I'm going to be honest and admit that the singer that I'm featuring today is a bit outside of what I usually listen to. I suppose if you had to classify these songs, they'd fall under the category of alternative rock. I think. Whatever you want to call it, it's not a style I listen to all that often. It happens every once in a while, as evidenced by this post. But it's a bit out of my wheelhouse, so to speak. That said, I always enjoy when I end up liking something that I wouldn't expect myself to like. It kind of surprises me how much I enjoy these songs and I don't mean that in an insulting way. They're just so different from the other things I listen to most of the time.
I first heard of Chase Holfelder via a tweet I saw from Chris Rupp where he mentioned liking the first cover on the list and included the link. I like Chris a lot and was intrigued to check out the video. Whoa. It's a song that I grew up listening to, a song from one of my favorite movies as a kid - a movie that is still one of my favorite Disney movies. The movie? Beauty and the Beast. The song? "Beauty and the Beast". This was released around the time that the new live action version of the movie came out. Back when it seemed like a ton of people were releasing a cover of this song. As much as I like the song, I was getting a little tired of all the covers of it that sounded pretty much the same. Not because they were bad, but because they were all so similar.
Then this version happened. Yeah, at the end of the video you'll see collaborator Kurt Hugo Schneider come on (the video is, in fact, on his YouTube channel), talking about how Chase sang it in a way you probably haven't heard before. He was right. My goodness was he right. Fast forward to a few days ago when I was watching videos on YouTube and another of Chase's covers popped up in my suggested videos. It was his cover of "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's Moana. Once again, I found myself intrigued so I watched it. And liked it. Come to find out, Chase has this ongoing series on his YouTube channel where he takes songs that were written in a major key and puts them in a minor key. I think it's pretty fascinating to see how much of a difference than can make. There hasn't been one I've watched that was anything like I thought it'd be. Even after watching quite a few of them and having an idea of the general tone the songs tend to take, they're still never what I expect.
And you know what? I love it. Again, it's not a style I would usually choose to listen to, but my opinion is changing. I love being surprised by music. Whether it's through an interesting lyrical twist or by taking something familiar and turning it into something completely different. Thus, making it new again. I'm such a sucker for this kind of thing.
That said, there's something I want to mention before we get to the videos. I've been skimming through the comments to the videos I decided to feature because I was curious to see what the response has been. From what I've seen, they're mostly positive. But there have been a couple of common criticisms I've seen that I wanted to address. I'm going to preface this by saying that sometimes people just don't like a song and that's perfectly fine. Songs make you feel however they make you feel. There's no right or wrong way to feel about them. We all have our personal preferences and that's cool. That said, I think there's a couple of things to keep in mind and this is where those common criticisms come into play.
The first is that they're not like the original. These appears to be more of an issue with the Disney songs. Like I said, all these songs were originally done in a major key and now they're in a minor key. That combined with their choice of instrumentation tells me that he's not interested in making them sound anything like the original. The other criticism I've seen is that they take all the emotion out of it and I disagree with that. It's not that the emotion it's gone, it's that the emotion has been changed. So if you're looking for these songs to sound the way you're used to hearing them, you're not going to find that here. These versions are very different from the originals which is the main appeal for me and, I imagine, many others. Just something to keep in mind. I think it's important to take into consideration what a song or cover is trying to be and adjust your expectations accordingly. In this case, it's probably better to throw your expectations out the window.
Okay? Okay. Now that I've gotten all of that out of the right, here's a video spotlight on Chase Holfelder.
1) "Beauty and the Beast".
