Over the summer, Netflix released a show called Building the Band, where contestants were tasked with forming their own bands based on other contestants’ vocal auditions alone. From there, the bands competed in different performance rounds, where they had to sing and dance in front of an audience and panel of notable judges. In the end, only one band would win the cash prize, and that band was none other than 3Quency. After vibing with each other during the audition and band formation process, Brianna Mazzola, Nori Moore, and Wennely Quezada knew that they were meant to be in a girl group together and formed 3Quency. They got stronger and stronger with each performance, and ultimately won everyone over with their natural chemistry, talent, dedication, and charming personalities.
As Building the Band was taped over a year ago, the girls had to keep their win on the down-low, but they continued to work together as a group. They just released their debut single, “Top Down,” and are about to embark on the ‘Bandemonium’ tour around the U.S. with fellow Building the Band group Soulidified. We recently caught up with 3Quency to chat about Building the Band, “Top Down,” and the upcoming tour—and let me just say that even after a seconds in, it was evident that they are more than three girls making songs together. They are long-lost sisters with much love and respect for each other, their work, and—of course—music.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and time.
Hi, 3Quency. It’s really nice to meet you all. I just have a few questions for you, nothing too crazy… So, Building the Band dropped on Netflix over the summer, and I was rooting for you all the whole time. It was so exciting that you won, but it was filmed a while ago, right? Was it hard to keep the win a secret?
Brianna: It was probably the hardest thing we had to do because we were trying to go out in places in public together. We were going everywhere incognito, like we had hoodies on, glasses, shades… We had to be so stealth about it. But then on top of that, our families too. We all come from very big, proud families who love to talk, so we had to be really careful about who we told the news to because if not, the whole world would’ve probably known before the show even came out.
What made you interested in doing the show in the first place? How did you know it was the right move for you?
B: It was really different for all of us.
Nori: Yeah, all of us had different experiences. For me, I just, technically, took a gap year. Some may have said I dropped out, but that’s basically what happened. I was like, ‘I need to figure out how to make this singing stuff work because I cannot focus with this biology class, like I’m not supposed to be doing this, there’s no way.’ So, because singing was a passion of mine, I was like, ‘Okay how can I make this work?’ I ended up looking up different casting calls, I started posting covers on Instagram, ended up making a profile, and then Courtney (casting producer) reached out to me and was like, ‘Listen, I think that you’re a star. I feel like this show would be perfect for you,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, let me just see.’ I really didn’t have too much experience going into it outside of just singing in church, so this was like, ‘I’mma just take a leap of faith and just see where it goes.’ So, that was pretty much what it was for me, and then we ended up winning.
Wennely: I had a lot of trial and error with a lot of other competitions where I would get really, really close and then at the last minute, they’d be like, ‘Oh, we don’t really need you anymore,’ or I just wouldn’t make it that far. So, I’m a really firm believer of “keep knocking on doors until one bursts wide open.” My mom was always the person that told me that, so I just kept trying and I kept trying and I kept trying, and then Josh Randall was the one that hit me up on Instagram, the casting director who also helped me get cast for American Idol a couple years ago. He hit me up like, ‘What do you think about doing this show?’ and I talked to my mom about it, and she was like, ‘Go for it, why not?’ because it was a different show than what I had done previously. So, I was like, ‘You know what, maybe this is the one for me, maybe this is gonna be the one,’ and look! It was! The one!
B: So for me, I had been hit up by a casting director who I had known for a couple years now, similar to Wennely. I had been in the reality circuit before, I had done a couple of the shows, and I was super young, so I actually hadn’t seen her in a while. [The casting director] hit me up and was like, ‘I remember when you sang “Bitch Better Have My Money” by Rihanna at 14, and ever since then, it’s been in my brain. I know you’re done with the reality stuff, but I think this would be a really great opportunity for you.’ I was like, ‘Okay, what’s the premise?’ and she’s like, ‘You’re building a group,’ and I was like, ‘A group?! Wait, what?? That actually sounds kinda fun.’
And my grandma had just passed not long before, and her obsession growing up—she always wanted to be Diana Ross and The Supremes, like that was her goal. She loved, loved, loved girl groups, and that became a lot of my introduction to music. I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I can channel a lot of my grandma through this experience and it could be a way for me to feel closer to her again.’ Literally from the moment I got in there, my first conversation was Nori, and she was like, ‘I’m a grandma’s baby,’ and I was like, ‘Girl, me too. Okay, you’re one, locked in.’ Then I spoke with Wennely, and I was like, ‘We met at an audition when we were 14, 15,’ and she was like, ‘We did,’ and I was like, ‘Bet. You’re the other one, it seems like this is the group.’ It all just kind of flowed very naturally, and it felt very destined to be in that moment. It was just confirmation after confirmation, I think for all of us.
