In The Garden was originally written as my initial thoughts on parenthood and childbirth when my daughter was born. Where do we begin and end? Lyrically, I talk about encountering a Secret Birth and then note that "You were beautiful and I was being born" leaving a lot open to interpretation.

Musically, this was the first track I worked on for

In The Garden was originally written as my initial thoughts on parenthood and childbirth when my daughter was born. Where do we begin and end? Lyrically, I talk about encountering a Secret Birth and then note that "You were beautiful and I was being born" leaving a lot open to interpretation.

Musically, this was the first track I worked on for what became the Open Hearts Open Minds album (coming soon!) during the pandemic. I had things pretty much set out and then Dan suggested I make it even bigger headed towards the end so I started adding more orchestral elements.

Enjoy!

Written and recorded in Hamilton and Toronto, Canada, during the pandemic, it captures the pent-up frustration of living in lockdown with a catchy, anthemic rock song.

Hamilton-based singer Mackenzie Kristjon co-wrote the song over Zoom with Leon Harrison. Kristjon had met Harrison through Indie Week which then led to songwriting sessions through

Written and recorded in Hamilton and Toronto, Canada, during the pandemic, it captures the pent-up frustration of living in lockdown with a catchy, anthemic rock song.

Hamilton-based singer Mackenzie Kristjon co-wrote the song over Zoom with Leon Harrison. Kristjon had met Harrison through Indie Week which then led to songwriting sessions through Leon Harrison’s Mentoring Platform ‘Bandwagon’. Over a number of sessions, the song was workshopped with the aim of strengthening its core authenticity and integrity. Approaching the writing sessions, Kristjon brought in a guitar riff that had a really classic, Stones-y strut, and he and Harrison crafted a song and lyric about defying expectations to achieve true freedom and to not live in an image foisted upon you by others. You create your own destiny!

With lines about how you’re going to “break on through to your new reality,” the song evokes Break On Through by The Doors. “We’ve updated Jim Morrison for the new millennium!” said Harrison.

Icelandic-Canadian Kristjon expressed, “Writing with Leon was a real treat. His Aussie spirit combined well with my Viking attitude!”

Kristjon recorded basic tracks at home while in lockdown. However, Kristjon and hit producer Mark Zubek (Zedd Records) both became aware that the lockdown was going to partially lift in June 2021 and they would be able to meet in person to complete final production in Toronto.

“Honestly, when I spoke to Mark, I was going to be the first artist to come in to the studio in over a year. I think he and I were almost as excited to get out and see real human beings again as to produce an epic rock song!” said Kristjon. “It was actually my first time leaving Hamilton since the lockdown had started in 2020. It was beyond exciting!”

Running Wild Running Free indeed!

OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS was recorded during the pandemic and involved collaboration with musicians across North America. While attending music conference Indie 101, singer Mackenzie Kristjon was recording the album Open Hearts Open Minds. The album already featured collaborations with Dan Konopka (OK Go) in California and Leon Harrison (The Lazys,

OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS was recorded during the pandemic and involved collaboration with musicians across North America. While attending music conference Indie 101, singer Mackenzie Kristjon was recording the album Open Hearts Open Minds. The album already featured collaborations with Dan Konopka (OK Go) in California and Leon Harrison (The Lazys, Bandwagon Workshops) from Australia, and so Kristjon thought it might be fun to make it open to anyone who wanted something to do while in lockdown, a last-minute decision while attending Indie 101, one of four online music conferences put on by Indie Week.

“I felt there might be some benefit to the universe to have all of these people singing the phrase Open Hearts Open Minds in various places while alone in lockdown, like it might bring people together in a small but positive way. And hopefully it provided a worthy distraction from the nightly COVID news report.”

For the title track Open Hearts Open Minds, Kristjon involved singers from Vancouver to Cape Breton in Canada and from San Francisco to Philadelphia in the USA. Around 40 people reached out and around half actually submitted vocals.

Lyrically, the song was originally inspired by a parental rights’ organization who were looking for an anthem. They supplied hundreds of pages of documents of the most heart-wrenching stories of parental alienation. However, Mackenzie Kristjon decided to take it in a more universal direction about rising beyond challenges and opening hearts and minds to our shared humanity in all its various struggles. On the day the lead vocals were recorded, Kristjon even crowdsourced lines for the second verse on Facebook, which came from old friend Craig Norris, singer for Guelph-based The Kramdens and morning show host for the CBC in Kitchener-Waterloo.

“I sing about having a friend in an old steeltown, which is a nod to Hamilton, where I’ve lived for the past few years, which is also why I included a Hamilton streetscape on the single cover. Although Hamilton is very quickly gentrifying, it still has working class roots and the people are very salt of the earth.”

LOVE IS A GLORIOUS THING is from the forthcoming album from This Mad Desire OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS. The track was written in Thunder Bay and inspired by a Pixies cover of the Neil Young classic “Winterlong”. At the time. I was in high school and writing for my first band Bloodflowers and was busy learning as many Neil Young and Beatles songs as

LOVE IS A GLORIOUS THING is from the forthcoming album from This Mad Desire OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS. The track was written in Thunder Bay and inspired by a Pixies cover of the Neil Young classic “Winterlong”. At the time. I was in high school and writing for my first band Bloodflowers and was busy learning as many Neil Young and Beatles songs as possible. That comes across in the song.

