.

Olivia: I was gonna call this like the most controversial tune , and it's only controversial between the two of us.

Olivia: I don't, I don't not like it. I Well, you speak your piece. You just talk it up because the first thing people should hear us talk about is not why I don't like it. . I don't not like it. Why do you I do love it. Why? This is what I wanna know.

Karla: It's like, it's like the coffee after pie. It's like, you, you want it, you don't need it, but it's good.

Olivia: Is it like the thing you don't know you need?

Karla: Maybe? But it's kind of like a refresher. It's like a,

Olivia: A palette cleanser.

Karla: Yes. Thank you. Okay. It's, it's like a, um, I, I don't know. It's just, it's kind of light. And

Olivia: it is light and it's a light airy arrangement. Yeah, it is. I this also, I think Silver Bells is my Uncle Jay. Uh, I stopped because we call him Uncle Buck . I almost called him that, which is fine. You can know that my Uncle Buck, um, this is his favorite Christmas tune.

Karla: Really? Silver Bells?

Olivia: Yeah. Oh, well you just talked it up, but now you're like, really Silver Bells .

Karla: What? His favorite. That's a, that's a bold statement.

Olivia: Oh man, that's funny.

Karla: The Christmas canon is quite large. It is. For this to be a favorite says a lot.

Olivia: Just, I think I have that little bit of trivia correct. You can, you can talk to him about it. Um, so I always think of him when we play it. No, I, I do enjoy this arrange. I think part of it is because it's in B flat, which is uh, um, painful.

Olivia: And I pizz the whole time, except for at the very end. It's a lot. Yeah. And so two things with that. One is that my hand is playing blocking these chords for the whole time. And it's painful cause it's an extended position, but then have to like hurriedly get my bow ready. And it's like the anxiety of playing that and having to get it and like hope I don't drop my bow. Hope it doesn't get caught on something, you know, it's just a

Karla: I'm always prepared to hold it

Olivia: For a light and very tune. It holds a lot of anxiety for me. And so that is why, but it has nothing to do with the musicality of it. Love me some Silver Bells. And I do, I do love the words, you know, um, we've tried this as a singalong.

Karla: It doesn't work very well.

Olivia: Well, here's why it doesn't work. So here's a tidbit for you. We've tried this as a sing along a few different times and each of us struggle singing and playing at the same time. , that's true. It's just like the parts of the brain, I don't know. Doesn't happen. Someday we'll do the, you know, investigating to figure out the science behind why it's difficult.

Olivia: it's kind of like the pat your head, rub your tummy thing. Yep. And so it's hard when you're not leading the audience and hoping that they'll sing along with you. Anyway, we've stopped, uh, doing that. Yep.

Karla: Now it's like a pallet cleanser in our set.

Olivia: Yes. Yeah. And maybe it'll be a pallet cleanser on the vinyl too. I hope so. It is a fun little ditty though, it's just kind of Yeah. It's a, it's a cute, cute light little arrangement and some nice tight harmony at the [00:04:00] end it up. Yep. Yeah. We hope you enjoy Silver Bells

Karla: So third in our series of bell tunes is Ring Them Bells featuring Ellis Delaney. Singer songwriter extraordinaire

Olivia: On vocals and guitar. And interestingly enough, although this is about Bells, it's really not Christmas song. Except that it has the word bell in it, so it works. It felt right.

Olivia: I discovered this Bob Dylan tune through singer songwriter Sarah Jarosz. I don't even remember, I think I was like down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos of hers because she's so good and. I just loved her cover. It was wonderful. Um,

Karla: You loved it so much. You played it...

Olivia: I was obsessed

Karla: Constantly.

Olivia: Yeah. And like, it, it wasn't, as far as I know, she didn't like formally record it or I don't have, I don't have the official recording. All I, all I knew about was the YouTube video and so like when we talk about how obsessed I was, I just like kept a window open on my phone. All the live long day of that YouTube video, and just played it over and over and over again all the time in my car, all it's like all I did.

