DOKKEN Bassist CHRIS MCCARVILL Releases Holiday Song 'It's The  Most Wonderful Time Of The Year'

SAMURAI CAB COMPANY, the band featuring bassist/vocalist Chris McCarvill (DOKKEN),drummer Tony Mei and Chuck Beckman (guitar),has released its cover version of the holiday classic "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year".

SAMURAI CAB COMPANY reunited in 2020 and has been collaborating ever since. This is their first released song.

McCarvill said: "Almost everything we're doing is a creative challenge and there's a momentum building with that.

"We can't wait to get out and perform with SCC because it's taken us years to figure out our direction as we all have such different musical backgrounds. I'm a BEATLES/QUEEN/WHO fan, I'm in DOKKEN, Tony comes from a progressive metal background and Chuck comes from a blues/country/rock background. Not the easiest mix. But a lot of fun."

McCarvill joined DOKKEN in 2015 as the replacement for Sean McNabb. He had previously also toured and recorded with HOUSE OF LORDS.

A year ago, Don Dokken told Tigman of the Poughkeepsie, New York classic rock radio station 101.5 WPDH that DOKKEN had completed work on its new LP — the group's first since 2012's "Broken Bones". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We just finished our new album. We finally got it done, which was hard with COVID and all the guys living in different states, and I couldn't play guitar. But luckily, when we did 'Broken Bones', our last album, Jon [Levin, guitar] and I had written, like, 12 or 14 songs left over, so we picked through 'em and picked the best and wrote some new ones. And I got my pen and paper out, and we'd write on the road and we'd write over Skype. I'd never recorded an album over Skype before. You send a track to the bass player, he records it and sends it back. I send a track over to BJ [Zampa, drums], his house, and he cuts the drums. Then I hop on a plane from Santa Fe, come down to L.A. and stay at Jon's for a few days. And we'll just bang it out. And I just go into producer mode and try to create the best songs. And we're really happy with it."

Regarding the musical direction of the new DOKKEN material, Don previously told The Metal Voice: "We're kind of going retro. I mean, look, you write what you write as a musician — your life changes, the world changes, you write what you write. You're influenced by new bands and other music. But I know where my bread is buttered as far as the classic DOKKEN sound, and Jon's really good at doing that. And so I said, 'I think we should write a record between the lines of 'Tooth And Nail' [1984] and 'Under Lock And Key' [1985].' And that's kind of the direction I'm writing in right now."