Harmony House + Mixing Lab
Artist: Junior Reid and Marcia Griffiths

Junior Reid entered the cozy Harmony House booth in a faded black t-shirt and washed out jeans. He was one of the artists to be recorded later on the track, and naturally had many questions: “It's already perfect, where do I fit in?” “Which part you want me to sing?” “So you want me to do something on a verse or ad lib?” These were the wonderings of someone looking for an empty space, but Handel wanted him to create that space for himself.

His raspy voice took some warming up, but once he got started we were easily reminded of why he is inimitable. Just hearing his 'Stanooy' right after Barrington's legendary wail, was already a wrap.

While he continued the bridge, I realized that artists like him don't need a whole verse to be on a collaboration. In fact, he needn't even say a whole phrase. By just stamping his signature 'One Blood' on the track made his contribution instantly identifiable and upped the ante.

You hear it, you know it: Junior Reid.

I caught Marcia Griffiths midway through her recording, standing at the mic in a simple white top and flowing white skirt. Handel was leaning up against the wall close to the engineer's board, almost like a fly on the wall. Huh?

">Oh…. Marcia was directing herself. She only gave the green light when she heard a take she liked, and when she liked it, Handel loved it. In fact, even when Marcia didn't like it, Handel couldn't convince her that he felt it was fine.

She sang till she heard just what she was listening for... a tone that she felt would convince anyone to hear the calling, because 'so many need you...'

Maxi Priest's schedule required that he record his vocals out of town and send them to Handel to be mixed. He still couldn’t keep away though, and dropped in to The Mixing Lab to hear his parts being blended with the other artistes. He mentioned to Handel that one of the elements he most appreciated about the track was the energy and heart that all the artistes had been pouring into the project. It was easy to relate to their feelings and respond when doing his own recording.

A visibly excited Maxi Priest listened to the incomplete mix of voices like Luciano, Tarrus Riley and Diana King and felt what everyone else in the project felt: the honour of being able to contribute to the making of history.