Santamental - The making of

The making of Santamental

In June 2002 Steve Lukather started the recordings for a solo album with jazz-rock style covers of classic and new Xmas songs, (re)arranged by himself and Jeff Babko. The album (almost entirely instrumental) will contain two new songs as a surprise gift. It's not the first time Luke recorded Xmas songs. In 1889, 1997 and 1998 Luke contributed to A very special Christmas, The carols of Christmas 2 and Merry Axemas 2 (produced by Steve Vai). Check out the footage section for the soundclips.

Lukather in June 2002: "Well... I am starting June 17th for 7 days at the Steakhouse. It's tentatively titled A Lukey Xmas. The arrangements are awesome. Mostly instrumental stuff with a few vocals. I am having a few guests as well. Edgar Winter, Slash, Mike Landau. My son Trevor confirmed so far. There will be more and few big surprises. Elliot Scheiner is producing and engineering for the new label that he and Al Schmitt started and I think I am the first act on the label. The CD will be out late September 2002 for Xmas. A nice stocking stuffer for sure! Hahaha."

After the recordings Lukather decided to change the album title in Santamental. One of the special guests on the album is Eddie Van Halen. Lukather in July 2002: "Ed and I have been friends for 24 years or so. I got him out of seclusion to come rip on one of the Xmas tunes." Van Halen joins Lukather on a rendition of the standard Joy to the world that Lukather tells will sound a bit different than what most people are used to: "I did a version of Joy to the world that sounds like Hot for teacher or Space boogie. It's that tempo, that groove, and we re-arranged the voicings around the melody. Me and him go back and forth on some solos."

In the first week of September it became obvious that the original release date (September 2002) had to be postponed. Lukather in September: "My Xmas CD is being held till next year due to a distribution fuck up. I am bummed but you can't release a Xmas record in January, hahaha. There is no time left and no marketing plan etc... Everyone will have to wait till October next year to get it, but it will be worth the wait."

Lukather about the essence of the album in Gitarre & Bass, November 2002: "Actually it's a pretty funny album, with traditional standards that we really mixed up. I sampled, for example, the vocals of Sammy Davis Jr. and made a duet with him (Jingle bells). The album sounds like a Big Band based on Weather Report, Frank Zappa and Van Halen."

Lukather in December 2002: "I did my new Christmas record in 7 days - all analog on a 24-track, no click. Old school. Ninety percent of the solos were live, except for the guests who played on it."

Lukather in August 2003 (on Toto99.com): "Santamental is FINALLY coming out! It took some doing, but it's late October with a September pre-release so we can still make the Grammy cut-off. That is rather presumptuous BUT what the fuck, hahaha. There is alot on the table now and we are touring so much. I will eventually do another solo record and probably-hopefully do another with Larry Carlton as well. I am VERY fortunate to have so many oportunities and I will take advantage of them all when time allows."

Lukather on October 9th 2003: “The album was not my idea, actually. I didn’t woke up one day thinking I was fucking Santa Claus. Elliot Scheiner came to me with the idea and I just decided “hey, this might be very interesting.” He said: “We don’t want you to do a normal Xmas album, we want you to mess it all up.” I said: “What do you mean by that?” And he said: “You got to use pretty much songs that people know, but you got to do it in a weired, different way and stretch out on it.”

So we did this whole record in 7 days from start to finish. With no computers, no clicks, no rehearsal, just a 24-track analog tape. And I invited a lot of my friends to save my ass. These days most of us kinda use the bargain system. They come out and play for me, I come play for them, cause none of us could effort each other!”

“It was a fun project, I declare. I never thought it would ever happen. As weired as it sounds, it actually came out pretty cool. And I already got some good reviews for the first time in my life, cause normally I got slaughtered.”

