“I honestly think there’s a few people in the pop industry that should be a little bit afraid of them right now,” the late Liam Payne says of the girl group 3Quency in the finale of Netflix’s Building the Band. The trio — 24-year-old Brianna Mazzola, 24-year-old Nori Royale, and 25-year-old Wennely Quezada — was the dark horse of the new reality competition, where bands form in Love Is Blind–style pods and perform together the first time they meet face to face. While some of their competitors struggled with group chemistry, 3Quency got right to work, singing in the rain to strengthen their voices and rehearsing for 24 hours straight on Mazzola’s 24th birthday. Payne and his fellow judges, Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland, praised 3Quency’s vocals and dance skills as awards-show ready, and they emerged as the last girl group standing. Despite consistent crowd favorites SZN4 making a pinky promise to win, 3Quency ultimately took home the $500,000 grand prize.
But even as Mazzola, Royale, and Quezada can finally celebrate their happy ending publicly (almost a full year after they filmed it), some parts of the internet are stuck on the beginning of 3Quency’s journey. On social media, many have expressed ire over a moment in the blind booths when the group decided against adding singer Bri Gilyard to their lineup. Royale has faced significant backlash from those who blame her for what 3Quency emphasizes was a collective decision to remain a three-piece in the vein of Destiny’s Child and TLC. Now, the group is ready to reframe the narrative around their experience on the show and squash any rumors of beef with their fellow contestants — in fact, behind the scenes, the series felt more like summer camp than a cutthroat competition. “These were weeks and hours of conversations we had with people that were trimmed down to minutes for people to watch at home,” Mazzola explains. “We had a completely different lived experience than what people are having as viewers.”
3Quency felt like the underdogs to me — up until the finale, you were never the first group announced as safe. Going into your last performance, how confident were you that you would win?
Brianna Mazzola: You know what’s crazy? Before every name was called every time, under our breath, we’d be holding hands like, “Say 3Quency, say 3Quency.” We were just trying to manifest it, power of the tongue: “Please just give it to us. We will keep challenging ourselves.” And week after week, we got an opportunity to level up and show a new side that people hadn’t experienced before.
Did you ever discuss what you’d do if you lost?
Nori Royale: No matter how our performance went, no matter the trials and tribulations we were going through before the performance, we were all like, We’re gonna go out there, we’re gonna give it our all, and we’re gonna win this thing. Not in a cocky way, but, like, we know what we bring to the table, and we’re confident in our talent and what we have together. You can’t have a sliver of doubt in your mind when you’re manifesting.
Brianna, you said in the finale that the prize money means y’all can take care of the group’s future. What have you been up to in the past year in terms of investing in 3Quency?
BM: Ooh, we’ve been plotting and scheming. We’ve been traveling, going to different studios, working with different producers, trying to really hone the sound of the group. A lot of this past year has been development for us.
What do you want your first album or single to sound like?
Wennely Quezada: All of us love the pop and R&B pocket, so anything in that genre. We love to make you dance, we love to give women empowerment — and also take it slow and give you a nice ballad. We do both.
To me, your dancing really elevated your performances and helped set you apart from the other bands. When did you realize that would be a secret weapon for you?
NR: We figured that out in the booths; we asked questions like, “Do you dance? How long have you been dancing? Are you comfortable dancing in heels?” That was important to all of us, because it was something all of us wanted to do. “Have You Ever” was the only performance where we didn’t, because we were sitting down, but even still, we had a quick little one-two, giving a Dreamgirls moment.
BM: I think a lot of people expected us to do what was expected of us. But we were like, We want to show y’all we’re nothing regular. We got what it takes, and we will push harder and harder and harder — not only our own boundaries as individuals, but as a group.
NR: Clock it! [All three snap and point to invisible watches on their wrists.]
It definitely felt like the show emphasized the amount of work 3Quency put in. What’s the longest day y’all were at it?
NR: The day before Bri’s birthday and her birthday. We didn’t get any sleep. We didn’t go to bed the day before, and we stayed up all that night.
BM: Yeah, “Have You Ever” was my birthday. And it was my golden year; I was 24 on the 24th in the year ’24. They put us in the gold dresses — it was a nice little touch. But it was so, so difficult. We were all super hoarse, all a little under the weather. I rolled my ankle. There were wardrobe malfunctions, earrings falling out …
WQ: It was a chaotic day. But once we walked up onstage, we flipped the switch.
BM: It was a moment that confirmed for all of us, Okay, the world could be moving at a million miles an hour, and we’re still locked in with each other. This is a good sign. I think that’s what ultimately pushed us through to the following round.
Can you tell me a little bit about your rehearsal routine? I know you’ve mentioned that the three of you would run together …
WQ: Bri Bri, go ahead.
BM: [Laughs.] Once we got in and started working together, I was like, “If we want to be the only ones out here really dancing like that, we can’t be sounding out of breath. Let’s do a little run-and-jog situation.” Because that’s what I had been doing for the couple months beforehand. It’s something that helps me lock in and shake a lot of nerves out, but it also builds your endurance and breath support. Even on nights after rehearsals, we’d be in there for hours dancing, dancing, dancing. Then I’d be like, “All right, girls, we’re gonna take the 21 flights up to the room, and we’re gonna sing as we take ourselves up.”
NR: Bri had us in boot camp. After we had a full day of filming and rehearsals, we still had to run up those 21 flights.
