The Christmas Feelings artwork

By Taiwo Okanlawon

Canadian singer-songwriter, Soul Brother Mike, is closing out his prolific year with a soulful and altruistic new tune for the holiday playlist, a self-produced single titled “The Christmas Feeling”.

The founder of Soul City Music Co-Op, an artist-owned music label in Windsor, Ontario 🇨🇦, who has built a reputation for powerful message songs addressing economic inequality and issues of systemic injustice, said “After a string of political songs, I’ve gone for lighter fare. I think that we especially need some extra joy and music this Christmas.”

While capturing the excitement of the holidays, “The Christmas Feeling” nevertheless upholds Mike’s mantle of meaningful songwriting, diplomatically touching on complex family relationships – singing that it’s “not always a good time”, and encouraging people to be generous and inclusive. “It’s about taking the altruistic properties of Christmas, and encouraging people to always treat others that way,” remarks Mike.

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The single is a continuation of the Soul Brother Mike tradition of reimagining holiday music through a modern lens, having previously released the 6-song holiday EP “Soulstice” in 2017, where he re-worked public domain songs into wholly new and original compositions.

When asked what inspires him to write holiday music, Mike explained that it’s a matter of personal values. “Values are really important to me… Christmas is one of the only holidays that I celebrate, and I think that’s because it aligns a lot with my personal values,” says Mike.

“It’s also a busy time of year for me professionally, and I like playing original music – so if I’m going to be performing around the holidays, it’s nice to have some original songs to play.”

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Though the pandemic has prevented Mike from delivering his usual holiday performances, he has continued to reach audiences online, live-streaming regularly from his home studio.

Stream and download The Christmas Feeling Here.