When Matt Dorrien moved from San Francisco to Portland with his girlfriend, it was supposed to be the beginning of a new chapter. After two folky, ethereal, guitar-based records under the name Snowblind Traveler, Dorrien was looking forward to experimenting with writing songs on the piano, the first instrument he ever learned to play. As luck would have it, his girlfriend owned a keyboard and that very practical fact, coupled with the promise of a tranquil domestic life in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, seemed like the perfect ingredients for a healthy creative life.
Check out Dorrien’s charming and perfectly festive new holiday single, “Sure Miss Those Days at Christmas.” A nostalgic number that‘s built on a buoyant piano backbone, driven with a cultured and jazzy inspired rhythm section. Dorrien sings with welcoming and charismatic appeal, creating a modern yet timeless Christmas anthem.
“This song is about all of those tender, nostalgic childhood Christmas memories we cling to when the days grow colder and darker. It’s about pining after innocence is lost. I grew up on Long Island, NY where some of my fondest Christmas memories took place. My dad really would drive us around town with the windows down while it was snowing and, in my mind, Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas was always playing. We used to ice skate on the lake by our house, and one year, though it was most likely long after the holidays, we did rescue a Lab who had slipped through thin ice on the lake. He survived, but I remember my little sister locked my dad and I outside afterward. Man, I long for those days, though they are probably purer preserved in my memory now that space and time have separated us,” says Dorrien.