Olivia: I loved it so much. So anyway. Also, I just have to say Bob Dylan, I mean we all know. Yes, Bob Dylan. Like he's great. You got, he is this, this song, the lyrics, it's just so good. It's just,

Karla: Can I be honest?

Karla: Yeah. You don't resonate with that?

Karla: I don't, I just don't get it. .

Olivia: Yeah, that's fair.

Karla: Can you explain it to me?

Olivia: What, no, it probably means something different for everybody.

Karla: Well, how? There's, you mean the verse that I sing is like ring them bells from the four corners in St. Peter's, something or other, and , there's something about a cow, you know, like,

Olivia: yeah. Well, so yeah, let's, let's, let's break it down. Just quickly break it down quickly.

Olivia: Like talk through each of the verses, right? So I start out, well, okay. Before we get into this, let's just say we don't sing very often. This is the only track that we sing on, on the holiday Vinyl. Yeah. And we felt,

Karla: no, that's not true.

Olivia: Do we have the Christmas Song? Oh yeah, we do. Yeah, we do have the Christmas Waltz

Olivia: but that's just Karla, right? Like that's mouth trumpet. I have mouth trumpet. Yes, that's fine. Um, so we felt a little, almost a little weird about that. We were like, do we include it? Cause it seems like kind of random that, but it has Ellis on it. It was, it does have Ellis on it. And again, for me, like the spirituality of it is just too good.

Olivia: Um, but the arrangement is so nice.

Karla: It is really lovely.

Olivia: Uh, okay. So Bob Dylan, we call him a prophet in my family, because he made sure he is, he's just, uh, feels like you don't really need to say anything about it.

Karla: Except that you do because people like me don't get it.

Olivia: Well, not, I'm, I'm not talking about this tune specifically. I'm talking about Dylan in general. Bob Dylan. Okay. It. The Alpha Omega. Okay. . Um, so my, let's see, I'm trying to think of my first verses. Ring them bells ye heathens from the city of, from the city that dreams, ring them bells from the sanctuaries across the valleys and streams.

Olivia: Okay. Um, so I, I. The whole gist is that people are forgetting. Like we need to remind them we need to ring the bells, we need to shout it from roof tops, that there is something big going on and people are missing it, and things are starting to like go haywire kind of thing.

Olivia: That's the message that I get from it. Uh, and I feel like that can mean a lot of different things for a lot of people. It doesn't have to be spiritual. It doesn't even have to be about a higher power. It can be about ring it from, you know, the rooftops, the mountain tops, that mm-hmm. you, your inner being is still valid and present and you have love to give.

Olivia: I don't know. You know what I mean? It could be, it could be anything for everyone. Okay. But that's what I get from it, so, okay. That's first verse.

Karla: I sing the second one. Right.

Olivia: Then. Ring them bells St. Peter's. Another funny thing is that we always forget four winds blow the the order of the verses.

Karla: Well, I know I have the second one because Ellis sings a third one, which means you sing it live.

Olivia: I sing it when we do it live. Yeah. Without our ring the bell,

Olivia: St. Peter, where the four winds blow.

Olivia: Ring the bells with an iron hand so the people will know. Right, so like ring 'em Cuz people are forgetting. Remind them. Now we land the. Sun's going down upon Sacred Cow. Mm-hmm. . Okay. So again, I think the same message.

Karla: What, what is the sacred cow though? Is that like a false idol? Sun is going down on false idols. Sun is going down on time. The time has come to let go of stupid things. Oh, sorry.

Olivia: Could be. Um, yeah, I feel a little hesitant. There are also some, I mean, there are some religions that do believe that cows are, you know, like cow is a holy, you know what I mean?

Olivia: So I'm not, I don't know the ins and outs of that. I'm not sure. We should phone a friend and that friend should be Bob Dylan. Can we call him real quick?

Karla: Call up old Bob.

