Georgina Taylor Releases Spirited Rendition of “What Child Is This” Featuring Renowned Session Musicians
Alternative-experimental pop artist Georgina Taylor announces the release of her new holiday single “What Child Is This,” out now. This fresh arrangement combines the beloved medieval Christmas carol with a driving disco beat to create a holiday track listeners can really dance to. Produced and arranged by Taylor at her In The Garden Productions studio the single breathes new life and energy into this Christmas classic while staying true to its traditional roots.
The production features contributions from distinguished industry heavyweights who elevate and enforce the rhythmic foundation of the track. Detroit bassist Alan Snoop Evans II known for his work with Fred Hammond, Take 6, and The Clark Sisters provides a electrifyingly riveting bass line that pushes and propels the song in the bottom end. Guitarist John Meyer from Macon Georgia known for his role in Jupiter Coyote contributes his distinct playing style to the recording. The project is also enhanced by the expertise of Production Advisor Preston Heyman a legendary drummer and producer from London, England recognized for his work with Kate Bush, Paul McCartney, Sting, and Massive Attack. The single was mixed by Simon Allen and mastered by Nigel Palmer at Lowlands Mastering.
Taylor’s creative process relies heavily on spontaneity, intuition and raw gut instinct which she describes her writing style as a form of Divine Inspiration where entire songs emerge rapidly with little conscious thought process.
“My music comes through me…complete songs come out in minutes” Taylor explains regarding her workflow.
In this recording in keeping with her usual love of BG vocals she layered down a multitude of background tracks all by ear to create a rich, lush vocal texture that serves as the centerpiece of the song. Born in Chelmsford Essex England and currently residing in Nanaimo British Columbia Taylor draws upon her diverse background as an artist of Anglo-Indian descent and a practicing Catholic (Christian) to inform her musical expression, giving each of her tracks a flair of the exotic while heavily anchored in tradition and cool.
Taylor has always been fascinated by history and the melody for this track comes from the 1580 English folk song Greensleeves which was long rumored to have been written by King Henry VIII, with later updates stating it was written by Richard Jones with the London Stationer’s Company. The lyrics were composed in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix remain a focal point of this new Christmas Classic. The single pays homage to the history of the original composition as Taylor delivers lines such as “What Child is this / Who laid to rest / On Mary’s lap is sleeping” and “Haste, haste, to bring Him laud / The Babe, the Son of Mary” with a dramatic intensity that characterizes her unique vocal style.
Mike White Presents describes the music of Georgina Taylor as “like being pursued by Peter Gabriel, Bat 4 Lashes and Kate Bush into a fairytale forest populated by characters from a Guillermo DelToro film”. This description captures the essence of her work which spans alternative-experimental pop. Beyond her musical endeavors Taylor is a passionate advocate for human animal and environmental rights and a philanthropist.
Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
I was born in England on Guy Fawkes with shocking bright red hair and was instantly nicknamed the Bonfire Baby and carrot top. When I was 7 years old we immigrated to Australia and then Canada when I was 10. I currently live on beautiful Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. From the age of 3 I have been harmonizing and playing instruments around the house and if I could not find the instrument I wanted, I would making one out of old boxes, strings, my mum’s sewing elastic, wooden spoons, a mud puddle, didgeridoos out of paper towel tubes and bent PVC pipe, or whatever I could find. Â
Vocals and guitar are my main instrument’s, I also played jazz trumpet in high school. I took piano lessons for a few years when I was young, which I definitely regret stopping and mostly only play by ear now. When I write a song on the piano, I rough in the part and then get a professional to track the part properly after building up the foundation of the arrangement in Pro Tools. I dabble on a few different instruments, bass is my latest favourite. But I really love sampling and the sounds I discover in nature and how they beautifully enhance the composition: A creaky old door, the wind in the trees, birds chirping at dawn, water ebbing and flowing on the shore as submerged pebbles rotate under the surf and rub against each other creating that barely audible silky rumble under the white noise of the water, the snort of a bear, water slapping against the side of a boats hull, or the purr of a cat. I studied audio engineering, production and music arranging, but that was years ago so like piano I work strictly by ear now for the most part. I also studied geology and a few other disciplines in university and hope to one day complete that degree. I mention my studies here because my love of science, history and the multitude of various geological, climatological and meteorological processes sometimes leak into the ‘feel’ of my music. I can literally sense the added dimensions in the composition when I am ‘in the zone’ and the music is flowing out of me like a tap. The 9.5 subduction megathrust quakes we get off our coast were a particular interest for me in my studies. I can see how my passion for science, geology and history has definitely added more depth to my compositions and arrangements. To the reader this may make no sense, but it’s in the feel, the groove, the overall essence of the song, the 3D landscape of the song. I have so many musical influences I would not even know where to start. Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, Zeppelin, Heart, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Steve Miller, Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, many disco and funk artists…. I could write names for hours that influenced me but Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel had the biggest impact on me. I studied their music for years, eating up each new album they would release. I wanted to know how they achieved such a rich tapestry of sound. I really love some of the newer artists too like Billie Eilish, Jacob Collier. There are so many talented people out there.Â
