ANGELS WITH US

We moved to Seattle in the summer of 2003 — packed all the instruments into our two cars and decided to try being a harp-bass-drums band in the Pacific Northwest. In the early fall of that year, an amazing publicist we had been fortunate to work with suggested that it might be time for a new album, and also hinted around that Christmas albums were always a good idea in the genre we were attempting to navigate (new age/world.) Thus, we gathered our pennies and spent a long weekend recording at Bear Creek Studio, where, much to my absolute delight and pride, I was thrilled to learn that none other than the mighty Soundgarden had recorded Badmotorfinger.

At the time, Nuc was working as a band director at Aki Kurose Middle School, Posido was working at the UPS store, and I was playing many, many weddings and cocktail parties along with an afternoon after-school job teaching writing to very unenthusiastic elementary schoolers. The one thing these kids did get excited about during my time there, however, was naming this album. “Angels With Us” comes directly from them.

This album features some of my favorite arrangements ever of Christmas tunes. It’s creative, innovative, and playful. We really had to rush through this recording because we couldn’t afford more than 2 days in the studio, and I’ve often wished we would have had more time. As it is, it’s a perfectly punk, edge-of-your-seat Harp 46 Christmas album.