Concert Review: N3WYRKLA
March 14, 2024
Illustration by Malaaya Adams
Earlier this month, N3WYRKLA — a South Jersey-based singer-songwriter — made her debut performance at The Foundry in Philadelphia. The club sized room was packed and energetic, with an ever-present feeling of homecoming. In part, the show came in support of her recently released EPs: last year’s SELFishly enTITLED and it’s not me, it’s you, which was just released in February of this year. Following the show, Kevin and I got together to discuss N3WYRKLA’s performance, what we find exciting about her sound, and what her future may look like. You can read our conversation below:
Stanley: We both came into this show pretty blind. I'd listened to some of her music, but nothing too extensive. And I basically hit you up a few hours before the show even started lol. I'm curious to know what you thought about N3WYRKLA's performance in general, but also her music/sound?
Kevin: Oh yeah, this is as blind as I’ve went into a show in awhile. Did some quick googles in the car before going into the venue and seen that she was Gillie’s daughter. That was all I knew and it was 5 minutes before the show lol. I will say - for a 21-year-old with relatively new experience doing this live concert thing, she has some juice!
I will also say lol - most of that juice for me personally may have come from the fact that the band she performed with was equal parts tight/controlled but also at the same time smashed. There weren’t too many jam sessions type moments, breakout solos, etc but within the flow of the song they were able to add some dynamism that I’m sure the studio version of these tracks can’t offer. So to me, that’s a positive because the live show should add an element that we can’t get in the studio.
Her sound specifically is going to bring out the lazy comparisons, forgive me lol. She seems to be following the musical throughline of what we see from a few “Alt-Black Women” - Foushee, Willow Smith, and SZA (to an extent) who pull from a Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Evanescence type sound but make it their own. I appreciated that she seemed to care about the lyrics and spent some time engaging with the crowd about why she made certain songs and what they meant to her.
She has some talent. What you think though?
Stanley: I was really impressed by her performance! I thought she was engaging and charismatic. Her voice sounded great, too - she has a good tone and breath control - she sounded like the records! For this to be her first show, I thought she was incredibly polished and comfortable.
And yes, the band! So, a big part of the reason why I was there was because my friends Jon “Stixx” Franklin (Drummer and Music Director), Geoff (keyboards), and Brushstroke (guitar) were playing behind N3WYRKLA. I've been playing with those guys for a while, so I thought this was a coming out party for them as much as it was for her. And like you said, I thought the arrangements added to the songs, elevating them for a live performance.
Lastly, I want to riff on some of your artist comparisons, because I also heard Paramore, Evanescence, etc. After the show, I was reading a review of her latest EP by Abdur Rahman for WXPN. Rahman had a lot of good things to say about the project, but one of the gripes they had -- not with N3WYRKLA, but with the music industry writ large -- was that her EP was classified as “R&B” on streaming platforms. Rahman specifically mentioned her music alongside artists like Hannah Jadagu and Willow Smith -- Black women operating in "Indie" and "Alternative" traditions -- genres typically associated with white men. She's undeniably got some R&B in her music, but, to me, that's not what's driving her sonic approach.
There's a whole history of how sounds get named (i.e. genre) and who gets to name the sound, both of which are decidedly tied up in discourses of power, and projects of race. But, I'll say more on that later.
What did you think about the audience, both demographically and their engagement with the show?
Kevin: Most interesting audience I’ve been apart of in awhile! Mainly because I love seeing the young ones engage with traditional modes of art in a world that they maybe don’t have to due to technology and social media. So seeing them not entirely being sure how to give an (fake) encore was heartwarming lol. As they find artists that interest them and go to shows with slightly older folks (like us!) they will see how to carry on that tradition.
So I was just happy to see the youngbols out enjoying live music for someone that was not a megastar. The crowd was very into it - though they all kinda looked like they just got off a set of Euphoria as extras. The Gen Z brand is strong.
But also, I have to shoutout the scores of black dudes in that jawn. It felt like a crossover event where some may have been there because of the Gillie connection and/or knew the guys in the band. But the show had something for everyone so they all seemed to enjoy themselves.
I’ll let you take up “Black people in the room” corner lol. Very Black room. Felt like a homecoming for her in there. Like family.
What were you thinking about the audience and vibe?
Stanley: The show absolutely had the feel of a homecoming - supportive and engaged - some had signs and t-shirts. And folks were singing the songs! The phones were often out recording (I think this is part of how concert engagement should be discussed in the contemporary moment lol).
And it was very Black! We've been to quite a few shows at The Foundry - this being our first show in almost 4 years - and the demographic makeup we saw at N3WYRKLA's show isn't common, in terms of age, race, and gender. But I think that's part of what made the show enjoyable for me. And as an aging millennial, I definitely felt the Gen Z-ness in the room lol. But, for all the reasons you outlined, it was cool!
This was N3WYRKLA's first live show. I think we both pride ourselves on being ground level entrants for artists. That said, I'm asking you to put on your prognosticator hat here: what do you think the future looks like for her?
Kevin: I do like dressing the baldy with hats as you know (Kevin is bald lol), I don’t really do it with the prognosticator hat often, but let me try. We talked briefly after the show where you made the point that she is kinda already in LiveNation orbit. First show at the Foundry which is part of the LiveNation universe feels important to her future journey. But as a musician, she has the opportunity to fill a lane for many young women and Black women who can relate to the messages in her songs but also her style/aesthetic.
Seems like she is producing content in the form of EPs at a pretty significant rate so the music will be there and my guess is that her stuff will catch on eventually. There is a lane for her. There is some marketing power here that she can build on due to her connections already AND that she knows what she is doing on that stage. She has presence, which is a very strong trait to have.
Stanley: I'll start with saying that it's exciting to be able being to say you were at someone's first show - it's the type of thing I think we both thrive on (being at the ground level, if you will lol). I think N3WYRKLA has great potential as an artist and performer - she's already able to put on a good show! Her writing is vulnerable in a way that I find appealing (more than pretty, just like you, and i cheated too are great examples of this). And to the point about the audience demographic of the show, she feels like a fitting encapsulation of her generation.
I wanted to pick up on the piece about filling a lane, and also circling back to the first question about her sound:
I've been reading about the history of "Indie Rock", "Alternative", and popular music more broadly of late, so during the show a lot of that was on my mind. Musical genres -- the labeling and categorization of sound -- as we understand them in America are political and fickle, whose origins develop out of slavery and blackface. (Matthew Morrison's new book Blacksound does an excellent job outlining this history.)
So, when thinking about a genre like Indie Rock, we see a genre, an institution, that has divested itself from Blackness (we usually just think about white guys when we hear "Indie Rock" -- or at least it's marketed that way). This is all to say, part of what makes N3WYRKLA exciting to me is how her sound challenges the assumed boundaries of race and gender. And she comes at an interesting moment because we have artists like Hannah Jadagu (who I saw in concert last year and she was phenomenal), Willow Smith, Brittany Howard, Chioke (another Philly artist), and countless others making music rejecting those boundaries of sound.
