Recently, Barbados Music Awards’ 2011 Band of the Year, NexCyx, hosted the first ever listening party by a locally formed musical entity in Barbados.
Bassist Kris Clarke, described the event as “more of an industry thing happening in the States, where you invite some of your fans; just a sample space for people to really get their input on the music.”
Lead singer Mahalia noted, “for us, it is all about the fans, and [the listening party] serves a dual purpose; to find out which song to choose as the next single because it was a little difficult for us to decide. We were like, the best way to do that is to ask the fans. We thought it was the best way to show appreciation and get their input at the same time.”
Members of the media and a select few of the band’s most supportive fans were given the opportunity to listen to four new songs, one of which was eventually selected as the band’s next single. In the end, the cumulative votes of those present closed the ballot on the favoured Nightclub Superheroes, which Mahalia describes as “a straight-up pop song”.
Talking about how the song came about, she explained: “Nightclub Superheroes is just a fun track. I thought of us actually playing here in McBride’s, because we do that every week. It’s a club setting, it’s a party, and we like to make the crowd party; we like to have a good time.
“So I just came up with the idea that we’re pretty much superheroes because we come on stage and we take people away from having a boring time more or less, so that’s where the idea came from.
She continued, “we actually got together with a producer in New York, Quennel Worthy, (we call him Q). I sent him the track, just a demo with my voice, and he found the perfect beat for it; we got together and recorded it and it came out amazing . . . .”
The band’s keyboardist, sampler and musical director Andre Clarke, said: “We may or may not do a video for it [Nightclub Superheroes] . . . . It’s just a matter of balancing our priorities [as a band] first.” The other three voting options were Eternal Summer, Marching On and One More.