I could tell on the show, just the chemistry you all had, it was pretty instant. I liked seeing how you all linked together in those rooms at first, so how long were you in there before you were able to come out?
B: SO LONG! [Laughs]
N: We were in the booths for like, three weeks. That same red outfit—my red top with the cargo pants—Bri’s black lace outfit, and then Wennely’s corset with her metallic pants… We had to wear that for three weeks, every day. We had to take a bag, and we would put all of our accessories in it. You had to do your makeup the same, have your hair the same… We were in there for a long time.
You just released your debut single “Top Down,” so what was the inspiration behind that and how did you all make it?
B: So, we really went in and we were like, ‘We want to write a lover girl song because we are all different types of lover girls.’ Wennely is our true and tried romantic comedy girly, like she just wants it to be fairytales, happy ending… Nori’s a little more ‘Let me see what you do first, bring it to the table, show me what you got,’ whereas I’m like, ‘Ah! Love! Don’t touch me! Ah! I rebuke!’ Literally, we’re all so different when it comes to that as a whole, and we were like, ‘How can we express that while also talking about the different ways that we are lover girls?’
Then all of a sudden, [Leather Jackett, producer] said, [Brianna mimics the catchy intro riff] and we were like, ‘Looks like we’re writing a sexy record, no more lover girl today!’ We pivoted so quick, and then the record really wrote itself.
Do you all come up with the verses yourselves and share with each other, or is it one of you comes in with something…?
B: It depends on the day.
W: I was gonna say yeah, every time we come into the studio, we’re all equally so creative when it comes to writing that we all write it together. It’s all like, ‘What about this and what about this and what about this?’ We all throw it out, then we all mesh it.
N: Yeah, it just depends on the vibe. We all do write our stuff. I’ll say this too, though. We’ll come up with the concept as a collective, whatever it is that we’re feeling, and then Bri will come in and literally vocal produce the whole thing. She’s like, ‘I like painting with your voices.’ And Bri has a really great ear, so she automatically, whether we’re listening to the beat and like, ‘Oh, what should we say, what’s the concept,’ Bri’s like, ‘I got it! What if we do this, that, and you do this…’ She just goes.
W: I finally made a word for it in my head—she Bri-atizes it!
N: Yes! That’s it!
B: LOL, wait no, it’s actually at the point now when we’re in the studio, they say it so much. I’ll be in the booth, and they’re like ‘Bri-atize this thing!’ And the producers or the engineers that are in the room are like, ‘The girls said Bri-atize it. We don’t know what that means, but just do that!’ It’s so funny.
N: She just has so many good tips, whether it’s changing the vowel of sound so the sound comes out different, whether it’s adding vibrato, adding a crescendo… Bri just knows what she’s doing, and I’mma forever give her her props for that. Granted, we do be working on it together, but Bri be working.
B: Thank you, but I also credit that to them. To me, it’s like we’re all different crayons. Everybody does have a different color that they bring, and some can come in different hues. For example, if I’m blue, I might come in all shades of blue. If you’re pink, you might come in all shades of pink. If you’re orange, you come in all shades of orange. I like to find the different textures and colors that I can pull on in each of us that are the most complementary to the record because we really do all have such strong “-isms” and characteristics in our voices that I believe need to be capitalized on.
You said what you’re working on, you want to show off what you all can bring. So is your next single, I’m assuming, going to sound a little different than “Top Down?”
B & W: Yeah.
N: Completely.
B: The thing is, with all of our songs, I think you’ll always hear us, and I think that’s the fun that I get to bring with the vocal production. I really make sure that 3Quency sounds like 3Quency. If the song changes and comes in a different font, we’ll all agree to who’s singing what, but when it comes down to picking the harmonies or different ad libs or finding different things in between, that’s where I really get to jump in and have fun. I think that’s where 3Quency’s signature is kind of being born.
I think it starts with the voices and then eventually after experimenting and playing around with different records and different sounds, you kind of find where your lane is. I think the best groups never stayed in one place too long. It’s really beautiful seeing that evolve for us, especially what it sounds like on different records. Every song we have is so different from the last, but that’s the beauty, and it keeps us excited to want to perform them because it’s never the same thing twice.
You have the Bandemonium tour coming up soon. Will you be showcasing new songs on the tour or will you mostly be sticking with the covers you did on the show?
B: Sooo, there may or may not be a couple unreleased records on this tour. [Laughs] We have some very fun surprises. There’s a lot of familiar material that people will see. Everybody’s been saying online, ‘Oh my God, not y’all touring off of one song!’ Nobody said anything about touring off of one song.
N: Who said that?
[All, playfully]: WHO SAID THAT?!