When I was younger I thought I sounded like a smurf until I heard Kate Bush. People told me I sounded and looked like her, so that gave me confidence when I was starting out, I used to be very shy which is hard to believe now. I was no longer embarrassed by my voice. Years ago I was with an indie label for awhile Compression Records in Vancouver and learned a lot there working with producer Murray MacDonald. That was where I first discovered pro tools. I also had an original band in Vancouver for years and used to play in the clubs a lot and did many solo shows as well with just myself and the guitar. I started working with Preston (The Jedi Master) back in about 2008/2009. I knew of his work with Kate so I gained more confidence in my abilities from his choice to work with me. Preston became a great mentor for me taking my music to the next level. The tracks I would send him in the beginning were an absolute disaster. They were like stretched out elastic, all feel and no common sense expanding at different rates and all over the timing grid and frayed in different places. When a new composition is coming out of me, I track in the scratch parts like an excited child with no patience as I can feel the other parts and instruments of the song coalescing in my head and I want to get them out. It’s a bit of a mad scramble as the new parts start bubbling up to the surface inside me. So this is what he had to contend with initially. Being a world class drummer and percussionist, timing is critical to Preston. I don’t know how much Paracetamol he had to take when working on one of my first tracks like Hunting The Fox, but it must have been a lot. I learned a lot of musical discipline from him and still do. So now when the new composition, arrangements, or production ideas are bubbling up out of me I force myself to track them in, in time to the grid in PT. It’s like holding a child down and telling them to have patience at Disneyland ha ha. There’s a good chance I have ADHD so this could be why. Preston also got me using Melodyne which I find really helpful when layering multiple tracks.Â
Over the years I have been blessed to work with so many great musicians and engineers. The best part is that they are mostly good people too, they have integrity – to me that means a lot, it makes all the difference, egos are checked at the door. Humour goes a long way as well. I love to laugh, mostly at myself….when I am not being too serious. I work from my home based In the Garden Productions studio. I have a number of guitars, bass, synths, samplers, a couple great mics and a variety of other instruments in the studio. In Hunting The Fox, before tracking in both Preston and Ash Soan, I used my studio desktop as a drum and foot stomped the floor. All these sounds made the final cut. I
I am also a mum to an amazing Gen Z’dr who loves to tell me that I was born before the lunar landing :o. My faith is also a big part of my life since I went through an extraordinary conversion experience years ago. I attend Mass daily and have a pretty intense prayer life which takes a few hours each day. I also run a small business. I love animals and nature and so many things……I never get bored. I used to be a member of Amnesty International’s Artists Network. I also do prison ministry. I have a passion for helping the less fortunate because I have gone through a lot of suffering in my own life and loving others and putting God first is the fastest path to healing.Â
I am hoping to complete my first album entitled Bonfire Baby in 2026. I am currently an unsigned artist.Â
Your version of “What Child Is This” blends a medieval melody with a full disco pulse. What made you decide this carol needed to move people on the dance floor?
I did not initially set out to do a dance track. But I do love to dance. I particularly love disco and funk. Each Christmas I try to get in the mood by working on a new Christmas song. I have loved What Child is This since I was small with its exquisite juxtaposition of melody to chord progression and its beautiful medieval, baroque feel. I have also always been fascinated (and more than mildly creeped out) by Henry VIII and his poor wives. So a couple years back, it was getting close to Christmas and I decided to work on a Christmas song to get in the Christmas spirit and I thought of What Child Is This. I had been editing other tracks for months and that can often be quite tedious so I was definitely in the mood to just have fun and let some energy out. I didn’t plan on it being a dance track initially, but when I found the loop and started adding in the chords and scratch vocals – I started dancing and singing and couldn’t stop. I was hypnotized by it. It was then that the current version was locked in. Music has to literally move me, or it ends up on the cutting room floor. Then I added the wonderful arpeggiators which really added that special Christmas sparkle and then started tracking keeper vocals which is always my favourite part of the process. Last year I contacted Snoop to do bass on it and he tore a literal hole through the ether with his part. Then I knew I had to add John on the disco guitar. John is an incredible guitarist and old friend, not to mention ‘good ole boy’ from down in Georgia in the southern states, so he was like chuckle, chuckle: ‘Disco?’….yeah ok….I’ll do my best – huh???’. Usually I bring John in to do heavy Pink Floyd type riffs and wailing solo’s. But now he is disco John! Then the track was off for mixing and mastering with Simon and Nigel in the UK.Â
You describe your songwriting as Divine Inspiration, with full songs arriving in minutes. What does that moment feel like for you, and has it ever surprised you where a song decides to go?Â