WQ: But to be fair, look where it got us. We were all fully onboard because we knew it would make us better. So we were running up them stairs, we were running in the rain. We wanted to do everything we could to sound our best.
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BM: And listen, “Have Mercy”? There was not one breath.
NR: No room for breathing.
WQ: So it was definitely worth it.
Watching the show back, you also get to see for the first time what it was like for the singers who didn’t get picked to be in bands. What was it like to see Bri’s perspective, for example?
BM: It was so devastating. In the booths, you’re only getting to “see” what you hear. Watching on TV now, you see people’s reactions that we weren’t privy to. Ultimately, it came down to us all being like, “We really want to dance.” That’s something we felt confident in. The idea of adding a fourth got removed because we felt other people’s pursuits weren’t as dance-focused. It was an overall creative decision. There was no bad blood between anybody, whether it be Bri or any other girls — Erica, Alison, Aaliyah — there were literally so many other people we talked to in the booths. We were just grateful to have known all of them. Obviously, it’s sad to know that people didn’t find what they were looking for in the way that we did, but we had to follow our guts and trust our hearts. That is just how we allowed ourselves to be led through the experience.
Have you been in touch with Bri at all?
[All nod immediately.]
WQ: We’re cool, yeah.
BM: Literally was just texting her.
NR: Ain’t no beef.
Nori, I saw your Building the Band castmate Alison posted a TikTok with you with the caption, “Nothing beats millions of people judging without ever meeting us.”
NR: Oh my God, they’ve been dragging us.
How have you been navigating the opinions of viewers?
NR: I knew coming into this that with the industry I’m in, people are gonna be talking mess about you until the day you die. It’s definitely been a transition for me. If anybody has ever quote-unquote hated me before, they never told me to my face. But here I go on Instagram, like, I’m gonna post this of me and the girls … whoa, wait a minute! Let me lock the phone. Abort mission! They’re trying to get me! Honestly, the girls have really been my rock and saving grace. I ain’t never had that many people coming at me … especially when it was not like that.
WQ: At all.
BM: To be clear, in Nori’s defense, we all wanted a girl group of three.
WQ: But in the same way, we were also all open to four. We were pulling in different girls to see. But in the end, we all agreed that three just felt right.
NR: Overall, the hate comments don’t bother me no more. I just don’t look at them. Or now, I just kind of laugh, where I’m like, “Bri, look at what she said! Oh my God.” And then just leave it alone. But I definitely had to adjust, I’m not gonna lie.
BM: It was a learning experience for all of us. These were weeks and hours of conversations trimmed down to minutes for people to watch at home. Even watching her go through that, we’re like …
WQ: “That’s not how it happened!”
BM: But there’s only so much time in an episode, and you gotta get the best things in there. For us, it was just about reminding Nori, “No, this was what really happened. Don’t allow the outside noise to change that narrative for you. This is who you are, we know who you are — that’s why we picked you.” She’s a straight shooter, she keeps it honest. That was something we talked about in the booths. We wanted three strong, opinionated women who come through knowing exactly what they want. And that’s what we got.
Is there anything else you wish viewers had gotten to see?
WQ: Oh, so much. It kind of skipped what we did to get to know each other on a deeper level and all the fun stuff we did in our little home — how we moved the beds to the kitchen and slept together, roller-skating in the kitchen with socks on, baking cookies, getting my hair in the butter, feeding everybody the cookies —
BM: With the hair butter. [Laughs.]
WQ: Our teatimes and all the little cute things that you guys missed, I really wish that stuff would’ve been shown.
BM: There were so many moments too where there weren’t cameras on us that we were like, “Y’all, you gotta film this!” We’re comedians out here. Nori’s making us laugh so hard, we’re falling on the bed, rolling out the couch … we were just so comfortable with one another off-rip. I think the more and more people get to know us and see us on our socials, they’ll really start to understand our personalities, because we don’t hold anything back.
NR: I wish they also would have showcased all of the things that have molded us into the women we are today and how we got here, because we have similar stories and really bonded off that as well.
BM: We got to see a little of that when our moms came. We all come from really big, loving families, and family’s the most important thing to all of us. We were so work-focused while we were there that getting to stray from that a bit and see our heart was really beautiful.
Have your moms also stayed close over the past year?
WQ: Definitely.
NR: They love each other.
BM: They steal our FaceTimes!
WQ: They’ll grab our phones. I’m like, “Girl, they didn’t call you!”
NR: Yeah, they’ll walk out and have a whole conversation without none of us in the room. They’re literally like the older versions of us. Like, they were holding hands on day one when they met on the show. They’re the cutest.
It seems like there’s still a lot of camaraderie between the Building the Band bands, too.
WQ: We love all of them.
BM: Truthfully, the show was like going to summer camp. Because we’re living somewhere where we have no phones, no outside communication. All we really have is our bond and our chemistry. Everybody was coming back to our place after, when we’d have one day off or something in between shooting.
NR: Our house was the kickback house. Everybody came to ours.
BM: We’d be playing music …
WQ: We played games …
BM: We were just all connecting and vibing. Even post-show, getting to see everybody out here this week [for Netflix’s Summer Break event], it was so good to start right back off where we left it. It really goes to show that everything we built with everybody was so real and authentic, which just makes the process even more special for all of us.
NR: It really was like being back at home. And we’re equally supportive of each other. We all really wanna see each other do well.