Lukather in November 2003 (Striking the Balance): “Yeah there’s a couple of vocal pieces on there. Elliot Scheiner, who you know from Steely Dan, and he’s worked with us, he is a great engineer/producer, Al Schmitt who worked with us is one of the greatest, Ed Cherney works with the Stones and so on. They started a record company and they came to me and they go “Lukey, we want you to be one of our first artists and we want you to do a Christmas record.” I laughed out loud: “Just call me Santa fucking Clause.” What a bizarre request, they said “nah, I think we can do something really weird and make it your own,” and they said “but here’s the deal; we gotta do this really fast, we have no budget and blah, blah, blah…” And I said “OK, I’ll take the Pepsi challenge!” So I called my friend Jeff Babko, the keyboard player for Ranger, brilliant young kid, and I said look I want you to help me with this, because I needed some collaborative partner to bang some stuff out with. So we started taking the Christmas songs and tearing them apart and re-harmonizing them, and putting new grooves to them. So that the melody is the same but everything else is different. For example, the first cut on the record is Joy to the World right, and you think ah that’s a pretty cheesy tune; I got Eddie Van Halen on that with me and it’s sort of a cross between Jeff Beck and Hot for teacher by Van Halen. It’s got Weather Report voicing on standard tunes, and I wrote a couple of things, we re-arranged everything. All the solos are live, there’s some humor on it, I sampled Sammy Davis Junior and I’m singing Jingle Bells together which is hysterical, big band style. I am really proud of it, it’s not your typical Christmas record, it’s not like I’m doing Kenny G’s version of… and playing the same cheesy everything the same, this is really all fucked up, it’s all freaked out. It’s going to offend church go’ers; they’ll be offended by it. They’ll think I’ve re-harmonized it into the Devils music, which I hope they think. My son will probably get in trouble playing it in school. I think it’s really good; it’s a picture of me in a straight jacket on the cover with a Santa’s hat saying “SantaMental.” I don’t take myself that seriously, contrary to popular belief. But, the music is very serious, it’s very real. There is nothing plastic or computerized about any of it, this is great cats playing one or two takes of stuff.”

“Merry Christmas!”

The album is released in Europe by ulfTone Music on October 13th 2003.