Olivia: Give me the inside scoop. Give me the skinny. Okay, so then there's sweet Martha Uhhuh, which always makes me think of sweet Martha. Cookies. Cookies at the state fair . So I always have to turn that part of my brain off cuz then I'll start thinking about chocolate. Bless can I can't have 'em while we're singing. No. No. Oh, but what I wouldn't give, uh, ring man bell sweet Martha for the for the Poor Man son. I love this, uh, I love this verse.

Olivia: Them the poor world. Well, no, that God is one for the shepherd is this. Wait, what willows weep, we, the willows, we and the mountains are filled with lost sheep. So again, I think he's saying like people are lost. They don't, we're losing our way

Karla: Uhhuh. And was Bob Dylan religious?

Olivia: Well, funny should ask. He wasn't. And then I believe it was a motorcycle accident that he had and then had this like epiphany and then dedicated his entire livelihood and being to, he was like a born again Christian and did a bunch of sacred music and like spiritual music.

Karla: Like Kanye West and John Coltrane.

Olivia: Similar in some ways . I may have that story wrong but that is what I remember. We can do some research and get back to everybody on that, but um, that's what I remember. Yeah. So he, it's kind of like a never ending tour that's like, as far as I understand it, why he's still touring and why he will never stop. Cause it's kind of like his, he's dedicated his life to,

Karla: it's like Martin Luther that too, struck by lightning.

Olivia: See, you never know how it's gonna happen. We don't need to, uh, to rehash all of the lyrics, all of that to say that's what it means to me. But I think, again, I think it can mean, um, whatever it needs to everybody, anybody as they listen. Um, and I think really, if we really think about it in broad terms, it can just be about unifying people. Like, let's come back, come back.

Karla: And funny that you should mention a motorcycle accident.

Olivia: Oh, no.

Karla: With Bob Dylan.

Olivia: Oh no. Where is this heading? Oh, I know where it's heading. Oh, this is the tidbit of all tidbits.

Karla: Yeah, this is a good tidbit.

Olivia: Get ready. Are you sitting down? I hope. Okay,

Karla: so we recorded this with Ellis in the studio, um, in 2017.

Olivia: It was in July. This is, we were recording in the summer.

Karla: And, um, Wild Sound is kind of in a, it's in a tricky part of Northeast. It's like right off of Lowry Avenue. Um, and there's a couple different ways you could get to the studio. One of them is a back alleyway. Um, so when we were leaving the studio, I took the back alleyway to get back onto Lowry to head downtown. Um, and. It was like, I don't know, 3:30 in the afternoon? Yeah, two 30, something like that. Yeah. Lots of traffic.

Karla: Long story short, I tried to turn left and couldn't see traffic coming from the other direction and totaled my car. Um, and also scared the hell out of a poor freshman who had just come back from orientation at the university. Oh, that felt so bad. Uh, his car was fine, luckily. I had just like my, my passenger side wheel sort of, you know, broke and turned forward and I'm pretty sure I hit another car head on, but they sped off and didn't stick around.

Karla: Um, I don't remember a lot except my glasses flying off and yelling expletives and, um, peeing myself.

Olivia: That also happened.

Karla: Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. Called Olivia because we were just at the studio together, and I was like, uh, I got in a car accident. She's like, what? Where were you? I'm like, literally right by the studio.

Karla: She came back and helped out and went across to the garage, across the street, got bottles of water, waited for the police to arrive. The police were like, so you turn left, you got hit. All right.

Olivia: In all fairness, somebody did wave you.

Karla: They did,

Olivia: you know, so you thought the coast was clear?

Karla: I thought the coast was clear,

Olivia: but the coast was only clear in their lane.

Karla: That's very true.

Olivia: Like for the traffic that they saw. Anyway,

Karla: moral of the story is never trust other drivers.

Olivia: It's true. Never go if if you can't see.

