A GLASGOW firefighter has vowed to be Christmas number one this year with his charity single, Lucifer’s Christmas.

Dale McMullen, 36, who’s based in the city’s Yorkhill, wrote the “indie-pop-folk” song to raise awareness of the fact not everyone enjoys Christmas.

The singer-songwriter was inspired to write the song after seeing the effect of the pandemic on people’s mental health as an emergency services worker and recorded it in his spare room at his home in Shawlands.

Dale said: “Some people find it harder than others and there’s a lot of people that might not feel like they actually fit in roundabout the festive period.

“So I wrote it from the perspective of someone who feels like they don’t fit in.”

Glasgow Times:

After feeling the song was too sad, Dale decided to try and make it funnier in an effort to be more optimistic.

“I thought, who is the person least likely to enjoy Christmas, and I thought it would be Lucifer, because it’s not about him at all, it’s a complete celebration against him,” he said.

“It’s Jesus’ birthday, it’s all about him, so I thought Lucifer would really hate that and he stood out to me as the best character to portray that.”

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He added: “The overriding message is that no matter how bad you are feeling, there’s people to talk to, there’s ways to find help, reach out to family and friends, and if you feel you can’t do that, there’s charities you can get in touch with who are wonderful, fantastic.

“There are loads of people out there dying to help.”

All proceeds from sales of the single will be donated to mental health charity Tiny Changes.

The charity, which was set up in memory of Frightened Rabbit lead singer and songwriter Scott Hutchison, aims to support people and projects that positively impact young people’s mental health.

Dale said he chose the charity because they specialise in the mental wellbeing of young people.

He said: “I feel like this pandemic’s hit young people very very hard indeed.

“I just really like the charity’s message and feel like they were a great charity to go for.”

Glasgow Times:

Lucifer’s Christmas will be released on Wednesday, December 1 and will be available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, with a music video also set to be released on that day.

In addition to the digital release, the single will be available physically as a cassette for £5 from daleyboy.bandcamp.com