I looked up what Kaskade had to say for himself. It was very wholesome:
I have always loved Christmas music. I grew up singing it with my family at Church which was the gateway to my High School Varsity Choir. This choir would travel all over Chicago and even landed in NYC to perform a concert series of Holiday classics. I know. Varsity Choir. You can stop rolling your eyes now I see you.
I get the rolled eyes, I do. I do. Kaskade later claims that “the mood of the season is about imagination, hope and love” and I’m not sure even I can take that seriously.
But there is something lovely about taking things seriously, isn’t there? I’ve never been religious, but choir music is often reflective and earnest in a way that, despite it all, moves me. A little over a week ago, I was sitting in a planetarium listening to a secular choir sing an arrangement of Carl Sagan:
If we do not destroy ourselves
Then we will someday venture to the stars
And I nearly cried, wanting to believe that. I’d nearly cried earlier that night, speaking someone else’s words about the end of smallpox. It requires a smidgeon of seriousness, I think, to care about things. I hope that your December has schmaltzy singalongs and foil-wrapped chocolates and absurd sweaters and all the rest, I do. I do. But I also hope it has a bit of space for solemnity and precision.