Karla: Never go if you can't see. Yeah. So turning left has always been a thing for me now, and though I have passed, like the PTSD part of being like driving on that street again, that I don't, I don't struggle with that anymore.

Karla: I did struggle with that for, for a hot minute. Um, I did get a better car. Sort of and um, our recording session for Have Yourself An OK Christmas with Ellis Delaney will be [00:11:00] forever marked by the fact that I totaled my car afterwards.

Olivia: Oh, and we all need a little Bob Dylan when you know we total our cars.

Karla: It's true . Very true.

Olivia: Oh my. Well with that,

Karla: Here's Ring Them Bells

Karla: What do you remember about the arrangement for Sleigh Ride? I remember a lot of things.

Olivia: I do too. Okay. I think most, uh,

Karla: wait, let's say it on three. The thing that you remember the most about it,

Olivia: it has to be like one word?

Karla: Yeah. Oh my god. One word. What's the word? Okay. 1, 2, 3.

Both: MacPhail!

Olivia: Y'all. That was not planned.

Karla: It was not.

Olivia: Yes. MacPhail. That is what sticks in my head. Okay. You can tell your version of the story. I mean, there's not really a story, it's just like the, the moment, the experience.

Karla: Yes, there is some, um, There's classic OK-ness to this tune, because I'm pretty sure it was like November or October, we were doing jam sessions at MacPhail and we had gotten there a little early because we wanted to like try to arrange this tune.

Karla: Um, but it was, you know, like we were gonna be recording in like a couple of weeks and we hadn't yet written it. No. But we had, like, I had printed off a score for like the piano part, the Leroy Anderson traditional Sleigh Ride stuff. Um, and we were like mapping out how we were gonna do the harmonies.

Karla: And there were moments where we were like, I don't even know what key, we're in here , and how do we transition to the next thing? And like it felt comp, this is probably like the most complicated arranging session we've ever had.

Olivia: I think this is one of the more complicated arrangements that we've ever come up with.

Karla: It's a complicated song.

Olivia: It is. Yeah. And I think until you dissect it, you don't really think about it. Mm. Um, because it's just Sleigh Ride, you know, it's like happy go lucky, fun... until you dig down to the nuts and bolts. Yep. You really do. Yeah. We, we struggled a little bit to kind of figure out like, okay, we modulate to what?

Olivia: And then how do you get out of it? Part of it is of course, that there's only two of us. And so key changes and whatnot. You know, you just have to be strategic because somebody has to play the melody, correct , that leaves only one person to successfully execute

Karla: a chord that has nine notes in it on the piano score.

Olivia: But I'd say we did a pretty damn good job. I think we really did. I think this is one of the arrangements. Holiday for sure, that I'm most proud of this. I'm probably most proud of this. It's so. And I also have to say that this is, um, it, I, so O Come, Isabella is like, feels like home feels so good to play. This one feels a different kind of good. Mm-hmm. , it feels like so fun to play

Karla: Uhhuh . Like, look at what we can do.

Olivia: It feels scary.

Karla: We arranged slay ride for two string instrument.

Olivia: I'm not gonna lie. Every time that we started I'm like, oh, you're going here we go. See you at the end. I hope you know, um, cuz there's like a lot there. Um, but I think part of why it feels so fun is because, uh,

Karla: the audience,

Olivia: I'm just like, yeah. I'm just like feeling how the audience might feel, how I hope they feel, I think,

Karla: and kind of the audience participation at the end.

Olivia: Also that

Karla: with the whip crack. Yeah. It. What did we do for that? I don't even remember what we did on the recording.

Olivia: I think we chop and maybe snap. Oh yeah. Yeah. But when we play this live, we ask the audience to clap and we always do like a little rehearsal at the beginning. Mm-hmm. so they can practice. And it's very cute. It's super fun. Um, so yeah, it's [00:04:00] fun to involve the audience. And the whinnie at the end, it's just like,

Karla: oh, it's too much.

Olivia: It's, it is. It really is.

