It was the July of 2014, and the Blue Pie Records production team was on an adventure to produce the new Reggae Central TV episodes in Jamaica. We had an incredible team that was managed by Shemori BoShae, all heading to Montego bay in the middle of Summer. To say it was hot was an understatement.
On arrival we were welcomed by our illustrious leader Mr DC Cornick, one of the founders of DJ Central TV ( www.djcentral.tv ) who had taken over the DJ booth outside of the airport. That was the tell-tale sign that this trip was going to be much more than a basic shoot.
Off we went to our villa and the party started almost immediately. The recording of the song “We Love Jamaica” came about due to a lull in the production schedule where we had 3 days break with the crew, waiting for some of the team to arrive. Shemori had organised for Native Wayne AKA Native Wayne Jobson and his brother Brian to meet with us in the town of Ocho Rios, with the prospect of doing some recordings with Josh Young. ( www.joshyoungmusic.com ) It was a very exciting prospect, especially considering that Native Wayne is a double Grammy winner, and I knew that the synergy between these talented artists could lead to something really special. What we would eventually come up with is We Love Jamaica, today’s new release:
We were keen to build something great, so off we went to the studio to see what magic could be created. Unfortunately, Josh was not able to arrive on the first day, so whilst we were all in the studio, and with some input from Native Wayne and Shemori, we decided to see if we could work up a better national anthem for Jamaica than the current one, which by all accounts is apparently not that popular.
Here is the current anthem in its full glory, “Jamaica Land We Love”:
I brought out my bass guitar and we all got to work, cooking up some Reggae infused pop. The session started great, and before long, the foundation of the song was there. Now, we needed to create a massive chorus and hook, and I think we were able to do this with some of the lyrical help from the entire team. The key to make this all work was to have the vocals nailed, and with the help of Native Wayne and his good friend “Jeffrey”, they absolutely smashed the vocals to the moon and back.
You can see the chill vibes we had in the studio from this little origin story, and this madcap adventure of recording was the start of Reggae Central TV’s first episode, which can be found here in the gallery section of this site: www.thejamaicaband.com/gallery
By the end of the month, it was time to head home and get to work on mixing the record. Unfortunately, other schedules and time commitments got in the way and the record sat in the archives until December 2021, when I was able to bring in Gabe Rizza ( www.gaberizza.com ) from Key Loch ( www.keyloch.com ) to work on the track, and see if we could capture the vibes we had in the studio and turn this record into the hit we knew that it was.
It was a tough few weeks for Gabe, working through all the stems and finally locating the incredible sax parts that were recorded during that hot month of July back in Ocho Rios. Once we had the sax parts and the basic structure sorted, it was then down to comping the vocals and leaving Gabe alone with 2 weeks to cook his magic. Once Gabe completed his sonic Jamaica master chef music meal, we then passed this over to Tom Polce to create one of his US-centric mixes, and had our in-studio team whip up some slick cover art. This turned into the final version that we have today, which you can now listen to on all the major streaming networks.
Damien Reilly
The Jamaica Band | January 2023
The Cast and Crew:
The cast and crew and on this project is nothing short of amazing on all levels including:
Official Links:
The Jamaica Band are a Blue Pie Records USA and Blue Pie Publishing artist and available at all digital retailers on the planet.
Key Loch are Damien Reilly and Justin Gross. They are the founders of the 90’s power Aussie Rock Band Southpaw. They bring together a production history between them of 50 years of song writing and playing live music in Australia. They collaborate with mixers such as Gabe Rizza, Tom Polce, and Chris Garcia, and vocalists such as Avery May Parker, Sahra, and Native Wayne, and the melting pot of talents and life journeys is clear to hear in their wonderful music across the many genres in which they dabble. The future is bright and Key Loch are wearing shades as they unlock the musical doors of your mind and fill it full of awesome music.
Key Loch links:
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