A producer’s laptop crashing, studio sessions exceeding six hours, a writer going back to the drawing board more than once – the creative team behind the 2025 Road March really did work hard and deserve a Pardy.
Producers Mevon “XplicitMevon” Soodeen, Kyle “BadJohn Republic” Phillips and songwriter Andre Jeffers teamed up with soca powerhouse Machel Montano to give revellers a musical stress reliever that took over the country.
Regular work day
It was last August that Soodeen created the beat that would eventually become the energy-packed 2025 hit.
“It was just another regular day at work,” he recalled.
“I woke up and said I was going to make a beat and I found the chords, started building and edited it to where it is now. It was one day.”
He named the file Me Time, simply because, “I felt like I was doing it for me.
“I said, ‘This beat feels good to me and I’m giving myself some me time.’”
Asked if he knew which artiste he wanted to hear on it or which songwriter’s style would complement it best, he said no.
[caption id="attachment_1143086" align="alignnone" width="768"] Mevon "XplicitMevon" Soodeen.[/caption]
“There was no person in my mind, there was no writer in mind, there was no Road March in mind. I was just in a zone and there was no plan or intention.”
In a completely unrelated studio session, Jeffers got to hear the beat for the first time. The two had worked together before, notably on Come Home by Nailah Blackman and Skinny Fabulous, and are also good friends.
Jeffers fell in love with it immediately and soon began crafting a song.
“That beat had a nice combination of emotions and vibes,” the songwriter said.
Although unintentional, the lyrics of the song spoke to what was happening in his life at the time.
“I was in the midst of a corporate acquisition transaction at my day job. So there was a lot of stress, a lot of pressure…Me and the team were working really hard. So I guess subconsciously, the concept of, ‘We work so hard every week, we deserve a pardy,’ was in and around it.”
He knew he wanted a chant at the start of the song, which is how the opening line came to him.
The vocals listeners hear there are from Karyce Phillips and Kendel Hayes.
Jeffers has a rule when it comes to songwriting: Whatever first line he comes up with, he is sticking with it.
He said he was also thinking of a pop influence, opting for pardy instead of party.
He and Soodeen were working on another song but he said he could not even concentrate on that one any more.
“This next song was just in my head!”
So he went to Phillips’ studio to record the demo, whom he has also worked with before on Come Home, Stage Gone Bad by Iwer George and Kes, Savannah by Iwer and others.
'This ain't it'
Feeling proud of the “monster” demo he had just recorded, Jeffers sent it to Soodeen with the caption PARDY!
But: “I hated it,” Soodeen admitted.
The four-minute-four-second demo has some elements that made the final cut but was mostly very different.
There was an entire section about “f
