for KING + COUNTRY‘s Christmas single this year is “Silent Night (Rewrapped),” a version of the classic carol with some percussion and other instrumentation added to give what is normally a very sleepy song some energy. The duo’s Luke Smallbone says they were looking for a way to make the super-traditional religious song sound fresh.
“That was one of the things that we talked about … is there a way to give it a little bit more life?” Luke tells ABC Audio. “You know, when I think of the most Christmassy Christmas songs, you probably think of ‘Silent Night,’ ‘O Holy Night’… so for us to figure out a way to have a little bit of tempo, a little bit of rhythm on it, was actually one of the goals.”
Like many Christmas carols, “Silent Night” was written in the 1800s — 1818, to be exact. Since then, it’s been covered hundreds of times, but no matter what you do to it, Luke notes, it still holds up.
“C.S. Lewis used to say, the only books really worth reading are the ones that are 50 years old,” says Luke, referring to the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. “And obviously he’s saying that about classic books: if they’ve been around and are still in print, you know they’re good.”
“Well, [with] music, it’s probably around 30 years old,” he adds. “But with Christmas, some of these songs are 150 years old. Some of these songs are 250 years old! These are old songs! And I think that tells you how wonderful they really are.”
for KING + COUNTRY wrapped up their holiday tour Dec. 20 in their hometown of Nashville. As previously reported, early next year, the duo will release their cover of the U2 song “40,” in connection with a new Prime Video series called House of David.
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