Four Year Strong’s Alan Day May Be the Youngest Christmas Tree Farmer in Massachusetts

For some people today, getting the frontman of a pop-punk band for 20-furthermore years would be a complete-time work and then some. But for Alan Working day of 4 Calendar year Powerful, that still leaves him sufficient space to observe his other authentic passion: Christmas.

But while other folks could possibly just deck out their residence with lights or visit every single mall Santa, Day turned his enthusiasm into a company. He and his wife bought a farm in his indigenous Massachusetts with the specific target of offering Christmas trees (and other farm issues much too), and the singer/guitarist out of the blue discovered himself living a extremely different life style when he was not on the highway with 4 Yr Robust. Now, the annual 4 Yr Strong Xmas show (which occurs soon after the holiday getaway alone) marks the finish of a single occupied time for Day just in advance of he goes again to his major occupation.

SPIN spoke with Working day about the story behind his festive organization, what it indicates to be a farmer, and how splitting obligations with his wife has brought about a productive farmstead.

SPIN: Alright, so probably this is the apparent question, but why Christmas trees?
Alan Working day: Truthfully, it’s just for the reason that I like Xmas a whole lot. Many years ago, there was this odd lull in the band in which we all kind of hated every other and broke up unofficially. It was this odd time in my existence the place I was looking for other factors to be fired up about, mainly because I’d been so submerged in the band for my whole life. I was living with my spouse, and each working day when she would arrive house from work, I’d have this new passion strategy — like golf or painting or carrying out this or performing that. Then one particular working day, I was like “What if we commence selling Christmas trees?” And which is the a single she considered sounded great. We started off performing that 8 or 9 yrs back, and we would buy a truckload of Christmas trees and just offer them in a parking ton. Then about 6 several years back, we purchased a farm and started out to improve our very own.

Even though I presume you’re really only advertising Christmas trees in the wintertime, it in all probability necessitates 12 months-spherical get the job done. How do you harmony that with the band?
Properly, it’s mainly because I have a spouse who’s very good at it. It is also fairly low upkeep in contrast to some other farming crops, for the reason that they acquire upwards of 8-10 decades to grow. You however have to mow down the weeds and fertilize and shape them and make them glance good — so there is some maintenance — but they consider so extensive to mature that you are just carrying out a tiny bit each individual 12 months as opposed to tending to them just about every working day like you would other crops. We also mature bouquets, and my wife is out there all day, just about every working day doing work on all those. Christmas trees are somewhat very low routine maintenance, so it is a lot easier to match into my ridiculous schedule. But that does not necessarily mean it is easy, simply because it ain’t.

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Is there anything at all you have realized from the band that you can apply to farming or vice versa?
The only thing I have discovered is that I never know something and that my techniques as a musician do not use wherever else. I’ve been touring with this band considering the fact that I was in significant university, so working with frickin’ time administration and points that are alive and can die… effectively which is a entire new ability I’ve had to learn and however have not perfected. We started planting our Christmas trees when we bought our assets 6 several years ago, and you plant 500-1000 every single calendar year, so that as they increase, you have these various dimensions by the time you start out offering your individual trees. We most likely have one more 3-4 many years right until we truly provide our very own trees. We nevertheless order trees from other farms and offer them at our farm, so they are pre-slice. But the exciting section for me is that my wife’s totally the farmer who understands soil sciences and pH balances and how to fertilize. She’s a genius with all that things. Me? I’m the salesman. I just like Christmas trees and the total time. I like working with folks and encouraging people today just take the Xmas tree house. That’s exactly where I occur in.

I recognize this is a ridiculous thing to request, but do you have any guidelines for other musicians wanting to get into the Christmas tree business enterprise?
Get completely ready for the very long haul. There is a lot of financial commitment with acquiring or leasing land, clearing the land, buying stock to plant — and it will take time and power to do all of it. As I stated, that lasts about 8-10 several years just before you actually make any dollars off of it. I joined the Massachusetts Xmas Tree Affiliation 3 decades in the past — appropriate before COVID — and I went to my initially conference, and I was the youngest one particular there by like 40 several years. I understood why a whole lot of farmers do it in retirement is for the reason that you do all this prep function when you are young, so by the time they are all prepared to expand and slice, it is a little bit extra very low upkeep.

Is there anything at all else you’d want to share about the intersection of Xmas trees and tunes that people today may well not understand?
I never know that they intersect at all. They are so polar opposites as considerably as the real working day-to-day of what you do with each and every a single. But the purpose I was capable to get begun was since we’re constantly all around for the vacations — we’re in no way on tour. That’s why each individual 12 months I have been ready to go on doing it and know that my wife and I like executing it. My program as a musician makes it possible for me to do equally, because even although it is busy, it is also variety of adaptable. We can decide not to go on a tour at a selected issue or a thing. Maybe I’ve just gotten fortunate and it’s just labored out exactly where we just plant like 600 trees ideal ahead of I go away for tour. It’s possible I just get lucky that it occurs that way every single 12 months.

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