Kevin Bronson on December 6th, 2017

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This video answers that ages-old existential question: If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Why a Christmas tree, of course.

“Christmas in Hollywood” is a romp from garage-rocker Kat Meoz, who previously released music under the name Grit. The singer-songwriter-guitarist’s chunky power-pop hasn’t changed any since 2016, when the EP “LA Don’t Love You” was first released. This fall, Meoz released the new single “Here I Wait,” which was embraced by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer on his Sirius FM show.

“Christmas in Hollywood” will appear on Bingenheimer’s new holiday compilation “Santa’s Got a GTO, Vol. 2” (the first volume was released 20 years ago). If nothing else, it’s testimony to what you can do on a tight deadline. “I was driving back from Vegas with my friend and director, Kansas Bowling,” Meoz explains. “She got a call from Rodney, telling her that he was short one song for his Christmas compilation. … The day before, Rodney had played my song ‘LA Don’t Love You’ on his show, so I felt confident interrupting their phone call to announce that I would like a chance to write an original for the compilation. His response was that it would have to be done, fully mastered, in a week’s time to be considered for the vinyl release. I asked him what specifically he would want the Christmas song to be about and he said something about Hollywood.

“Two days later, I was at Seahorse Sounds Studio recording a Christmas song I had written with some of my closest music friends. Eric Weaver (Iggy Azalea, Camila) and Kyle Biane (Pacific Radio) produced the song, and Eliot Lorango and Salvatore Joseph played bass and drums respectively. My friend Emery Becker came to the studio to film behind the scenes, and I told him that I just kept seeing myself as a giant Christmas tree eating alone in a diner or playing at the beach with some girls. The finished song was approved, and I approached Kansas to help me make a video. I told her my idea and she loved it, taking it one step further, saying that I should be stalking Rodney as the Christmas tree. Rodney was on board to be in the video, offering his bad-ass GTO for production value.”

Indeed, it’s the kind of light-hearted clip that will leave snow-shoveling denizens of the flyover states Christmas-tree-green with envy. “It makes people laugh and smile,” Meoz says. “It’s all I wanted to do this holiday season, spread some joy. ”

||| Watch: The video for “Christmas in Hollywood”

||| Also: Stream “Here I Wait”

||| Live: Kat Meoz will perform at Rodney’s “Santa’s Got a GTO” release party on Thursday night at La Luz De Jesus Gallery. Also, Kat Meoz co-headlines the Hi Hat on Dec. 14 with Jennie Vee. Tickets.