TORONTO -- Having blossomed in the confines of classical music, Measha Brueggergosman began making her first pop-leaning album and the studio resembled a sort of wonderland.
"'Oh, you all get to do anything?"' gasped the Grammy-nominated Fredericton native in a recent interview in Toronto, remembering her thinking. "'If you want cowbell, you can just add it?' I was like, I think this song needs tambourine. Or Rhodes. Or background vocals, and who does the background vocals? Me. Layered on top of me -- with more me.
"I found it incredibly liberating."
Perhaps that's why Brueggergosman's "Christmas" takes an unorthodox approach to mostly familiar songs.
Threading through hints of electronic, jazz, funk and gospel, Brueggergosman's holiday hodgepodge features traditionals, Christmas tunes, covers and two originals: "Let Joy Reign," a Royal Wood collaboration; and the Sarah Harmer-assisted "If You Can Dig It."
Sometimes it seems that artists rush through Christmas albums, treating them like lucrative doodles between the margins of real records.
But Brueggergosman and collaborator Aaron Davis sunk their teeth into this one, with recording that spanned months and continents (specifically, she worked in Madrid and Claremont, Ont.).
Tweaked traditionals on the album include "Do You Hear What I Hear," "Sleigh Ride"and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," plus a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River." But Brueggergosman concedes there's only so far you can drag a holiday song from its comfort zone.
"They will hate us if they can't recognize this song they've loved for years," said Brueggergosman, wrapping herself in a peacock-bright shawl with a right wrist supporting five different bangles.
"That's the classical musician in me. There just needs to be a nucleus of familiarity, that people can hold onto and know that they're being sung to."
Christmas has changed for Brueggergosman since she and husband Markus welcomed son Shepherd, who's now two.
They try to bounce between her husband's family in Switzerland and hers on the East Coast, but she says her side has a certain magnetic pull. She certainly paints an idyllic scene, replete with frozen-lake hockey, freshly sawed firewood and "Lord of the Rings"-themed Risk.
"My house? It's pandemonium," she laughed. "You can't get a word in. We're 16 strong. ...
"My family has really tried to keep things as simple as possible. Shepherd's two so he doesn't even know what's going on. You don't have to buy him anything. He needs diapers, he needs onesies and he needs wipes. We're like, if you buy anything beyond that, you're wasting your money.
"I've been blessed with a family that enjoys spending time together," she added. "That doesn't mean that we don't have our hardships or annoyances but we keep those to ourselves. We're extremely protective."