Karla: Okay. Do you want another Karla tidbit about this particular holiday tune? Yeah. All right, so the Dietmeyer family is my mother, Cheryl, my dad, Karl, my sister Laura, and myself and my sister and I started piano lessons when we were, I was, I don't know, three when she started, and she was six at the time.

Karla: And then I started when I was four a year later. So our piano teacher, Miss Dorothy, always put together like, you know, elaborate holiday shows and it was like a family affair for us anyway, because at the end, the Dietmeyer family would come up to the piano, all four of us. My mother would sit at the piano. She, um, was a piano major and major in college and is a, you know, has her own piano studio now.

Karla: A very, very accomplished pianist and would play this arrangement. My dad would, um, play the jingle bells and the, uh, no, no. Laura played the clip clops. Oh, we bought clip clops just so that we could do this. And we bought jingle bells for the exact same reason. So in the storage closet in the music room at home are sitting these wood blocks with, you know, drumsticks and probably the jingle bells are still in the old flimsy white box that they came.

Karla: And Karla would stand there the entire time with the whip crack and would wait and wait and wait for the right moments to do it. And when she's just waiting, when I was little, you know, I had to like pull the, pull the slapstick part back and just let it go and try to time it right. And then when I got a little bit older, I could do it all in one.

Karla: You could actually, yeah. I could actually crack the, the whip. Yeah. Yes. So we, we. Orchestral jingle bells and orchestral woodblock. Orchestral, you know, percussion, slapstick. Like every Christmas we did [00:06:00] this. And then when my mom started having piano recitals, we would do it then. And then like once my sister and I were in college or whatever, she would have piano recitals and have the students come up and do it.

Karla: Like Sleigh Ride has just been a big, a big part of our family for, it's a staple as long as I can remember.

Olivia: It's a staple. Yeah. I. Ya just gotta love it and it's so fun. It is so fun to be just two people and to take on all, I mean, try to take on all of the things. All of the things, yeah. And see how we can do it. Um, challenge accepted. Challenge met what? Totally. Yes. We hope you love it as much as we do. Enjoy sleigh Ride.

Karla: This is, oh man. Festiveee.. This is the

Olivia: OG, the actual, the actual OG of, OK Christmas.

Karla: Literally the ogOG

Olivia: I think this is like at first Christmas tune we ever wrote.

Karla: Correct.

Olivia: Yeah. Yeah. On and after you write Festive, it's like holiday all day. Yeah. Yeah.

Karla: We kind of knew

Olivia: that's our next Christmas record: holiday all day.

Olivia: Oh my gosh. Done already did it. It's great.

Karla: Coming out in 2024.

Olivia: Okay. But.

Karla: This. This one was, I mean, yeah, we wrote it and it was like, or we arranged it and felt afterwards like we could, we could spend our lives playing shows just in November, in December and be perfectly happy with our choices.

Olivia: Yeah, it's true.

Karla: If all we ever did was arrange holiday tunes, I would be fine with that.

Olivia: It's true, and I think it was kinda. Up until this point. Well, I mean like we hadn't been writing for that long together. I guess this was just at like a year or a little over a year since we really started writing together. Right. Cause this would've been our senior year. Yeah. We started writing together our junior year. Am I right about that technically?

Karla: Well, no, cuz we, I think we started, this would've been,

Olivia: well, 2012.

Karla: Yeah, we, we started in like the spring of 2012, and then this would've been Christmas 2012. Cause we graduated in 20, which was our senior year. Yeah. But it would've been less than a year since we had started.

Olivia: Okay. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well anyway,

Karla: which really says a lot as in like, it's, it's, um, ex like, like foreshadowing of the fact that we have like three or four holiday albums.

Olivia: Well, right. That's what I was kinda gonna say is like we hadn't been together for that long. Up until that point though. Everything we had done was original. Mm-hmm. , um, which we loved, but we had never, I don't think at that point we had ever done a cover. And I don't know that we had even ever done what we ended up loving to do, which was to take again, Traditional tune and pair it with an original mm-hmm. or like rework a traditional tune kind of thing.

