Before we get underway let me introduce you to the band:
Scott: guitars
Ails: vocals
Paul: guitars and harmonica
Graeme: drums
Ails: vocals
Paul: guitars and harmonica
Graeme: drums
All the links as to where December can be found on Social Media (Click Here).
S4L: How long have you been together as a band? Any tales about your first live performances good or bad that have stuck with you?
Ails: So we’ve been in a version of this band since 1993. We’ve been in an out of record deals along the way and now run things independently. We’ve spent half our lives touring the UK.
Our highlights have come more recently when we played the U240 (click to see full set) event in Dublin in 2016. That was a fan organised celebration of U2’s 40th birthday and it led to a whole series of opportunities for us and to gigs in Brazil and Japan amongst others.
Lowlights have been many as it can be hard going in the music industry. A major low was when our new manager (who had signed us to his record company just a month before) couldn’t afford his own hotel room in London and pretended to be drunk pulling out a blockbuster video card to pay; needless to say we stepped in and covered his room but we parted company soon after!
S4L: Did you set out as a band to do a lot of cover versions or had you always, once you felt were capable that you would begin writing your own material? Or was it the other way around that you wanted to write your own songs but somehow you got gripped by interpreting other people's songs in your own unique way and your own stuff was put on the back burner?
Scott: We used to hate covers and we were suspicious of anyone who dared to cover U2 in particular. We kind of fell into it in 2017 when someone suggested to cover a U2 track.
We are primarily songwriters and an original material band. 4 albums of original material in the last 8 years isn’t too bad! But people buy into our covers more than they do the originals and we decided to lean into that a bit. Covers have allowed us to be very productive through our sponsored songs initiative and it is an amazing thing to cover the bands we admire.
I Will Not Run
1st September 2023
Digital Release
S4L: I really love your latest album (see above), which is mostly your own songs, and I'm fascinated by how you wrote many of the songs. I don't know a lot bands that would sit and listen to a lifestory from a fan and then go and write a song about it. Can you maybe share one of those stories that is close to your heart and how the song came into being?
Scott: There’s a song called I See You In Valour on our album that is Christopher’s story. Christopher, (pictured above) was born with a serious condition that means he will always be in a wheelchair and he faces challenges every day that most of us would really struggle with. We see him every day showing courage in the hardest of times. We’ve never seen him in a bad mood or unkind even though he must have low moments. The song pictures him as a soldier and the imagery was chosen deliberately with that in mind.
S4L: We seem to have an affection for similar artists (U2, The Alarm, Big Country, JAMC and Springsteen) and I'm always struck by your choices of cover songs. With your U2 covers for instance, you haven't always gone for the big hit U2 song but the B-side or an album track. Has that been intentional on your part? I quite enjoyed your latest one,"Rejoice" and "Exit", which is a favourite U2 track of mine.
Paul: To be honest we’ve really just gone for songs we like. We like the hits too but there is something more interesting in bringing something new to a lesser known album track. We are particularly into U2’s October and The Unforgettable Fire albums and when you add it up we have covered quite a lot of the songs from these works.
S4L: One of the first videos I saw of yours was "In A Big Country" and found myself stunned by the sheer beauty of it. I have to say that in the videos that followed I've always been impressed by the imagery you use. Are you all involved in that creative process or is there just one of you who is "the gifted one" when it comes to that side of things? I also noted that you don't appear a lot in your videos, Are you an "International Band of Mystery" that prefers the music do the talking?
Scott: I guess I take the lead on the visuals and we are lucky to have some amazing visual artists who work with us: BK Garceau in Los Angeles, David Barry formerly of Hawaii now in Las Vegas and Johnny Vanderlyle of Hamilton, Scotland. They each bring a unique sensibility to the videos and we trust them completely. So it is easy to let go of a bit of control and to see what they come up with. As to your second question, a couple of things: first we’ve never been that comfortable with seeing ourselves in video, also sometimes we think it’s a more creative choice to leave the band out. There are a few videos out there with us playing or making cameo appearances but it’s a fair observation that we tend to avoid it where possible!
