What do girls talk about? If you have to ask, you haven’t met 3Quency yet. Brianna Mazzola, Nori Moore, and Wennely Quezada—the girl group that Building the Band didn’t just create; it unleashed—bring sharp choreography, audio wave face art that’s the ultimate smoky eye, and an increasingly necessary service: helping your friend finally, finally let go of that situationship. Their latest single ‘Leave ’Em Alone’ makes the case better than any of us ever could.
We caught up with the three of them on their early 2000s-soaked sound, their debut album Girls Talk, which, as it turns out, answers our opening question rather neatly, and much more.
‘Leave ‘Em Alone’ is the perfect group-chat drop, the subtle hint that it’s time your friend dumped him. If you could slide it into a fictional character’s group chat, who’s getting it first?
B: Oooo, love that!
W: Woahhh!
N: Hmmm!
W: Hannah Montana needs to LEAVE Jake Ryan alone!! He gotta go haha.
N: Dijonay, Sticky don’t want you, baby! Pack it uppp.
B: Katniss and Gale… I know they were just friends, but I can’t stand him lollllllllll #TeamPeeta
Even the dropped letters in “’em” give the song a casual early-2000s swagger. What’s a detail we might skate past on first listen that you’re obsessed with and want us to catch on the second loop?
B: Ayeee!! Love that haha! The dropped letters was Troy’s (Troy Taylor, our producer on the record) idea! He wanted it to feel more accurate to how each of us speaks.
W: A detail I really like is all the hidden harmonies! In the studio, when we were cutting with B, she played harmonies I hadn’t even heard before, and now I can’t un-hear them! Like they really paint the picture for me now. The more you play the song, the more you hear each harmony.
N: I agree with Wenny! But something that stands out to me as well would be the instrumentation. Like the bass!??! Soo good! There’s also something in there that sounds like an organ; that’s really dope too!
Your earlier releases went out through Netflix Music before you moved to a major label, but Girls Talk marks your first time as independent artists. What’s on this album that you don’t think would have survived a label meeting?
B: All of them HAHAH!!!
W: ALL OF THEM!
N: YUP, all of them lol
B: I think the blessing with being on a label is the big machine of it all, but that’s also something that can work against you. If the “machine” has a different image of you than you have of yourself, your artistry may never align or survive a label meeting haha.
W: Yeah, exactly!
N: And we wasn’t finna go for that.
‘Once I Was A Good Girl’ was a heartbreak song co-written by Raye and Steve Mac. What did you learn in the room with Raye that carried into writing Girls Talk yourselves?
N: I wish we were in the room with Raye!
W: We got pitched the song, they asked us to record it, and it became the next single.
B: But after we went independent, Wen and I got to meet Raye at the iHeart Music Awards. She was soooo sweet and took a picture with us and everything. I was so hype, being a fan of her artistry and songwriting, that we got to meet her.
N: I was sick that night, but they sent me pics, and I was so excited ’cause we love her!
What we’ve heard of ‘Slayometry’ is such a tune, and mapping geometric shapes onto body shapes is so clever. Take us into that writing session. Who brought the maths?
W: (In British accent) B BROUGHT THE MATHS!!
N: (Tapping Bri’s head) BriBri ain’t got a big ole head for nothing! Her brain was braining!!
B: I was in the studio with Sam and Emile and had mentioned I wanted a song with a bunch of made up words that just meant something to me and the girls lol! I’m a huge math kid, and it was my favorite subject in school, so I wanted to infuse that. I wrote out a bunch of math/school courses with Sam and started finding a way to flip ‘em. Geometry = Slayometry (study of shapes). Since coming off the show, the girls and I have dealt with so many comments online, in business, and even in real life related to our bodies.
W: People on the internet are so mean, and they think having a keyboard gives them permission to speak negatively on people’s bodies.
N: Especially women’s! Like we had people starting pregnancy rumors about us after certain videos would drop.
W: Even in teasing clips on socials!! They’d be like, “Oops, somebody’s pregnant!” WHO???
N: We are all representing different shapes and sizes, but that’s what makes 3Quency so special!
B: Exactly!! So after reading all the disrespect, I’m like, “Who raised y’all? Some of you gotta go back to school.” And the school of shapes was birthed. Curvology, Thiqueonomics, A*strophysics… body ACUTE!!
W: OBTUSE!
N: Even ISOSCELES!!!! Haha
Nearly every track on the album was road-tested live on tour before you’d even revealed the cover art. Most artists let the visuals set the tone first. What appealed to you about letting the sound lead?
W: Ohhh! We wanted to see their natural reaction first before going full throttle.
B: We wanted them to see the songs on us live, so they could see the world the way we did.
N: Also, it was really cool getting to see which ones they knew already!! We went live on TikTok and teased some songs a few months back, and by the time we were on tour, they knew all the lyrics!!
B: With us being independent, it also lets us know which songs translate the strongest with the fans. That gives us a lot of foresight in terms of promotion and videos for the songs as well.
As a world first, tour VIPs got a TapTunes downloadable lanyard for the album. Why a lanyard instead of vinyl, and what does “owning” an album mean to your fans?
W: We wanted time for the vinyl to be extra special.
N: But we still wanted to give the VIP fans a first listen.
B: The vinyl comes with a few surprises we weren’t ready to share quite yet haha.
Choreography was one of your superpowers on Building the Band, and you’ve kept that going with choreographers like Will Simmons (Justin Bieber, Janet Jackson). How do you turn that movement-first instinct into storytelling across a whole album?
B: WILLIAMMMM!! That’s my bestieeee! Will and I met when we were 14, and we ended up doing Club Mickey Mouse together for Disney. After watching him choreograph for that, we started working together on my stuff, especially for Trolls. Once 3Quency formed on BTB, we felt like Will was the perfect fit. He’s worked on everything from T-Pain and TLC to BTS and more!
N: We sent him so many videos of us walking through it naturally. So that he could see our natural flow.
W: Yeah, like for tour, we sent him blocking and movement so that we had a strong base for him to go off of.
B: Over the video, I added creative notes like our character breakdowns individually, and what each of us wanted to give so he could really extract from there. Will can take a million different notes and ideas and turn them into something magical.
Brianna, your audio-wave makeup almost flips you from wallflower to performer. Nori and Wennely, what’s your version of that, the thing that switches your brain to “on?”
N: My version of getting into character, before a performance, would be me keeping pictures of my angels in my bra hahah! So I feel like I have them on stage with me. I pray before I go on stage, and both of those things really help me to lock in.
W: Usually before a performance, I have to listen to music to get in the zone. Also, once I take my curls out of my bonnet, I know it’s time to go! Oh, and a sip of Dr. Pepper, then I’m set.
You’ve said the audio wave is there so people focus on your artistry, not the idea that a woman’s job is just to be pretty. Beyond artistry, what other qualities do you want Girls Talk to spotlight?
B: You’ve done your research haha! Artistry and identity have always been at the forefront of my life, and that translates into the music so heavily. That also gives the music identity and evolution, which I feel is really important in Girls Talk. Girls Talk is about so much more than what it sounds like. For centuries, “girls talk” has been a means of survival. The community between women is so important now more than ever. This whole project spotlights the real bond between sisters and friends, showing up for your friends when they don’t feel like themselves, being the backbone when they need you to be, telling them the truth when it hurts, breakups, healing, industry standards, and more. It was the story of 3Quency over the last two years.
No names. We’re not doing that. But someone in your life has been getting a very intentional playlist suggestion lately, and ‘Leave ’Em Alone’ has been on loop for a reason. Drop into our socials—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—and make your case for why this song is basically a breakup intervention in audio form.
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