A music album about condiments?

"Now here's a story 'bout Steve Hanson. An Alaskan cowboy that really changed our salad dressin's," sings Xander Ripley-Jaakola in open lyric of his song "Ranch."

Only 16 years old, Ripley-Jaakola released his first album last December under the name Xander Muxic. Aptly named "The Condiment Album," the Cloquet teen spent about six months writing and recording the songs, all while juggling high school at Harbor City International School in Duluth.

He made the album in his parents' basement, using a home-made sound booth constructed out of egg cartons and played all the instruments except drums (he made the drum track on his computer). That's the same place family members - parents Jackson Ripley and Lyz Jaakola, siblings Hunter and Jagger - livestreamed musical performances during the early days of the pandemic.

Lyz leads the #indianheadband with Jackson that plays in the region. The brothers take part.

Ripley-Jaakola came up with lyrics for his solo album by looking up random facts, like this one detailed in his first condiment song, called "Ketchup": "Twenty-five miles per year. That's how fast ketchup leaves the bottle."

With a comedic theme, each song takes on a new style while describing various condiments. So far, he figures he's made about $20 off the album, which almost covers his expenses.

"I think even if I did lose some money that's OK, because I've really enjoyed the experience and sharing my music with my friends and people that I know," he said. "It's just nice and it's cool that people like my music."

The Pine Knot News sat down with Ripley-Jaakola recently to ask him a few questions.

Q Did you specifically style the songs to match the condiment?

A I tried. "Ranch" was just great because, obviously, a ranch. That was what the pun was. A lot of my songs are kind of humorous, so the pun was that it's mimicking the western cowboy. That's what I decided to do with "Ranch." Then "Hot Sauce." I start off with one singular vocal track, and then I slowly add - like how heat builds after you eat hot sauce. So it's little things like that, that only I will know because no one else is going to pay that much attention, but I find fun to add in to the song. ... I really like "Salt and Pepper" because it starts as jazz - I really like jazz - and then it goes into hard rock and it's like what is happening.

Q Were you planning on making an entire album when you started writing "Ketchup" a year ago?

A I shared [the song] the first time, the day I had figured out that first verse and chorus, to my Snapchat. So people were texting me: "I would like this out somewhere." So I released it to SoundCloud. Which is a free publishing service, so I didn't need to pay money.

And my brother came over one day and was like, 'hey, you should make an entire album about condiments.' ... I said, 'That's a great idea.' So really I owe the entire idea to my brother. And the next to come was obviously mustard, and that was early August.

Q Do you speak Spanish, or did you look stuff up for "Guacamole?"

A Un poco. I am just now learning Spanish. My high school requires a language because they are a college preparatory school. My mom speaks pretty fluent Spanish (and helped). She could definitely make her way in Mexico or any place that speaks Spanish and be good. I might get myself in trouble, but at least I can ask for the bathroom, ask for food, ask where to sleep. I could survive.

"Compre papas fritas pero mi guacamole es malo," I bought chips but guacamole is bad, the song begins.

Actually "Guacamole" started off as a rock song. ... Then I added a Latin beat to it and I said hold on, and I changed it all back to acoustic. I just re-recorded everything in acoustic. Then I added the silly stuff, like there's an accordion in that song. I like that song, that's a fun song.

Q How long have you been doing music?

AI've been singing all my life. Singing has been my main thing. My mom's a singer. She's been a musician and I've sang with her since I was tiny, but actually playing instruments has been a year and a half, two years maybe.

From the start of Covid, I was just learning the ukulele because we were doing this little band in our basement called the Isolation Band, and I just wanted to play an instrument and I thought it was the easiest. And I sang. My voice was so much higher then. I look back on those videos and it's really weird 'cause I was 12 or 13 and my voice hadn't changed. You can literally watch those videos and you can see how my voice slowly starts to progress deeper and deeper, and it's really funny. You can just watch puberty happen for me.

Q What about the guitar?

A I took this class called "Music: History and Listening." My teacher showed me a clip of the Beatles' "Daytripper" and I listened to it and I said "That's pretty good." ... I got back home and was like, "I wanna learn how to play that, cause it's got this cool little riff." And that's the first thing I learned how to play on the guitar. My dad plays guitar, my brother plays the guitar and my mom plays the guitar, and I just never had put in the time or effort until I felt I wanted to and that's what that song was able to do for me.

Q How long does it take you to learn a new instrument?

A String instruments are really easy. This string makes this sound and you just figure it out. It's not hard to transfer my guitar skills to the bass skills. I think it took about three months before I could actually play chords well.

Q Tell me more about the "Back in the Bottle" part of the album, the two songs at the end played backwards.

A I was going to release the album on a cassette, and the album is 20-something minutes long, about as long as the A side of a cassette can hold. So I was going to put all nine original songs on the front, and then on the B side I was going to do them all reversed. I listened to the entire thing backwards, and the only ones that made any actual musical sense in my brain were the "Ketchup" and "Mustard." Lyrically, they don't make any sense, but musically they actually have some sense. I brought it to my teacher, Mr. Peters, who actually came up with the name "Back in the Bottle." But canonically the album ends at "Guacamole."

Q How did you take the

album cover picture, where

you're covered in different

condiments?

A I was wearing this all white costume, cause it put contrast between the colors and me. It was in my living room, we spread out bed sheets so that I didn't get my living room soaked in condiments.

The photographer Christa Gardener - great photographer from the area - offered to help and so I said 'I need people and hands in order to do the squirty bit' ... and I brought over friends and family.

It smelt terrible, it all just reeked of pickle and mustard and it was just bad.

Afterwards I stood up and I was just covered in condiment, and I just slowly waddled my way over to the bathroom. I stepped into the shower with all my clothes on, and I just showered. I actually got a rash from the relish we think, because the vinegar sat on my skin for like 5 minutes.

To hear Ripley-Jaakola's "The Condiment Album" album, search on Spotify, Amazon Music or Apple Music. He is in the process of creating a new, less comedic album that will also feature different musical genres.