A Higher Chain Reaction Collaboration
That’s what happened when bassist Matt Reid wrote what started as the Family Day Riddim in his home studio in Vancouver. After fleshing out the drums and bass parts in an East Van warehouse with drummer and comrade Richard Brown aka Rb Drums, the pair were joined by longtime Mad Riddim cohort and guitar whiz, Cuyler Biller (CB), and went into Afterlife Studios (with Erik Nielsen engineering) to lay down beds.
Listening back to the tracks in his Abbottsford studio, CB was inspired to reharmonize the chords and re-track the guitar and keys, resulting in a more soul and r&b sounding riddim than the original. After hearing the re-harmonized version, Matt and Rb immediately said, “We gotta send this to Bitsy.”.
Elaine ‘Lil Bit” Shepherd, originally from Vancouver but now based out of Toronto, is not only a Juno Award winner, but is a great friend and collaborator of Mad Riddim’s. Within days of receiving the track from Matt she wrote the lyrics and cut the vocals for what would become “Higher”.
After getting the tracks back from Toronto, Rb and Matt went into Adam Popowitz’s studio, Rear Window Sound, where Malcolm Aiken (TANGA, Treble 5 Records) cut trumpet and flugelhorn. When Rb finished adding some vibe via percussion it was time to get the track mixed. Rb suggested reaching out to old friend, Toronto based Jeffrey ‘Luge’ Holdip (Nelly Furtado, Big Sugar), to add his touch to both a Vocal and Dub mix.
This is the result. All 17,528 kilometres of it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!