Olivia: Yeah. I don't think we had done any of that yet. So this was our first kind of like deep dive into like arranging something that already existed. Mm-hmm. , you know? Mm-hmm. . And what better way to start exploring that than holiday.

Karla: It's so true.

Olivia: Also, we both, it just love the holidays.

Karla: We do.

Olivia: I. Challenge you to find two people, , except maybe my sister Elise, who loves, or my dad's.

Olivia: Okay. So I don't challenge you. You might find other people, but we really freaking love the holidays. Yeah. So it just kind of makes sense.

Karla: It, it really does.

Olivia: And I think Festive is like the ultimate soundtrack to holiday. Holiday. Totally. In general.

Karla: I wish it lasted longer than two minutes and 40 seconds.

Karla: Cuz it is, it's a shorter tune. It's shorty. Yeah. Yeah.

Olivia: Uh, I don't know. I mean I feel like this one too, kind of reveals when we wrote it because it's the, the Yes. Very, the accent Yeah. Kind of deal. Uhhuh, which was and still is a way that we infuse rhythm. What we do.

Karla: I think it's really interesting to go back and listen to like the first recording of this compared to when we redid it in 2017. Because like our sound hadn't quite formed yet. We hadn't settled as much as we've settled into our sound now. Mm-hmm. , we were still, you know, studying classical music and I'm talking about violin in particular. You can just hear how hard, I'm trying to not sound like I'm a classical musician, , how desperately I wanna be cool. And, uh, like all these little, like slides and like, I mean, some of that is just me, but some of it is, some of it is, um,

Olivia: Forced?

Karla: Yes.

Olivia: Really?

Karla: Yeah. Huh? I think so. And

Olivia: I think in the first recording you mean? Yeah.

Karla: And now that, you know, we've been playing it for 10 years. Um,

Olivia: now when we say first recording, we mean Happy Holidays.

Karla: Yes.

Olivia: We wrote it before then. This was probably on the demo. I think this was on, on the holiday demo. Yeah. Yeah. I keep calling it a demo just because we, I don't what it was called. CDs? Yeah, the holiday little EP we put out before we actually really did stuff. I don't know.

Karla: I'm trying to think of what it was called.

Olivia: I don't remember.

Karla: At any rate, it just felt like, Like the original. OK. And then like when we play it now, it still feels as good as it did, but Even better.

Olivia: But better. Yeah. Before O come, Isabella, this one was the one that felt like home. And it still does. Yeah. I think I come, Isabella has is more like squishy.

Olivia: You can kinda like sink into it a little more, you know.

Karla: squishy. Yeah, I totally get it. It's like a marshmallow.

Olivia: Yeah. Yeah. And this one's just a little more boppy. It's kind of a bop.

Karla: It's a bop.

Olivia: Yeah. It's a bop. . We hope you love it.

Karla: Festive!

Karla: Have yourself merry a little Christmas. I mean, is there a more holiday tune? We've said that about every.

Olivia: It's the problem when you love the holidays, everything feels like just holiday Christmas joy. There was a director at Luther, a choir director who shall remain nameless, but if you know, you know, who just like would come up to the podium when, when this person, I almost gave away gender, which I also don't need to do cuz it doesn't matter.

Olivia: But, um, would come out to the podium and when she was directing, oh god darn it, it's, it's, it's okay. Sandra. Sandra Day O'Connor. Just kidding. Um, would direct the large group. Right. So like all ensembles, there was one year where she just like, over and over Joy! Joy!, you know, just really wanted to make sure, and you gotta know Yeah.

Olivia: Just the, the expression on her face and the head shake with her hair all done up and it was just like perfect. Mm-hmm. , it really was. It was just like, yeah, she,

Karla: she was the holidays personified.

