Culture Envy: ‘December Dreaming’ with Alexis Lynn

The Surrey pop artist explores the magical time during Christmas in her latest single

Surrey artist Alexis Lynn explores Christmas in her latest single. (Submitted)

With the mellow sound of Christmas bells, choir-styled background vocals, and descriptive lyrics reflecting on the holidays, Surrey pop artist Alexis Lynn released “December Dreaming” to show her love for Christmas. 

Along with her co-writer and producer Brandon Rogers, Lynn wrote the entire song in only a couple of hours and released it to the public a week later on Nov. 26. 

“I always love writing,” says Lynn. “I knew I wanted the title to be ‘December Dreaming’ … and I knew I wanted the mood of it to be really dreamy and soft. And then, as [we were] writing it, we came up with the idea of going through each season before you get to December, so that was one of my favourite parts.”

This hasn’t been the first time Lynn has written a Christmas song. Last year, she wrote “Christmas Cards” to reflect that everyone experiences the holidays differently, and the importance of being mindful of that. She wrote “December Dreaming” as a follow-up to that song to show a different perspective. 

“For me, it’s a really magical and happy time, and I always look forward to it,” says Lynn. “So I wanted to write a really dreamy Christmas song that was kind of almost like a fantasy thing like the anticipation is better than the actual holiday itself.” 

Lynn says one of the different aspects of creating this song wasn’t the writing process but its production. 

Before the pandemic, Lynn says she would usually record her music in person in a studio in Los Angeles. But during the pandemic, she has been recording from home over Zoom.

“It’s just a different vibe, but it’s also nice and convenient,” says Lynn. “It pretty much allows me to record my vocals directly into my producer’s software, even though he’s based in L.A.” 

Lynn began her love of making music at only nine years old and begged her parents to put her in vocal lessons when she was 12. Shortly after, she began playing the piano and a little bit of guitar. 

“It really changed for me when I started songwriting in high school at 16, and that kind of really took a turn for me in terms of ‘Oh, this is something that I actually want to do as a career,'” says Lynn. 

The Surrey pop artist has been recognized locally, winning a First Nations/Indigenous Artist Award in 2019 from the Fraser Valley Music Awards of Achievement, as well as across the country, in the Top 100 CBC Searchlight list and coverage by Global TV. 

In addition to “December Dreaming,” Lynn says she recently finished writing an album that will be out around April or May of next year. 

She says she will start releasing singles leading up to the album release date in January of the new year. 

The theme of the album focuses on “a multifaceted exploration of mental health and mental illness and its effects on our lives and relationships,” Lynn wrote in a follow-up email to The Runner

To see more of Lynn’s music, you can see her live at the Trading Post Brewery and Tasting Room in Langley on Dec. 18 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm and through social media @alexislynnmusic.