New life for Christmas Oye

Nine years after its original release, Christmas Oye, a catchy rapso parang by Jason “Fridge” Seecharan and Wade “Tim Starr” Christian, has gained new life with the recent release of its music video.

Seecharan, a singer, songwriter and former member of the popular 90s R&B group H2O Phlo and Tim Starr, media personality and rapper/singer, formally of Spotrushaz, and DJ and producer Jayron “Rawkus” Remy came together to create something to which Trinis could relate.

Remy told Newsday he had been working on some rapso Christmas riddims with musician, composer and actor Nickolai “Gyazette” Salcedo. Although they abandoned the project, he played it for Tim Starr.

Tim Starr really liked the song and played it for Seecharan as they were working on some Christmas songs.

They wrote the lyrics and Christmas Oye was born.

Remy, who has been producing music for 3Canal, among other artistes, said, “I’ve been doing more behind-the-scenes work. Not trying to be like some super-producers, but we’ve been working on building authentic things that we like. I want to experiment and work on things like that. And I’d never done a Christmas song before this one. And then we did it in our own way.”

He said one of the reasons they did the song was because, even before he started working on a cruise ship, Seecharan got a lot of calls to perform, especially around Christmas.

“People would always be calling Fridge for this Christmas type of gig to do covers. Fridge could sing, so he could sing anything he wanted to, so I felt it was important to have some songs in his arsenal that were original as well.

“I think that also lent itself to why we did that song. Because, even if it didn’t get radio rotation, Fridge was still able to perform in for the people.”

Tim Starr said that, at that time, he had distributed the song to radio stations but never promoted it. He recalled artiste Shane “Rizon” Gibson loved the song and encouraged him to release it “properly.” So he told Seecharan they had to revisit Christmas Oye, even though they have several other song together.

Seecharan has been performing on cruise ships since 2020 and is not often in the country. He is currently half of the duo, Tru Vibrations The Band, on the Carnival Cruise Ship line.

He admitted his absence has been the reason for the video’s delay and the reason Tim Starr insisted they make the video this year, which they did in October, before he left the country again.

Even though they made the video, he did not expect much from it, but was delighted to be wrong.

“It’s such a short season, and so many people bring out Christmas music that everybody can’t get played. And, of course, the big-name artists will get a lot more rotation than someone less known, no matter how great it is.”

He added that, before Christmas Oye, he did not know Remy was a producer. He described the music as well-produced and different from anything else on the radio, which inspired his lyrics.

“I would have never written a song like that if it weren’t for the music. The way the music was structured was instrumental in me being able to write what I did.”

When Seecharan heard the hook of the song, he wanted to write about things people could relate to, and he had the idea of people in a bar, singing along to the song, in his head. So he wrote:

Christmas is here.

A time to love, a time to share, a time to care,

Love in the air,

Enjoying the lime,

With the sorrel, the fruitcake, the pastelle,

It’s roast pork time,

Bring the homemade wine.

Tim Starr thought about the type of people who go from house to house during the Christmas season just to eat. He pictured himself as one of them and wrote along those lines.

He added that the lyrics to his part of the song were adjusted after he recorded it. He was told it was “too much,” so he took the healthy criticism and got assistance in restructuring the verses.

As a result, one verse goes:

This one a big tune, enormous,

The Fridge, Tim Starr, DJ Rawkus,

I ain’t trying to be rude,

But we just came for the food,

Turkey and ham,

Chicken and lamb,

Ah have two beers in meh hand,

Family and friends is the plan.

That relaxed atmosphere of having a good time with family and friends was reflected in the music video, which Tim Starr shot on his phone.

He recalled several friends were not available until the next week, but Seecharan was leaving the country a few days later and he refused to postpone it another year. So a small crew showed up at Adam Smith Square in Woodbrook and he pulled out his phone.

“We kept making excuses for not getting it done so I took the responsibility. However it played out, I had to make the best of it and have a proper product at the end of it all.

“I came up with the idea to just pull out my phone and shoot this. You can see it’s just me walking around with my phone and I just vibesing with everybody.

“And I figured if people can’t make it, we will just reach out to them to send footage of them vibesing to the song and enjoying themselves in their own little space.”

As a result, there were cameos by artistes, household names, family and friends including music artistes Roland “RemBunction” Yearwood, Lujoe and the Gifted, Marcus Braveboy, Seecharan’s former H2O Phlo bandmates Junior Nelson and Keston Rosales, Marcia Miranda, Edwin “Crazy” Ayoung, Rohan “Fireball” Richards, Rossi “RKG” Gray and radio icon Allan Diaz of Sweet 100.1 FM.

Both the video and the song have been getting positive reviews and, to Remy’s surprise, there has been a resurgence of interest in Christmas Oye.

Remy said when they released the song nine years ago, it did not become a hit so he moved on. This experience made him realise that music is timeless.

“When we released the video now, we get a whole new wave of appreciation. It still sounds fresh. People saying, ‘I never hear this before. Where this come from?’ And even some of my DJ partners saying, ‘Aye, you never sent me this song,’ and I had to tell them I sent it a long time ago.

“The lesson to me is that music don’t expire. It’s just sometimes they have to get at the right time, when people ready to receive it.”

Seecharan added that what the artiste thinks will be a hit is not always the song people will connect with. It’s up to the people to judge.

Tim Starr agreed with Remy, which was why he had been pushing Seecharan to make the video, as well as promote their older songs, for the past two years.

“Some of these things, people need to hear. We have to give these older songs some kind of justice and put it out to the people in the right way. Keeping the music to yourself and overthinking about who will and won’t like it makes no sense.”

He said, especially with social media, a song does not need to be played on the radio. He believed that if it’s on a platform, ten years from now, someone new will discover it, and people can go online to enjoy it at any time.