It’s a song about going home for Christmas after you’ve moved away, and how things feel different, although still fadedly beautiful.

Heather grew up in Omaha and it has inspired multiple songs now, including “Another Christmas at Home” by Eux Autres (which is the funnier version of things) and now it has helped me write the lyrics for this one. Omaha gets very colorless and bleak this time of year, so people really pull out all the stops with decorations—especially the plastic blow-mold snowmen, Santas and nativity scenes. It creates a very eerie glow all over the city: dirty snow, opaque white sky, bitter cold, and these incandescent cheesy statues on every block, saying, "hey now, let’s be merry, ok?"

Brian also grew up in a sort of bleak town (Tacoma) and as we worked on this song, we talked a lot about our experiences of coming home. How, when we’d come home from the bars in our twenties, we found ourselves drawn to the glow of the Christmas tree. We'd sit there, a little drunk, feeling like we were still children longing for that Christmas “magic,” and yet also like adults who saw the painful limitations of our hometowns. Those towns make us who we are, and so even our Christmases in our home today still carry powerful echoes of those years gone by.

Structurally, the song is built around the narrator’s longing for the old feelings of magic and regretting how easily she cast off her origins for the bigger “shiny things”. And then, Brian’s voice comes in for the bridge, the booming ghost of Christmas Past with all of its insistent cheer, and the narrator wants to feel it but can’t quite give herself over completely.

Brian wrote most of the music and played almost all the instruments. The wonderful drummer Eric Eagle did the drums and our favorite exiled Englishman, Mr. Martin Feveyear, mixed it.

Under The Tree

Flannel Pajamas

Right Hook

“I Believe in Christmas” is about the tension between being a cynical adult who thinks Christmas is overblown, and yet still seeing Christmas through the wondrous eyes of a kid.

The song was inspired, like all of Corvair’s Christmas songs so far, by Heather’s hometown of Omaha, the magical contrast of the bleakness and cold with the abundance of old-school Christmas decorations.

"I Believe in Christmas" is also Corvair’s playful counterpoint to The Sonics’ “Don’t Believe in Christmas,” a favorite Christmas song that Brian grew up listening to.

This is the duo’s third holiday song in three years, after last year’s “Under The Tree” and 2020’s “Flannel Pajamas,” currently featured on the double Christmas album "24" on the notable UK indie pop label wiaiwya Records.

On “I Believe in Christmas,” Naubert wrote most of the music and played all of the instruments. Larimer takes the vocal lead and created the story, melody, and lyrics.
credits
released December 1, 2022

released December 2, 2022
Brian Naubert: vocals, guitars, bass, keys, percussion
Heather Larimer: vocals, lyrics, percussion

© 2022 Paper Walls
℗ 2022 Paper Walls

Songwriters:
Heather Larimer, © 2022 Paper Walls Music (BMI)
Brian Naubert, © 2022 Hoffabus Music (ASCAP)

Recorded and Produced by Brian Naubert
at The Attic, Portland, OR

Mixed & Mastered by Martin Feveyear
at Feveyear Master/Mix, Vashon, WA

Artwork: Dash Point Design

Info/contact: corvairband.com
all rights reserved
license
all rights reserved

I Believe In Christmas

The song explores the dark side of a relationship, a female narrator describing herself as a heavyweight fighter. Corvair’s Heather Larimer says of the song: “On this record, I pushed myself to be more exposed and unfiltered. I can unfortunately be an ugly fighter and I wondered what would happen lyrically if I just owned up to it. The things I do that I am ashamed of and the toll it takes on everyone involved.” Naubert adds: “The musical spine of this song was me thinking about Tears for Fears meets King Crimson. But then Heather wrapped that art rock foundation in a Blondie-meets-Shirelles pop energy. It’s a strange combination that fits the story–out of control emotions that end in shame and regret.”

Corvair is what happens when you trap two Scorpio songwriters in a house together.

Corvair’s debut album charts a starcrossed love story over three decades, five cities, and six continents. Spanning from atmospheric pop to jangly confessional, chugging groovers to molten guitar anthems, 70s AM to 90s FM, this work is laden with stunning turns of phrase and prodigious melodies, two voices leaping to meet in the ether. Corvair sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard and everything you’ve always loved.

Our upcoming album was recorded in Seattle, with drummer Eric Eagle (Jesse Sykes, Wayne Horvitz) and Engineer Martin Feveyear (Queens of the Stone Age, Presidents of the USA).

Brian and Heather have previously recorded or performed on more than twenty albums. Heather’s musical mainstay was the garage pop band Eux Autres, broadly hailed as a “veritable cult classic” band. Brian is a longtime fixture of the Northwest rock community, having played in vital bands such as Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers, and the critically-lauded Ruston Mire, since 1995. Most recently, Brian released his first solo record, Hoffabus and a record with the NW Supergroup, The Service Providers.

www.corvairband.com

Released by:
wiaiwya (UK)Paper Walls (US)
Album release date:
14 February 2021

Tied Island

Three Stars

Sunday Runner

Sailor Down

Paladin

Green (Mean Time)

Focus Puller

Daily Double

Corvair is a recording project from Seattle, WA. Threading together 70’s pop, 80’s synth rock and 90’s indie rock, influences from The Carpenters to ELO, Cheap Trick to Metric, Corvair sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard and everything you’ve always loved.

Corvair

Popular tracks