N: We’d have a 20 minute set.
B: Well, we’re pushing it towards 50 right now. We keep adding things in because we have so much material that we’ve been holding onto for so long.
You’ll be touring with Soulidified, who were also on Building the Band. Have you all, since filming ended, stayed in touch with them or will this be a reunion for you?
N: They’re here!
[Both Brianna and Nori point to their right]
B: They’re literally in the other room.
W: They’re like our brothers. They’re literally our brothers.
B: We love Soulidified. They’re our family, for sure. If we could do all of our tours with them, we would. They’re all so exciting and have their own personalities, similar to us—Nori’s definitely the comedian, our funny one. Wennely’s like, ‘What are we doing? What’s the plan? Let’s go,’ like happy-go-lucky. I’m like, ‘We need to focus, let’s lock in, let’s get the work done,’ and they have those same dynamics, so it’s really fun seeing our group and their group kind of balance all of the different personalities. We’ve always been very close with them, so to be able to do this with them is an honor for us.
W: And it’s so fun. It’s so, so fun. Really, the whole process and everything—watching them rehearse and work super hard, knowing that they want it just as bad as we want it, and how we both come together and just have fun at the same time—it’s just a cool process to see.
Will you and Soulidified perform songs together on the tour or is it mostly gonna be separate?
N: Y’all gotta get your tickets and see!
B: We can’t give away all the secrets!
N: Get the tickets and come see it live!
W: It’s gonna be a tour, for sure. It’s gonna be one heck of a tour.
Are you all nervous or excited to be on tour together, because this will be your first real tour, right?
B: Yeah, it’s in our bodies so much at this point, I think we’re all just like, ‘Can we start tonight?’ We’re ready to go, but we know we have these two extra weeks for preparation, and we really have to take the time that we do have to enjoy the ride. But if we could’ve pressed go yesterday, we would’ve.
W: Yeah, I’m excited. I’m so excited. This is something I’ve been wanting to do since I was a kid, so the fact that all of this is coming true and I get to do it with them too, I feel like it’d be different if I was doing it by myself. I feel like it wouldn’t be as fun, and I just know that this whole tour is gonna be such an amazing ride. Like what Bri said, if we could start tomorrow, I would start tomorrow!
My last question is, what else do you have going on for the rest of the year?
B: We have several surprises coming very soon. [Slowly gives two thumbs up] That’s as much as we can say. I think we are extremely eager and extremely excited to share these next couple of announcements that some people have been noticing through some TikToks and Instagram reels. They’ve been seeing maybe a couple hints of what’s to come, but it’s a lot closer than people think.
N: I honestly I feel like, it’s so much that we’ve been working on. Obviously, we have tour prep, so tour. New music. Just being able to see our personalities more, following us on all of our social media platforms—@3quencyofficial. But yeah, honestly, just come ride the wave with us. It’s so many different things happening, so many new things that are coming. I’m just excited for the fans to finally get it and for us to ride the wave too. We’re living life right now, it’s lit, so I’m just really excited for everything that we have on the way.
W: We’re really, really grinding out here. We wanna give you guys nothing but the best and the best versions of ourselves, but we’re also having so much fun doing it together. I love that the fans are finally able to see our personalities and who we are as a group and also as individuals, so we just have a lot of stuff coming. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Thank you all so much again for doing this. Do you have any last words, final comments, anything else you want to share?
B: I would say October and November are going to be very fun months.
N: It’s lit!
W: [Cheers]
B: For a plethora of reasons. But it’s going to be exciting. And I think I’m most grateful to be on this journey with the both of them because, for example, Wennely’s in Kansas right now. She’s home and we’re still here because we’ve got stuff to do, and she’s got stuff to handle there, but our connection and our bond makes it easy for us to do these things. There’s been so many things that have been tested throughout this period of time of us rehearsing and getting things ready for the show, and the fact that it’s just been as consistent as it always is, for me, it’s just solidified our bond and our connection and the chemistry that everybody sees. It shows, it really shows in the work, it shows in our product, and I cannot wait for people to get to know more about us and more about us as artists and more about what we’ve spent this last year really, really working on. There’s a lot that goes into it, and I’m very proud of both of them.
W: We’re proud of you! You’re making me emotional. And also, how grateful we are for everyone and all the support that they’ve given us. The amount of love that we’ve gotten from everyone is absolutely insane, from the fan edits to even paragraphs that we get sent from fans. It just means the whole world, and it pushes us to even go harder for you guys, so it means a lot.
N: Love y’all.
[All hold up hand hearts]
The Bandemonium tour kicks off on October 30. Find tickets and the full list of dates here.
Listen to “Top Down” here.
Keep up with 3Quency: Instagram // Facebook // X // TikTok // YouTube