I'm going to be completely honest and admit that my initial reaction after watching this for the first time was something along the lines of what the blazes was that? It didn't mean it in a negative way, mind you. It just took me completely by surprise. This was before I had any kind of idea what Chase's minor covers would be like. Before I realized how different they would be from the original. That's one of the reasons I wanted to come out and say they were going to be different and to throw expectations out the window. This messed with my head a bit and I mean that in the best possible way. It's like Beauty and the Beast meets Coraline or something. I don't know about the rest of you, but Coraline creeps me out. I say that as a grown woman. That movie legitimately creeps me out. But that's what I think about. Just imagine Lumiere and Cogsworth with buttons for eyes. This is one of the most interesting things about listening to Chase's minor covers. How visual it makes the experience. Not just for me. That's another reason to skim through the comments: you come across some from people describing what kind of story or images came to their minds as they were listening and I've seen a few that would make incredible stories. This actually gave me an idea for a story that I might just have to write. Chase took the soaring romantic ballad from one of my favorite Disney movies and turned it into something dark and vaguely unsettling. And I love it.
2) "Suspicious Minds".
I'm saying it. I like this better than the original. This is one of two songs on this list where the lyrics seem to work better in the minor key. Better might not be the right word here, actually. It's more than the minor key, plus the instrumentation and Chase's delivery add another dimension to the lyrics. The songs sound so much more sinister like they could be the theme song for some kind of psychological thriller. The part where he keeps repeating "honey, you know I'd never lie to you" though. It's like the guy is trying to brainwash her (or him, as the case might be) into believing him, but it ironically makes him seem all the more suspicious. Like maybe the insistence that he wouldn't lie is what sends up the red flag that he's not what he seems to be. It's so interesting how I end up creating these stories when I listen to these. It's not intentional; it just happens. These covers just get my imagination going and it goes in unsettling directions. The story that comes to mind when I listen to this involves a girl, an evil twin and a dangerous obsession. Might have to write that one too.
3) "Kiss the Girl".
In which Chase continues to ruin my childhood. I kid, I kid. Kind of. Yeah, The Little Mermaid was also one of favorite movies as a kid. Still love it as an adult. And now I'm imagining an evil Sebastian who doesn't seem to think that consent matters. That or the whole time we think Ursula is the villain, but it's really been Ariel the entire time and she's using Sebastian to try to lure Eric to his death by kissing her here. Poor Eric. He either has to deal with a psycho crab trying to get him to do bad things or Ariel trying to kill him. "Do what the music say"? Uh, no. Don't. Run away, bro. Just run away. It does make me laugh how at the end Chase comes on and says he knows that one is a little different. A little?! But I do like it. I actually think that his Disney covers are his most interesting. It's such a drastic change from the original. He took a couple of popular classic Disney songs, along with a song that's probably their most popular song at the moment, and made them his own. I respect that. Even if it takes my mind into some weird places involving potentially evil crabs. It's fine. This does have me super curious to hear how "Under the Sea" would sound. I'm going to guess that it would make the sea seem completely horrifying. What with all the evil crustaceans hanging around and, you know, the sea witch and all. No wonder Flounder's so scared all the time.
4) "Every Breath You Take".
5) "How Far I'll Go".
Okay, I'm back.
These covers are a trip, I tell you what. I love it. I love that these songs can fire up my imagination in this kind of way. It makes it so much more of an experience and I really appreciate that. He does have "regular" covers on his YouTube channel by that and by regular, I mean songs that he does not put into a minor key. But it's this series that really shows off his musical ability. Not to knock his other covers, mind you. The country loving part of me would like to see him tackle a country song. Unless I'm mistaken, he hasn't done one. Then again, there's still plenty of his videos that I haven't gotten around to watching yet. I'll probably work my way through all of them eventually. But I've been trying to think of possible country songs that'd be cool for him to try. Maybe something like "Lose My Mind" by Brett Eldredge. The original is a fun uptempo about a guy losing his mind over a girl and I think it would be very interesting to hear Chase's take on it. Or Parmalee's "Carolina" could probably get pretty creepy. I don't know.
What I do know is that it's going to be interesting to see what other songs he decides to do a minor version of and how much it changes them. I'm curious to see what he does next. If you are also curious to see what he does next, here's where you can keep up with him:
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