For Q94 Classic Rock’s latest “Local Song of the Week,” we present something different and intriguing. For the past several years, Lilla Jul Rockeband – a studio band with a rotating lineup of current students from Millersville University’s music business technology program – has recorded and produced special holiday season songs and videos, some which have been past “Local Song of the Week” selections. For this year’s production, their fifth, the group stepped up their ambitions and went international, traveling to Iceland in November to explore and create a song about Icelandic yule folklore, “Jólakötturinn (Icelandic Yule Cat).”
The song was written by Barry Atticks, director and creator of the Clair Brothers Music Business Technology major at Millersville University, who visited Iceland last year in search of an opportunity for music industry students to work at the Iceland Airwaves Festival. While there, he learned about seasonal Icelandic folklore, including Christmas characters the Yule Lads. These characters visit children on the 13 days before Christmas. The Yule Lads live with a giant cat who seeks out kids who aren’t wearing new clothes on Christmas Eve — a sign that they didn’t work hard enough throughout the year. The punishment? The cat eats them.
When the students attended the Iceland Airwaves Festival last month, they hired a location scout to find locations where they could film the video, and a talent scout helped locate a local family to act in the film.
Set in Iceland in 1862, the video begins as a young widowed mother reads a bedtime story to her two daughters by candlelight. Frightened by the tale of the Yule cat, the children fight to evade the nightmarish beast with only the goddess Freya as their guide. Appearing along the way to perform the song are the Lilla Jul Rockeband cast – vocalist Kaitlyn Meyers (senior), bassist Zoey Noble (senior), guitarist Aden Getz (junior) and percussionist Em Hass (senior). Additionally, drummer Dylan Gehringer, a freshman, plays on the song’s recording but is not in the video. Numerous other Millersville music industry students assisted with technical duties, backing vocals and more.
If you want to learn more about the production of the song and video, visit this website: https://www.icelandicyulecat.com/
