Barbados’ genre-bending band 2 Mile Hill is preparing to release brand-new music after Mahalia’s Corner, their first single featuring new keyboardist Machaio Carter.

For frontwoman Mahalia Cummins, the announcement feels like the start of a new chapter.

“We’ve been in the lab, creating. This is our first release with our new keyboardist, and we’re so excited. We can’t wait to share it with everybody. It’s coming very, very soon… behind the Corner,” she giggles.

While fans eagerly await the track(s), Mahalia has been busy nurturing the other passion brand: Mahalia’s Corner, the live music platform she founded, hosts and performs as lead with 2 Mile Hill.

The band’s evolution is one of reinvention rooted inauthenticity. “Well, we started out on a nightclub scene as Infrared,” Mahalia recalled. “We cut our teeth in St Lawrence Gap in Bump ‘n Wine Café, and in an environment that you strive to move the audience.”

Those early days shaped their sound, but the focus shifted as the band rebranded.

“As we grew and evolved as people and as a band when we changed our name from NexCyx to 2 Mile Hill, the focus shifted a lot more to sounding like we are from here, from Barbados. The name, the sound of the music, the things we decide to write about, the sound of my voice — all of that has been more focused on authentic Barbadian sound. Whatever we bring, whatever the topic is, whatever the subject matter is, we want it to be recognisable as from Barbados, from the Caribbean,” she said.

That same focus on authenticity has guided Mahalia’s Corner through its own evolution. After being scaled back during the pandemic, the September series has now returned in full force.

“The September shows are a renaissance of sorts, a revival,” Mahalia explained. “They actually predate the December show. The September shows are the heart and soul of Mahalia’s Corner. Since COVID we had to scale back to just the Christmas show, but we always intended to get back to September because that’s where we started.”

She noted the difference between the two seasons: “Christmas, there is dancy Christmas music, but a lot of the time it’s more whimsy and more a sit-down, comfort, you know, that kind of thing. In September, there is more to play with, more variety that you can bring to the show. When we do have our musical guests, regardless of whether it’s September or December, we want them to come and share what’s inside them, to share what they want with the audience and have the [guests] …get up and shake a leg.”

As much as Mahalia values creating authentic spaces at home, one of her proudest memories came on the international stage. “That is not a hard question for me,” she laughed when asked about her favourite performance.

In 2012, NexCyx represented Barbados in Hennessy’s Chase the Music competition, performing at the Cognac Blues Passion Festival in France. “That was amazing in itself because we were flying out to represent Barbados,” she said.

But the following year offered something even greater.

“They asked us to come back and put on a special performance alongside Wyclef Jean. The show was Wyclef Jean and NexCyx. That, to date, is my most memorable performance.

Before we went on stage, he came and talked to us. He said, ‘Not everybody could say they came up here to France to represent their country. Keep going’. He congratulated us on our sound and even said he really liked the song Late. That meant everything,” she reminisced.

That moment in France cemented for Mahalia the power of carrying Barbados’ sound abroad and just as meaningful are the stages at home, where that same authenticity continues to thrive.

For fans of Mahalia’s Corner, the September season isn’t over yet. Mahalia confirmed that Marvay will be the featured guest this Sunday, September 21. The finale follows on the 28th, not with Rupee as originally planned because of scheduling conflicts, but with Lead Pipe and Saddis stepping in. “They’ll light up the stage with their usual energy and spice,” she added.

As both 2 Mile Hill and Mahalia’s Corner evolve, Mahalia remains grounded in the same vision that carried her from nightclubs in St Lawrence Gap to stages in France: “Whatever we bring, whatever the topic is, whatever the subject matter is, we want it to be recognisable as from Barbados, from the Caribbean.” tracymoore@barbadostoday.bb