This Delaware musician helped put Travis Kelce alongside Taylor Swift on Billboard's charts
When Travis and Jason Kelce landed atop a pair of Billboard sales charts earlier this week, it was in part thanks to the work of Wilmington's Nick Krill.
Krill, who got his start in Delaware pop/rock act The Spinto Band, is now an in-demand engineer/mixer/producer and helped head the musical team behind "A Philly Special Christmas Special," the now-annual Christmas album from the Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen, led by the charismatic Jason Kelce.
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Krill, a Tower Hill School graduate, engineered, mixed and lent additional production to the album, which benefits Philadelphia-based Children's Crisis Treatment Center and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Part of the gig found Krill traveling to Kansas City during the football off-season to record Travis Kelce's parts for his duet with his brother ― a re-worked cover of The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" with a Philadelphia twist, topping both Billboard's Rock Digital Song and Holiday Digital Song charts.
Krill, 41, left Kansas City impressed with the freshly minted Super Bowl champion and future beau of Taylor Swift, who also knows a thing or two about No. 1 Billboard hits.
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Travis Kelce warmed up, sang his parts a few times and then took the initiative to suggest they break so he could listen back and see what worked and where he could improve.
"It was cool to see that come so naturally to him in the studio," says Krill, a Wilmington native who lives near Haynes Park in the city's Ninth Ward, where he does his mixing work. "He can definitely carry a tune."
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In a funny twist, the vinyl version of "A Philly Special" peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Vinyl Albums chart with only Swift's "1989 (Taylor's Version)" besting it.
Krill's Grammy Award-winning work
The Spinto Band, the five-piece that found an indie following and toured the U.S. and Europe thanks to earworms as "Oh Mandy," started when Krill and his bandmates were in their early teens.
Over the years, Krill took over engineering and mixing duties on their albums, including "Shy Pursuit" and 2013's "Cool Cocoon," their last release. He had been interested in recording since his middle school years.
After fronting a Spinto spinoff named Teen Men in 2015, Krill slowly began focusing more on working on recordings in the studio as an engineer and mixer after moving to Philadelphia for a time and enmeshing himself in the indie scene.
He's helped make albums with everyone from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Dr. Dog to Generationals and The War on Drugs.
In fact, Krill worked as an engineer on The War on Drugs' 2017 album "A Deeper Understanding," which won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. (Engineers don't get a statue for that category, but Krill did receive "a nice little diploma-looking thing," he says.)
He also was the engineer for their song “Harmonia’s Dream” on 2021's "I Don't Live Here Anymore," which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song, losing to Brandi Carlisle's "Broken Horses."
How the Kelces and others made 'Philadelphia Special' work
It was Krill's work in the Philly scene ― and more specifically his projects with The War on Drugs ― that led to him spending quality time with Mr. Taylor Swift, Jason Kelce, other Eagles and an all-star group of Philadelphia musicians.
The War on Drugs' drummer Charlie Hall is the "Philly Special" producer and pulled Krill into the project's first edition last year, which was initially expected to reach a goal of only $30,000 for charity.
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It was such a success with more than $1.25 million raised that the funds went beyond the initial beneficiary Children's Crisis Treatment Center, which is a private nonprofit agency that specializes in delivering behavioral health services for Philadelphia children and their families. Additional funds were spread across a few other local charities with Krill able to steer some back home to his home state and the Food Bank of Delaware.
This year, they will surpass last year's total thanks to the album's almost instant popularity.
Krill chalks it up to a few factors, leading with the biggest pop star in the universe and her fans.
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"It was a perfect storm of events that are sort of bubbling over and making it extra special this year. Obviously, Travis and the Swiftie Army and then all the attention Jason and Travis got after the Super Bowl," he says. "And then you have their podcast ["New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce"] and Jason's documentary ["Kelce"]. I don't think I ever expected this."
The album was almost entirely recorded at Elm Street Studio in Conshohocken and includes special Philadelphia musical guests ranging from Patti LaBelle and Amos Lee to Waxahatchee and Lil Dicky. Eagles executive vice president and general manager Howard Roseman even gets in the act.
And Krill isn't the only familiar Delaware name in the album credits. Fellow Spinto Band member Thomas Hughes plays bass and mellotron.
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The key to the album's success isn't necessarily the star power, although that certainly helps. It really works because it's not goofy like, say, "The Super Bowl Shuffle" by the 1985 Chicago Bears. The backbone of "A Philly Special Christmas Special" is a solid band of Philadelphia players coordinated by Hall, who also sings and plays drums, percussion and guitar.
"We decided we are taking this very seriously. This isn't a joke. This is serious music we are making here, even if it is a strange project," Krill says.
Shane MacGowan gives thumbs-up weeks before death
One of the most touching ripple effects of the album was that Shane MacGowan, leader of the Celtic punk act The Pogues, heard the Kelce brothers' version of "Fairytale of New York" and shared the song on X, writing, "Tell them I am knocked out," followed by a thumbs-up emoji.
That post was on Nov. 16. Two weeks later, MacGowan died at the age 65 after being in poor health for years.
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For Krill, getting MacGowan's stamp of approval was a thrill of a lifetime.
"I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it right now. That's always been a pretty special song to me ― the arc of the song and the emotions it conveys is pretty powerful," he says. "To be able to connect with him as a songwriter and musician in our own weird little way was so incredibly special. I was on cloud nine."
"Fairytale" is having a resurgence this year in part due to the "Philly Special" album, but also MacGowan's death.
At his funeral at St. Mary of the Rosary Church in Tipperary, Ireland, on Dec. 8, singer/songwriters Glen Hansard and Lisa O'Neill sang "Fairytale" backed by The Pogues, leaving MacGowan's family and friends dancing in the pews with tears in their eyes.
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware's role in Philadelphia Eagle's surprise holiday hit record
