Setting the tone for last years holiday season, they released their grave interpretation of old time classic 'White Christmas' and following the melancholic traces of that piece, they gave 'NYE' - a New Years song about the complexity of ending a close relationship, released on Christmas day.
Now they repeat last years successful Christmas bonanza with a brand new release – a cover of the Mariah Carey classic Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), dressed up in the melancholic costume of pitch perfect choruses and earnestness that is the signature of Maple & Rye.
Talking about their upcoming release, Maple & Rye says: ”The Christmas of 2021 will be bitter sweet. Last year, many of us were unable to spend the festive season with the people we love and the people that we have come to associate this season with. Many of us spent it alone, far far away from our families and loved ones, and in a reality that was completely unfamiliar.
This year, a lot of people around the world will be able to experience a Christmas more similar to what we are used to. Many families will be reunited for the first time in nearly two years, homes will be filled with people, and we will be able to feel the warmth of human companionship once again. In that sense, this Christmas will be a Christmas of renunion. A Christmas to put the hardships of the past two years behind us. A Christmas of hope for better times ahead. At the same time, there will be empty seats around the Christmas dinner table this year. There will be names missing on the presents under the tree. As we rejoice in the reunion with our nearest and dearest, we will also be remembering the souls that we have lost. Many families will spend their first Christmas without certain individuals. Certain laughs won’t be heard, certain stories won’t be told, and certain songs won’t be sung. We want to dedicate this song to everyone lost, as well as to everyone who has lost. We want to celebrate our reunion, as well as to commemorate those who are unable to join us. «
As restrictions have loosened all over Europe, Maple & Rye have spent this past spring, summer and fall touring extensively around Scandinavia and Germany - and also participate as the only European band in the digital Korean showcase festival MU:CON, followed by a show at the digital Canadian music festival Indie Week Toronto / Nation x Nation.
The indie folk quartet Maple & Rye released their hotly-anticipated and for many years frequently requested debut album 'For Everything', in the summer of 2020 via Icons Creating Evil Art. An album sprung from stories that need to be told, books that should be read, love relationships that need to be broken, grief over total loneliness, death, places the band's members never visited and people they love. A long process of adversity and obstacles but at the same time a journey filled with joy and love.
The band has always had a vision of keeping the music and the experience authentic, both for themselves and for their fans. Vocal harmonies and powerful melodies are blended with bombastic drums, danceable rhythms and grand choruses, in parallel with a brittleness and inwardness that contrasts with the joy and dance. It is music that changes from playfulness to intimacy and emotion.
Maple & Rye derives their musical inspiration from a wide range of influences from blues and funk to rock and folk-pop, although the most important inspiration comes from the members' own emotional lives. The band is based in Gothenburg and consists of Leo Lönnroth, Gustav Rybo-Molin, Milton Lönnroth and Henrik Bielsten. The artistic core is largely due to the fact that all the members of the group are composers, lyricists and vocalists - the band's two strong lead singers are backed in by the other members and focus is placed on careful and sensitive storytelling.
The Christmas single Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Maple & Rye is released November 19 via Icons Creating Evil Art.