I used to scuba dive a lot. It was like going into a completely other world. This is the same in that sense. I feel the music. It’s like water coming out of a tap. Going on a journey…. into the zone. The zone of miracles and the infinite. It’s like having all cylinders firing at once, both physically and spiritually without really thinking much at all. You are in perfect harmony. Your body feels alive. You know throughout your entire being that this is what you were designed to do. You become one with the music, the music takes on life itself. It’s like being transported to a far away land and adventure. An adventure of the heart and senses. It is very cathartic. I think I dump a lot of subconscious junk in the process too. The first song to come out of me in 3 minutes was Civilize Us – Residential School & Native American Boarding School Song. Before that, I would get good chunks of songs, but not entire songs. The morning I wrote Civilize Us was right after the news reports started coming out of Kamloops Indian residential school a few years back. I remember waking up thinking ‘I think I will write a residential school song today’, so I swept the cat off the bed, made a cup of coffee, started strumming the guitar and then boof out comes this whole song ( apart from content later added by members of Snuneymuxw Nation). It’s never a surprise to see where the song will end up because I feel it from the beginning where it needs to go, I see a lot of the visuals for it as well in those moments. It’s like this big data download occurs.Â
That said, surprises do occur later on in the production process that will blow my mind and next level the track, like a couple months ago when I had Tim Cansfield (Beegees, Stevie Winwood, Chaka Khan) track guitars on Saint Francis. Tim tracked multiple layers of guitars, he really took his time and felt his way through it and the result was stunning. I have never seen so many from a session player but he had created this rich textural landscape of lush that wove, ebbed and flowed throughout the song. I was astonished and beaming, my heart overflowed when I heard what he did. I also seem to be the lucky recipient of many ‘happy accidents’ that occur when I am tracking. My bengal cat walked across my synth and meowed during vocal tracking on Saint Francis and he was in time, so I wrote him into the song. My dog Wombat barked in time to my song Hunting the Fox, so we kept her. I think my goat bellowed at the studio door and a North American bullfrog on our pond let out a huge Ribbit and they are in there too. I might trip and bump my nose on a keyboard and love the sound, or accidentally knock a synth with my elbow and voila. With every step of production, it’s like my heart feels and senses its way through the song. I put very little conscious thought into it, it’s all felt and sensed. Feeling my way along. It’s all about feel and groove and what emotional texture/ landscape the song asks for and I know instantaneously what the song needs. I spend a lot of time in prayer and contemplation so I try to stay grounded with God, discerning if the music is coming from the right place. If it’s not, the song is dumped immediately.Â
This track features heavy hitters like Alan Snoop Evans II, John Meyer, Preston Heyman, Simon Allen, and Nigel Palmer. What did each of them bring that changed the shape of your original vision?
To me, musicians are like spices when cooking. I feel instantly exactly what spice, taste, texture or dynamic I need in the songs. After that, I reach out to the particular musician that I know can deliver it. I searched for a while for the right bass player after our friend Derrick McIntyre (Jamiroquai) passed away suddenly in a road accident in the UK earlier in 2024, until then I had used Derrick on several of my tracks. It was impossible to replace Derrick and his signature style and feel, he was so versatile. So it took ages and it was painful, we all miss Derrick. I finally saw videos of Snoop’s work and reached out to him and he said yes. I knew the bass needed to drive the song like a heartbeat and this guy could do it. Snoops’ part was the only one that really changed the vision in that his iconic bass part on this song really took on a life of its own. I cannot imagine the song without it now. John is a guitar player I work with a lot so John was a pretty automatic choice except for he wasn’t a disco guy before so it made for a lot of laughs and took John out of his wheelhouse. Preston I bounce ideas off of to get that yes/no Jedi Master opinion on and to make sure I am staying on the right course. Getting his opinion is like having a solid rock wall built around a castle. It feels solid. It feels safe. Nigel was trained by the great mastering engineer Ray Staff from Air London (Preston brought Ray in on a few of my 2010 masters), so seeing Ray had retired I started working with Nigel on mastering on the recommendation of Cameron Craig who engineered Civilize Us for me. Nigel recommended Simon who did a wonderful mix on a tight timeline. They were all amazing. I cannot say enough about each and every one of them. I’m just very blessed.Â
You are active in human, animal, and environmental rights. How do your values appear in your music, even when the song is a Christmas classic?Â
I don’t think it shows in this Christmas classic as much as my other tracks. The shots from the space station show the fragility of the planet. How it’s ‘safe’ up there in space away from the strife and terror occuring on the planet right now. Those shots are like a celestial view, with God and the angels looking down saying…. ‘What are they doing down to my beautiful creation!!’. Similarly, It’s a snapshot in time before things go unequivocally and irrevocably wrong on this planet. If What Child is This makes money, a portion would definitely go to charity, or towards funding my other tracks that are in production. A lot of the songs on my upcoming album are about human rights, animal rights, antiwar and corruption themes: Civilize Us, Hunting The Fox, I’m Content in my Room, Wartorn Photograph. Christian songs are starting to ‘come out of me’ now as well, like my most recent one You & Me which flowed out of me this summer . These always have a great message. Love your neighbour.Â
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