- [Kelly] Have a seat.
We are both wearing red.
- We are.
- I knew that you are gonna be in your Christmas best
so I wore some red.
I like your nails.
- You know what, it's Christmas men,
it's time to get festive.
- [Kelly] I love it.
- Yeah, I was going for maybe like Christmas lights or-
- It makes me so happy, all the colors.
- [Darren] I'm glad.
- So you were Nick Jonas's adviser last season
that he did on "The Voice" and I missed you.
- I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
- I know, whatever.
You didn't want to be mine, it's fine.
- You were suspiciously missing, darling,
when I was there.
That's why I was like,
well, I finally get to meet you 'cause you weren't there.
I think whatever was going on.
- [Kelly] I know, is it when Kelsey had to sit in for me?
- That's right.
- Did you have fun though on "The Voice?"
- I did have fun.
I mean, that's such an amazing,
constantly, there are so many talented people
on those shows where I'm like,
I would make a record with you, you're fabulous.
So yeah, just getting to see them do their thing
is really inspiring.
- Yeah, and it's just a fun crew too.
It's a fun group of people,
but is it true that you're going back to Broadway soon?
- I am, yeah.
- [Kelly] That's exciting.
- I was doing a play right before the shutdown
and we were about to open
but we're very, very, very lucky.
The play is "American Buffalo"
which is a pretty famous American play.
And it's just three guys in one room.
I feel bad for the shows that are much bigger
and didn't get sustained because they're there it is.
- Can we talk about the cast?
- Yeah, cast ain't bad.
(audience applauding)
We got Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne.
- Yeah, they really got some D-level people
in there with you.
(speaker laughing)
- Three knuckleheads who are-
- I know, I was just like good gosh,
that cast is incredible.
- [Darren] Yeah, I'm very, very lucky.
- This is gonna be so good.
- I'm very excited.
And again, we're very, very lucky
'cause we did lose a lot of Broadway shows
over the pandemic.
So we'll be back and it's crazy.
It's just like the "Avengers" Thanos snap.
We're literally opening like the same day, two years later.
So it's just like, okay, I guess it's now 2022,
but we're very, very fortunate.
So you'll have to come see the play
if you're into seeing three guys
yell at each other for an hour.
- If you're into seeing three incredible people on stage.
Yeah, that's-
- Doing their best.
- I love the cast, it's so good.
And I also love that you used Thanos in this interview.
We could be besties. - Yeah, I just kind
of dropped that, yeah.
- I know I'm just really into Marvel,
but whatever we're good.
- I feel like that your demographic
would understand that reference.
- Yeah, it's me, it's my demographic
is what I was concerned about.
(audience applauding)
So, congratulations, because
you have a baby on the way, right?
Not you personally, that would be interesting but-
- Yes, it would be, yeah.
It's coming in the mail, Amazon, yeah.
Amazon Prime baby, yeah.
- But are you excited?
- Yeah.
- Are you freaking out?
- No, not at all, I'm all about it.
This is a fun thing 'cause we're both musicians
and the people that don't understand
the way music sessions work, audio regions,
that is the baby's heartbeat.
And people thought that we were actually
just announcing like an actual, we were joking.
It was like the pun of like the ultimate collab,
'Cause it is the ultimate collab, it was,
people were like, oh cool.
You guys are making music together.
I'm like, oh no, we already made music.
(audience applauding)
Yeah, but the beat is coming, you know,
it's dropping soon, so we're excited.
- We are so similar.
I also use like in "Heartbeat Song," I have this song
called "Heartbeat Song" we used
like something from my kid's heartbeat there too.
- Yeah, using our kids to promote our careers
just like responsible parents, no I'm kidding.
- No, it's because you become a parent and all this
and you're like this goober that's like,
everything revolves around it.
Like everyone else cares as much as you, but you do it.
- As soon as I found out we were pregnant,
I was like, well, RIP talking about anything else.
(audience laughing)
There goes that.
- That is 100% true.
- But it's very exciting and we're happy.
I was glad that, that post was like, cool.
'Cause when people announced that stuff, I was like
it has to be cool and musician based.
So, I'm glad that it works.
- I love that, I love that.
So well, speaking of Christmas and family,
do you have any family traditions
that you all do at Christmas time?
- I mean, it's no different than anybody else
which is getting together.
I mean, there are certain things that I grew up doing
that was very unique.
My father was an Anglophile
and loved old British traditions.
And he lived in England for a long time.
So he's the only guy, I'm the only person I know
that had a Christmas goose.
- What?
- Yeah, like a Christmas goose,
like we're in a Dickensian novel,
like in the Victorian era.
- [Kelly] Like an actual goose?
- Like an actual.
If you have any British friends, this isn't so uncommon.
But the thing they sing about in songs,
like gotta get your Christmas goose.
Like we don't do that in the states
'cause that's like, well, that's crazy.
- And then people will give you this face?
- Yeah they give you that face.
Well, you're from Texas,
aint no Christmas goose down in Texas.
I don't think that's a thing that happens.
- Yeah, there's no, we don't have Christmas goose
but maybe now.
- Maybe now, I mean, it's an acquired taste.
- You're starting traditions.
- But that was the tradition
and we would do like the puddings
and all the very like English things.
- [Kelly] What would you do with the goose?
- We'd eat it, man, put some gravy on it.
