Trying to add a fresh sheen to a classic holiday song is a tricky line to walk.
A performer needs to make it familiar enough to capture the nostalgia that makes people love it in the first place, but also spin it just enough to make it seem exciting and new.
That was the challenge facing Phoebe Mangas and the Celebration Worship Band before their Circle of Lights audition.
The band twisted and molded a pair of familiar Christmas songs into something completely new. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” became more up-tempo and rollicking, while a newer song, “Shake Up Christmas” by the pop-rock band Train, took on a reggae feel.
“We all had a part of arranging it. We just sat and all of us played, and those ideas came together and formed our product,” Mangas said. “We thought about the songs that we don’t hear constantly, and ones we do hear constantly that we think we could have some fun with.”
The Celebration Worship Band is made up of current Anderson University students and alumni, including Mangas, a junior from the Center Grove area. They met through their involvement at Celebration Church, a non-denominational Christian church about 10 minutes off campus.
Jon Ledbetter plays guitar, Luke Stafford handles saxophone and piano and Josh Townsend is the bassist. Carter lays down the beats with the drums.
Mangas is the singer for the group, with Stafford, Ledbetter and Townsend doing background vocals and harmonies.
The musicians help lead the worship music at the church, and they’ve grown into a more tightly knit group over the past year of performing together.
Auditioning for the Circle of Lights came about from an idea Mangas had. She had attended the event every holiday season since she was a little girl and worked security at the event in 2014.
A few days before the actual auditions, they decided to try it. The night before auditions in October, the group gathered to cobble together songs they could perform.
“They were more upbeat, so that the crowd would get that Christmas, nostalgic feeling but also get them excited about the season,” Mangas said. “A lot of the changes we made to the music were just because we were messing around.”
Mangas has been interested in music since she was a young girl, though it was her grandfather, Frank Hommel, who cemented that appreciation in her.
He plays music by ear, as opposed to learning to read music, and Mangas has followed in his example.
“He was my biggest musical influence. He still goes to nursing homes and plays banjo and guitar. He’s one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, because you can tell he loves what he does,” she said. “I inherited that. I hear things, and that’s what I love doing.”
Through her years of involvement in choirs and performances at Anderson University, Mangas isn’t fazed by performing in front of 100,000 revelers on Monument Circle and thousands more on TV.
The band has been trying to meet a couple times a week since mid-October to prepare and make sure their sound is tight for the performance. They’ve also been part of official rehearsals with Circle of Lights officials to make sure they are prepared for the flow of the show.
“It’s going to be different from anything I’ve done before, because it’s a lot of people I don’t know. That being said, it’s something I’m more excited about than anything,” Mangas said.