	The making of Santamental In June 2002 Steve Lukather started the recordings for a solo album with jazz-rock style covers of classic and new Xmas songs, (re)arranged by himself and Jeff Babko. The album (almost entirely instrumental) will contain two new songs as a surprise gift. It's not the first time Luke recorded Xmas songs. In 1889, 1997 and 1998 Luke contributed to A very special Christmas, The carols of Christmas 2 and Merry Axemas 2 (produced by Steve Vai). Check out the footage section for the soundclips. Lukather in June 2002: "Well... I am starting June 17th for 7 days at the Steakhouse. It's tentatively titled A Lukey Xmas. The arrangements are awesome. Mostly instrumental stuff with a few vocals. I am having a few guests as well. Edgar Winter, Slash, Mike Landau. My son Trevor confirmed so far. There will be more and few big surprises. Elliot Scheiner is producing and engineering for the new label that he and Al Schmitt started and I think I am the first act on the label. The CD will be out late September 2002 for Xmas. A nice stocking stuffer for sure! Hahaha." After the recordings Lukather decided to change the album title in Santamental. One of the special guests on the album is Eddie Van Halen. Lukather in July 2002: "Ed and I have been friends for 24 years or so. I got him out of seclusion to come rip on one of the Xmas tunes." Van Halen joins Lukather on a rendition of the standard Joy to the world that Lukather tells will sound a bit different than what most people are used to: "I did a version of Joy to the world that sounds like Hot for teacher or Space boogie. It's that tempo, that groove, and we re-arranged the voicings around the melody. Me and him go back and forth on some solos." In the first week of September it became obvious that the original release date (September 2002) had to be postponed. Lukather in September: "My Xmas CD is being held till next year due to a distribution fuck up. I am bummed but you can't release a Xmas record in January, hahaha. There is no time left and no marketing plan etc... Everyone will have to wait till October next year to get it, but it will be worth the wait." Lukather about the essence of the album in Gitarre & Bass, November 2002: "Actually it's a pretty funny album, with traditional standards that we really mixed up. I sampled, for example, the vocals of Sammy Davis Jr. and made a duet with him (Jingle bells). The album sounds like a Big Band based on Weather Report, Frank Zappa and Van Halen." Lukather in December 2002: "I did my new Christmas record in 7 days - all analog on a 24-track, no click. Old school. Ninety percent of the solos were live, except for the guests who played on it." Lukather in August 2003 (on Toto99.com): "Santamental is FINALLY coming out! It took some doing, but it's late October with a September pre-release so we can still make the Grammy cut-off. That is rather presumptuous BUT what the fuck, hahaha. There is alot on the table now and we are touring so much. I will eventually do another solo record and probably-hopefully do another with Larry Carlton as well. I am VERY fortunate to have so many oportunities and I will take advantage of them all when time allows." Lukather on October 9th 2003: “The album was not my idea, actually. I didn’t woke up one day thinking I was fucking Santa Claus. Elliot Scheiner came to me with the idea and I just decided “hey, this might be very interesting.” He said: “We don’t want you to do a normal Xmas album, we want you to mess it all up.” I said: “What do you mean by that?” And he said: “You got to use pretty much songs that people know, but you got to do it in a weired, different way and stretch out on it.” So we did this whole record in 7 days from start to finish. With no computers, no clicks, no rehearsal, just a 24-track analog tape. And I invited a lot of my friends to save my ass. These days most of us kinda use the bargain system. They come out and play for me, I come play for them, cause none of us could effort each other!” “It was a fun project, I declare. I never thought it would ever happen. As weired as it sounds, it actually came out pretty cool. And I already got some good reviews for the first time in my life, cause normally I got slaughtered.” Lukather in November 2003 (Striking the Balance): “Yeah there’s a couple of vocal pieces on there. Elliot Scheiner, who you know from Steely Dan, and he’s worked with us, he is a great engineer/producer, Al Schmitt who worked with us is one of the greatest, Ed Cherney works with the Stones and so on. They started a record company and they came to me and they go “Lukey, we want you to be one of our first artists and we want you to do a Christmas record.” I laughed out loud: “Just call me Santa fucking Clause.” What a bizarre request, they said “nah, I think we can do something really weird and make it your own,” and they said “but here’s the deal; we gotta do this really fast, we have no budget and blah, blah, blah…” And I said “OK, I’ll take the Pepsi challenge!” So I called my friend Jeff Babko, the keyboard player for Ranger, brilliant young kid, and I said look I want you to help me with this, because I needed some collaborative partner to bang some stuff out with. So we started taking the Christmas songs and tearing them apart and re-harmonizing them, and putting new grooves to them. So that the melody is the same but everything else is different. For example, the first cut on the record is Joy to the World right, and you think ah that’s a pretty cheesy tune; I got Eddie Van Halen on that with me and it’s sort of a cross between Jeff Beck and Hot for teacher by Van Halen. It’s got Weather Report voicing on standard tunes, and I wrote a couple of things, we re-arranged everything. All the solos are live, there’s some humor on it, I sampled Sammy Davis Junior and I’m singing Jingle Bells together which is hysterical, big band style. I am really proud of it, it’s not your typical Christmas record, it’s not like I’m doing Kenny G’s version of… and playing the same cheesy everything the same, this is really all fucked up, it’s all freaked out. It’s going to offend church go’ers; they’ll be offended by it. They’ll think I’ve re-harmonized it into the Devils music, which I hope they think. My son will probably get in trouble playing it in school. I think it’s really good; it’s a picture of me in a straight jacket on the cover with a Santa’s hat saying “SantaMental.” I don’t take myself that seriously, contrary to popular belief. But, the music is very serious, it’s very real. There is nothing plastic or computerized about any of it, this is great cats playing one or two takes of stuff.” “Merry Christmas!” The album is released in Europe by ulfTone Music on October 13th 2003.