- Oh okay, okay, I thought you meant
you just like had a goose around
but instead of like turkey dinner.
- Oh, like just like a pet goose?
- Yeah, I thought you just had a goose.
- Like Joey and Chandler's goose
come in like Christmas?
- Yeah, I was just like I don't understand.
Oh I get it, I get.
That's what y'all had instead of like turkey.
- Yes, yes, instead of turkey.
- I just was like picturing you with a goose in your house.
And I didn't know the tradition.
I don't know.
- I'm not against that,
I think that could be like a new thing.
- I didn't want you to be like no,
we didn't murder the goose.
- We didn't murder the goose,
yeah, we just keep it around until it gets bored.
Then we give it back to Santa.
So we, yeah, no, we prepared like a Christmas goose
in the style of like old Christmas food.
- I think that's cool.
- Yeah, so we did that.
I am not much of a chef that my father was,
but I definitely, I enjoyed that.
We now do Christmas cookies.
We decorate Christmas cookies, that's a fun thing.
Like I don't eat them.
I actually have more fun decorating.
- Oh, I don't eat them either, no, no.
- Yeah, yeah they're gross.
Well I'll just pile on all of this frosting.
- Other people eat them, I don't eat them.
- I'll send them all to you.
- Yeah, we love them at my house.
But you have a new Christmas album.
It, I know it's so fun to make.
I've now made two
but like it's one of those things that
it's actually a weird thing in June and July
to be singing Christmas songs in the studio.
And it's like, it feels like Christmas has lasted
a half a year for you, right?
- You know, what's interesting
and maybe you felt this doing your records,
but, so the holidays are really interesting time where you
are very reflective about, you know,
the things in your life, things that you're grateful,
the people that you love,
the things that you wanna do or make better.
And it is a very unique time of meditation
and reflection, right?
But then you go back to work
you're like, all right, cool.
Back to work.
And it's only for the like couple of weeks tops
then you put yourself in that head space.
If you put yourself in the head space all year,
it's a pretty amazing thing.
Like I was wondering if I was just drinking the Kool-Aid
and thinking about how amazing and lucky I've been
in my life for, with Christmas really,
as it relates to the holidays and my life in it
and family and everything, I was like,
maybe I'm just thinking this is more important
than it is 'cause I'm making this album.
But if you're in that head space of being like grateful
and appreciative of the good family moments in your life
all year, it was a pretty magical experience.
And all of that sentiment and reflection,
I really tried to bake into every aspect
of this cake 'cause again,
singing for me is just like a very small part.
It's the arranging, it's the producing, it's the editing,
it's the playing, everything, the curation of all the songs.
Like I put as much of myself into this album
as I think more than any other album I've ever made,
which is strange 'cause it's like a Christmas album-
- [Kelly] No I agree.
- But it is a highly personal thing.
- You have so much liberty though
and with a Christmas album too,
there's liberty there.
And I think it's really fun and you get to play like
I love big band kind of stuff.
I can tell you love horns,
you love breaths, you love all that too.
So it's jus, it's euphoric.
That sound is like very fun, it's nice, it's uplifting.
- Yeah, and it's the only time of year
where the whole world is like down with it.
- [Kelly] That's what am saying, there's liberty with that.
- Like they're even that more classic, you know,
harmonies, tubular bells and jingle bells
stuff that again, once January comes along you're like,
all right back to boom-bap.
Let's do that, you know?
So I like leaning in to the cliches, is it's nice.
- I love that, I do too.
Well, you're performing with Adam Lambert
where you were talking about earlier,
I heard y'all rehearsing.
It's insane., so how would you enlist him for this?
- Well, Adam, so aside from
the horribly convenient pond of my last name,
a Very Darren Christmas, like roll your eyes all you want.
It's like, if I didn't call it that.
- I think it's perfect.
- I would have gotten in trouble
with everybody that I knew they were like,
why didn't you call it-
- What a lost opportunity.
- Exactly. - Exactly.
- So aside from the convenient pun,
it is a very me thing like I mentioned
the amount of personal things that were in it,
this wasn't like label meetings and people calling artists,
it's just me and my phone being like, hey man,
can you do this thing with me?
And obviously Adam is an extraordinary vocalist
and mainly doing rock and pop stuff nowadays,
but he has a real jazz pedigree.
And the song that we do,
a lot of the songs in the album are like
D-side songs that people don't really hear a lot.
One of my favorite songs
is "Everybody's Waiting for the Man With the Bag,"
which is a highly chromatic song
with a lot of very distinct half notes and stuff
that I really wanted somebody who was, you know,
had that.
- [Kelly] Could handle it.
- That ability and who doesn't get the opportunity
to do it a lot.
So I asked him and he was just, I-
- He's an incredible vocalist.
- I can't believe I got him to do it.
So he sounds incredible on it.
And it's fun when you're writing for like a Mustang.
Like when, you know, you have like a thoroughbred stallion.
- [Kelly] I can go full on range here.
- At your disposal, so I can write things that are like.
- I will say that one,
the notes y'all have the big one and you're sustaining it,
I was like, okay.
- Oh yeah, that's Adam,
'cause he can do it, so you can kind of go ham
when you're arranging vocals.
- [Kelly] So can you, that's what makes it amazing.
- Well thank you.
- You keep being like, I don't focus on the vocals.
Your vocals are incredible.