Olivia: Incarnate. Yeah. She was . Yes. So anyway, with that image, why did we start talking about that?

Karla: Well, honestly, she was the inspiration for the title of Festive.

Olivia: Well, that, but we're not talking about that.

Karla: We're not, we missed, we missed that in the last track. However, uh, the sentiment still applies here, although it's not quite as boppy like, she was definitely a bop

Olivia: yeah. No, this one is not Sandra Energy. No. I don't know whose energy this is. This is the, this to me is the, like everyone is filled to the brim. Everyone just ate all of the food. Yeah. Presents have been opened. The fires still. Crackling with, you know, remnants of the tissue paper that you threw in there, .

Karla: Did you guys do that?

Olivia: Yeah, my grandpa Milt was all about that, we had a fire downstairs and he would just throw all the wrapping paper in there. It got, hella hot down there in the basement.

Karla: That's hilarious.

Olivia: Um, yeah. Anyway, I don't know. So like this to me is like the tune that you hear that's like playing in the background. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's just like warm fuzzies all around and obviously kind of like the title track to Have Yourself an OK Christmas.

Olivia: Um, but I do find it interesting that the ..., it's, we make it very minor and almost kind of dark.

Karla: We do,

Olivia: I don't remember why we chose to do that, but

Karla: Okay. I do.

Olivia: You do?

Karla: I do remember. So, do you remember, um, I lived in Colorado and you lived in Minneapolis? Mm-hmm. , and we were sending this tune back and forth for a music Monday. We did not include that middle section.

Olivia: We didn't?

Karla: No. Because we couldn't figure out what to do with it.

Olivia: Oh. It was one of those,

Karla: he was one of those. Okay. And I was like, I was playing accompaniment for the tune. And you had the melody for the majority of the time. And we were like, well, how do we switch? And eventually we just came around to the fact that like we just, we just don't switch, we just change up the accompaniment in the middle. Ah. Cause you go

Karla: that really cool pizz minor stuff. Yeah. I think, I think it once again,

Olivia: talk about duality again.

Karla: We're, we're discovering a theme here, .

Olivia: Maybe. I, I don't feel like that was the intention, but it could certainly be implied. inferred. Yeah. Yeah. I also just feel like it gives it kind of a nice texture or quality, uh, and how we, I love how we get out of it, you know, like feels like, oh, this is minor, and like, where are we going? Is this gonna be dark and heavy? Like, what's happening? And then it's da, you know, and then you're happy land.

Olivia: So it's just sort of like a momentary travel. To a faraway land.

Karla: That's true. Uh, wistful.

Olivia: Yeah. Oh, oh yeah. I like that descriptor. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Love that. Yeah. What else about this tune? I remember recording this originally in my bedroom, apartment. Mm-hmm. . So back then we didn't have the nice mic.

Karla: No, we had a, crappy condenser

Olivia: Which has since been discontinued for obvious reasons,

Karla: although why you could still listen to it on Spotify.

Olivia: It still exists, but not in physical form. No, thank goodness, . No, it's, it's fun, you know? And a lot of the arrangements have withstood the test of time. Yes. Even if the original recordings have not. Yeah. And again, thank goodness , um, But yeah, I re I remember that, I remember like facing the wall and trying to get the , trying to get the, I play a lot of double stops, uh, like pretty much the whole time. and getting those in tune was finicky and, yep. Yeah. Oh. And then the end to

Olivia: So sw sw kinda. Yeah. You know, crooner. I don't know. Totally crooner. Yeah. Anyway, ask crooner-esque. Croon-esque what? It just felt right to have this be the last track on the vinyl as it is the last track on. Have yourself an OK Christmas.

Olivia: . And we hope you do. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and we feel so lucky to be part of it. Yeah, and it was super fun to put together this commentary to reminisce, to reminisce and be wistful. 10 years of OK holiday.

Karla: Mm. An OK holiday.

Olivia: An OK holiday. Big love to you and yours this holiday season. We will catch you soon.