With Christmas just around the corner, Glasgow’s Olive Grove Records have put together a lovely wee Christmas compilatiion record, which you can listen to in the player below. From Olive Us to Olive You features olive (geddit?) your favourite Olive Grove artists, performing their own original Christmas songs, and it’s all for a good cause as well. Every single penny of profit will be donated to CDH UK, a leading UK charity who support and advise families who are affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. To tell us more about the record, we hand over to Olive Grove head honcho, Lloyd Meredith.



"The album came by chance – back in September we did a wee showcase gig at St Luke's, at which my friend Jon who does all of the mixing and mastering, had planted the idea of doing another Christmas EP... We'd done an EP a few years back with Jo Mango, the Son(s), The State Broadcasters and Randolph's Leap, which I really loved. Since then I'd started working with Carla Easton, who seems to love Christmas songs even more than I do. Plus she's a hell of a lot better at writing them than than I am!

"So in my usual over-excited state I found myself bounding [around] the venue trying to talk all of the bands playing at the showcase into writing and recording a Christmas song for me. Surprisingly pretty much all of them were up for the challenge of coming up with a festive tune in such a short space of time. More scheming was to follow, as text messages and emails were fired to other artists on the label to see if they were game too. Before I knew it, an EP had turned into an album! Given the limited amount of time we had to pull it all together, I really was flying by the seat of my pants.



"The last song to be completed was only finished a few days before the album was announced! Plus it wasn't just the recording that needed to be done, we had Jon from Smallfish Recordings, who instigated this whole idea, working flat out to mix and master the songs. I had the amazing Craig Rorrison do the artwork in just under a week. He even managed to rise to the challenge of incorporating a snowman picture that my daughter drew into the back cover. Oh and I should mention the good folk at EmuBands who very kindly arranged the digital distribution of the album for free.

"All of the profits that are made from the album are going to be donated to CDH UK, a charity who support and advise families who are affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). My son Luke was born with CDH three years ago this month, so it means a lot to me to be able to give something back to families who might not have been as lucky as ours.

"I'm really excited about this album, as I always try to treat Olive Grove as being like my other family. That and I have a lot of love for alternative Christmas songs; When I Get Home For Christmas by Snow Patrol sparked my passion for alternative festive tunes, many many moons ago. So to be able to release my own Christmas album which has such a diverse range of talent on it, really means a lot.

"We have Carla J. Easton (TeenCanteen / Ette) and Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines), doing not one, but two duets. Both of which are future Christmas classics in my ears; there's Randolph's Leap's Warm Outside, a beautiful song about Santa getting older, [and] there's some more tender moments from The State Broadcasters and Henry & Fleetwood, alongside some festive tunes that we've revisited from Jo Mango, Woodenbox, The Son(s) and a personal old favourite from Campfires in Winter.

"We also have an utterly amazing song about Jesus being a stereotypical Capricorn, from Pocket Knife, a new addition to the Olive Grove family. It's every bit as good as it sounds and I can't wait for folk to hear it!"

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://olivegrove.bandcamp.com/album/from-olive-us-to-olive-you" data-mce-href="http://olivegrove.bandcamp.com/album/from-olive-us-to-olive-you"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;From Olive Us To Olive You by Olive Grove Records&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

From Olive Us to Olive You is released on 15 Dec via Olive Grove Records. Pre-order the album here.