Paul: To be honest we’ve really just gone for songs we like. We like the hits too but there is something more interesting in bringing something new to a lesser known album track. We are particularly into U2’s October and The Unforgettable Fire albums and when you add it up we have covered quite a lot of the songs from these works.
S4L: One of the first videos I saw of yours was "In A Big Country" and found myself stunned by the sheer beauty of it. I have to say that in the videos that followed I've always been impressed by the imagery you use. Are you all involved in that creative process or is there just one of you who is "the gifted one" when it comes to that side of things? I also noted that you don't appear a lot in your videos, Are you an "International Band of Mystery" that prefers the music do the talking?
Scott: I guess I take the lead on the visuals and we are lucky to have some amazing visual artists who work with us: BK Garceau in Los Angeles, David Barry formerly of Hawaii now in Las Vegas and Johnny Vanderlyle of Hamilton, Scotland. They each bring a unique sensibility to the videos and we trust them completely. So it is easy to let go of a bit of control and to see what they come up with. As to your second question, a couple of things: first we’ve never been that comfortable with seeing ourselves in video, also sometimes we think it’s a more creative choice to leave the band out. There are a few videos out there with us playing or making cameo appearances but it’s a fair observation that we tend to avoid it where possible!
S4L: I watched a couple of live sets that you have on your YouTube channel and they were pretty cool seeing you in action. I know you do a lot of studio work as a band so is it a thrill to get out and play live? I believe you were recently playing in Las Vegas, how did that go? I'm guessing you took time to see U2 at their residency while you were there?
Ails: It’s great to play live for sure. The songs always take on a different dimension when you play them in public. We tend to be more studio based and a bit more choosy about gigs these days and we only do the ones that we think we will be really enjoyable and add to our experience.
Ails: It’s great to play live for sure. The songs always take on a different dimension when you play them in public. We tend to be more studio based and a bit more choosy about gigs these days and we only do the ones that we think we will be really enjoyable and add to our experience.
(December at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas - photo from their FB page)
Ails: Vegas was awesome. We played a very loud Irish bar courtesy of a very generous band called The Black Donnellys who allowed us to support them and then the next day in the Hard Rock where our gig was streamed onto the Las Vegas strip outside - it was unreal. And yes we caught the U2 show. It was ok...No it was amazing, like nothing anyone has seen before! Bono said they’d bring a cathedral to the desert and that’s exactly what they did. We love them for their ambition, their music and their heart.
S4L: Is there any artist that you would really love to cover in the future but are maybe a bit warying of doing so for one reason or another?
S4L: Is there any artist that you would really love to cover in the future but are maybe a bit warying of doing so for one reason or another?
Ails: Maria McKee/Lone Justice or Sinead O’Connor. They’re almost impossible to do justice to because of how good they are vocally.
S4L: If I were to ask you what your three favourite December Originals or Cover Songs were, what would they be?
Scott: Ok I think the band would probably agree with this but let’s see:
S4L: If I were to ask you what your three favourite December Originals or Cover Songs were, what would they be?
Scott: Ok I think the band would probably agree with this but let’s see:
Covers:
In a Big Country - Big Country
A Sort of Homecoming - U2
The First Time (Ails favourite of our U2 covers)
In a Big Country - Big Country
A Sort of Homecoming - U2
The First Time (Ails favourite of our U2 covers)
S4L: Between you as a band could you come up with a 10 song playlist that would perfectly describe your own Soundtrack4Life?
Scott:
Bruce Springsteen
Stolen Car
No Surrender
Born To Run
The Silencers - Walk With The Night
Lone Justice - Shelter
Stolen Car
No Surrender
Born To Run
The Silencers - Walk With The Night
Lone Justice - Shelter
The Big Dish - Life
***********
A huge thank you to December for doing this. To finish up here's just a few other links for Tracks/Videos by the band that are worth checking out:
Originals:
Covers:
Tougher Than The Rest (Bruce Springsteen)
Belfast (Energy Orchard)
Maggie (BA Robertson)
God Part II (U2)
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