Starting the Pardy: How the 2025 Road March was born

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.

“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 “finally reaching d stage ah we life where we doh really like to party.”

“I told him, ‘Bro, this is not it,’ Soodeen said.

He even showed Newsday their chat history where he wrote, “I dunno, boy…I was expecting something different.”

Jeffers replied, “Hold on to it, nah. Take it in, let it soak.”

Defending his creation, he said he felt it was a song of “happiness and expression that everybody could relate to from the children in school up to the big man. I see it as an anthemic song.”

He agreed to try tweaking it.

But to do so, he needed the stems (individual/separated musical elements) for the song.

Phillips explained, “Jeffers's writing style and process is never the simplest form of ok, there’s this beat, I’m going to write to it. His style has always been, we get the beat and the song at the same stage and then we grow them both together.”

Soodeen was confused as to why the songwriter would need all these files just for a demo, which is not typical.

Laughing, Jeffers said, “He was reluctant. He ducked me. And then I went in the studio, he didn’t send it, I went back like, ‘Mevon, I need the stems,’ and he still asked, ‘You sure, bro?’”

Ironically, just after doing that, Soodeen’s Mac laptop crashed and he lost all his files post-Carnival 2024.

He remembers feeling demotivated to even continue the season.

But they took the project to Phillips, who did some additional production as well.

D pardy start

Jeffers eventually presented a new demo, which Soodeen then heard potential in.

Phillips said, “When Jeffers sang, ‘We work so hard,’ I wanted it to sound like a crowd, so then I guided the background vocalists, then created this big stack that sounds like kids, but sounds like adults…I think I came in strong there to make that part connect.”

Montano had liked the beat Soodeen created before, so they then decided to send him the demo.

His exact words, as recalled by Soodeen, Jeffers and Phillips were: Put it on ice.

Montano was in the US at the time and loved the demo, so too his team.

Their first studio session when he returned to TT led to everyone getting off their seats and jumping up as if they really were “by d truck” as the lyrics say.

All three of them said Montano’s energy and confidence in the song boosted theirs too.

The lyrics go, “All work and no play/We doh wah no part ah dat/I need a stress reliever…” and “We work so hard all week we deserve a pardy, so tell everybody…pardy on d road.”

A few more tweaks later and the 2025 Road March was born. It also features guitars by Kyle Peters and additional background vocals by Terri Lyons.

But then it was time for the mixing and mastering.

So they went to established producer and sound engineer Kasey Phillips.

Even as he was potentially under threat as wildfires neared his Los Angeles, California home, he made it happen.

With over 25 years of experience, he said it was a pretty seamless process for him, and when he sent his first draft, the team felt like it was almost close to being ready.

“So we decided to do a live mixing session on Zoom and that helps when multiple parties are involved. I thought it was going do be two hours max but six hours later, we were still there around 4 am,” he recalled.

So it took a bit longer than they all anticipated.

He also voluntarily evacuated his home soon after as the wildfires were “getting too close to comfort.

“I disconnected the studio computer and left for like a day or two.” But in the end, he was safe.

Soodeen explained Montano had been working on other songs, but dropped all of them to focus on and push Pardy.

“He was treating this song like it's his first song ever and he was excited and so in love with it. He is playing it over and over and doing it over and over.”

He added that Montano’s dedication to his craft made him realise “how much more you can do when you want to achieve greatness.”

Pardy across the country

The song made waves across the country, including through a competition Montano held which saw winners get a free “pardy” from him. It was won by the National Centre for Persons with Disabilities, which tugged on the heartstrings of many. Additionally, at St Mary's College’s (CIC’s) Fete With the Saints, patron Bridgette Wilson stole the show as she was brought on stage by Montano to perform the song alongside him.

Going up against another powerhouse track for Road March – Carry It by Bunji Garlin – the men said there was some level of nervousness.

In fact, Soodeen was nervous up until Ash Wednesday afternoon when the results were announced. Pardy, which earned 267 plays, won him his first Road March title. Jeffers already had one (Stage Gone Bad) and Phillips had two (Stage Gone Bad, Waiting on the Stage by Montano). Carry It placed second with 253 plays.

When the results were revealed, Soodeen was driving home, Phillips was playing video games and Jeffers was buying food.

They just remember their inboxes and chats becoming flooded with congratulatory messages.

But remembering coming close to this in 2023 with Come Home, Soodeen still waited until he saw the official results to begin feeling at ease.

“Machel told me, ‘Welcome to the club,’” he said. Montano has now won the competition 11 times.

“I am really just focused on consistency as a producer, but this win feels like a monkey off my shoulder because it evaded me before with Come Home, Anxiety (by Patrice Roberts) and Like Yuh Self (by Montano and Roberts).

“I crossed the stage to my song this year and I won the Road March. Box checked, mission complete.”

Jeffers said he, too, knows the feeling of losing out on this battle, so he wanted the win for Soodeen more than himself.

“I would have been gutted for him to not be able to take this one home. And one of the greatest parts of this journey was it being with two of my closest friends in the industry.”