Christmastime in Taurus Moon is a new EP from Dern, a Louisville duo made of Bendigo Flectcher's Ryan Anderson and fiancée Annie Williams. The EP is a collection of three original holiday tunes and Dern's rendition of Auld Lang Syne. I spoke with Ryan to learn a little more about Dern and their new EP, Christmastime in Taurus Moon.
There are two main types of holiday releases: classic covers, or seasonal originals. What influenced you to write holiday music of your own?
Original holiday music from both Dr. Dog and My Morning Jacket shares a warm and wonderful, home-recorded quality. To us, those EPs succeed in capturing that classic feeling around the holidays, and maybe, in hindsight, we wanted to chase that feeling with songs of our own. The idea of “Heather’s Holiday Letter” began back in October as I’d been reflecting on these family Christmas cards my mom’s friend would send out every year. She wrote with such a perfect blend of tenderness and scathing whit in describing her family’s annual progressions, and it felt like tradition to read them and laugh with my mom throughout the years. The rest of the songs followed the nostalgia around those kinds of memories. And Auld Lang Syne is just the prettiest melody ever.
As a couple, I'm sure you are some of the only people you got to see a lot of this year. Was this project a result of the pandemic and quarantine?
In about month three, we found ourselves using less speech and more song to communicate. Perhaps a coping mechanism? Probably half of our constructive dialogue happens in song, so recording together was bound to happen. That, coupled with the desire to spread a little extra cheer with our friends and family this year, helped drive the project. Having the time and spirit to do it was a silver lining of our quarantine saga.
Is Dern a one-off collaboration, or can we expect more from this duo in the future?
We venture to say you can expect more from Dern in the future.
The Christmastide in Taurus Moon EP is available on Dern's bandcamp page. Stream the EP here!