For whatever reason, I have never recorded a proper version of this until last spring (2021). Around March 2021 when it became clear that the lockdowns were going to head into the summer (at least), I decided to rent some equipment and record an album at home. Normally I like to record at the Hamilton Public Library’s Sound Studio, but the pandemic caused them to close those facilities for most of the year. So I headed down to Long and McQuade, rented some gear, picked up a Mac laptop to rent for a month, and I was off to the races.

For the most part, I would record most of the instruments (keyboards, guitars, bass) and vocals and then send things off to friends of mine like Mark Zubek or Dan Konopka (OK Go) to add their parts from their own home studios. Due to COVID, that was a pretty normal way of working.

While I was working on this, Indie 101 occurred –which is one of four online music festivals organized by Indie Week in Toronto, and I thought that since I was already collaborating with people in Toronto and Los Angeles remotely, I could open up the collaborations to anyone with a cell phone or a laptop. So at Indie 101, I started asking if anyone was interested in singing some background vocals for two songs, including Love Is A Glorious Thing, and quite a few people were interested. A few people contacted me from friends of friends and so on.

We wound up with a really interesting mix of people from everywhere in North America. Some people are very professional singers, some were amateurs, some recorded in proper studios, some sang into their phones. By and large, I only met these people from sharing music. Most of them I’ve never met in person!

I thought it would be an interesting thing for people to do when they are isolated and locked down, like a little bolt of inspiration to get through the day and feel productive and like part of a community.

Mission accomplished!

CREDITS Written by Mackenzie Kristjon. Vocals and instruments by Mackenzie Kristjon. Bass by Kilian Bamberg who notably kickstarted my re-emergence into music when he really championed my recording Operators Are Standing By. Background vocals (in no particular order): Leslie Ramsey-Taylor – R&B singer from Toronto, who is a friend of my frequent producer Mark Zubek. She has the greatest voice. Jessica Magoch – award-winning jazz singer from Philadelphia. She won the 2019 Philadelphia Music Award for Jazz and just recently won the John Lennon Songwriting Competition Song of the Week. AND she duets with me on our version of Christmas classic Deck The Halls. Try to imagine if we both did not attend that conference! Joyce Aldrich – who I met at Indie 101. She’s a talented jazz singer from Toronto. Erica “Captain” Corbo – another talented jazz artist and pop songwriter from Philadelphia. She performs as a pianist, vocalist and performance artist; both solo and as part of the free improv collective Space Whale Orchestra. I actually met her on Instagram one day when I was randomly researching Philadelphia music. She was organizing her concert series Warp Factor 9 at the time. They would put chairs out on the sidewalk and perform through an open window. I was very impressed! Kim Thompson – country singer from Calgary, Alberta, who I met at Indie 101. We have gone on to write a Christmas song called “This Christmas” which she recorded and was produced by Chris Birkett (Sinead O’Connor, Buffy Ste. Marie, Def Leppard, etc. etc.). Chris also produces music for Joyce Aldrich (mentioned above). Small world! Glen MacLeod – guitarist/songwriter in the band Crash World out of Vancouver. He’s a very talented guy and extremely friendly. Jason Dunford (Samaki Mkuu) – Jason is based in San Francisco and this is verbatim from his Wikipedia page: He is a Kenyan Olympic swimmer, media personality, rapper and entrepreneur. During his swimming career, he was predominantly a butterfly and freestyle sprinter winning gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, Universiade, All-Africa Games and African Championships, and reaching finals at the Olympics, World Championships and Short Course World Championships. He also held African, Universiade and Olympic records. He has worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, is a co-founder and adviser to software company, Safi and currently serves as the CEO of Baila Entertainment whilst performing as Samaki Mkuu, one half of the rap duo Romantico & Samaki Mkuu. I only learned about all the swimming after he sent in his vocals! Reinhard Kypke – Reinhard is based in Guelph and very proudly from Berlin (like Kilian, actually). He has been working with me on and off in various capacities for years. We even performed together in Iceland! Brian Doucette – Brian is a cool singer from Nova Scotia who I met through Mark Zubek. Definitely worth checking out! Fluency Grey – Fluency is an indie rocker in Ottawa. Very cool guy! Simon Pellett – Simon is British-born but lives in Texas and aside from being a really great heavy metal guitarist, he also has a podcast called Music On Your Own Terms which looks at the entrepreneurial side of the music industry in addition to mental health. Sandeep Swaminathan – Sandeep is the frontman/lead singer for an indie band called The Spiral Theory based in Toronto. We’ve been friends since meeting each other at Indie Week back in 2020.

Our modern holiday classic! Recorded across North America in various locations, our version of Deck the Halls is a collaboration between Mackenzie Kristjon, vocalist Jessica Magoch (winner of the 2019 Philadelphia Live Music Award for Jazz), guitarist Steve Baric, and Dan Konopka (OK Go). Background vocals are provided by Guelph singer Tannis

Our modern holiday classic! Recorded across North America in various locations, our version of Deck the Halls is a collaboration between Mackenzie Kristjon, vocalist Jessica Magoch (winner of the 2019 Philadelphia Live Music Award for Jazz), guitarist Steve Baric, and Dan Konopka (OK Go). Background vocals are provided by Guelph singer Tannis Slimmon, Kari Lyn (Toronto by way of Prince Edward Island), and Kim Thompson from Calgary. Like this recording, Christmas has no borders. Happy holidaze!