The First Year of WRIZZARDS
Photography by Meredithe Ettrich.
This NOV 2024 The Vanguard Issue story is available in print.
Keeping it in the family is a lot harder said than done, especially when it comes to the music industry. Who you know could make or break you here, perhaps more than in any other career field. In an ultra-competitive landscape where money, influence, and resources are all so concentrated at the top, unity at the grassroots level has continued to be what lies at the core of the authenticity holding DIY art communities together. When your network is full of the right people, the work never feels like work. It feels like magic—and this is exactly the case with the DMV-based WRIZZARDS.
Washington Rizzards (also known as WRIZZARDS) are a multi-genre musical collective, artist-group, and independent label. Since debuting as a group with their hit song Ms. Barista, they’ve been taking the DMV by storm through appearances at Songbyrd DC, Sofar Sounds, and even the iconic Howard Theater. Their unique genre-bending sound has earned them kudos from big-time music heads such as the likes of EARMILK and Billboard as well as an influx of new monthly listeners. When the four close friends, J Matty, Bema Tadey, LEIF, and Tina Carzon, aren’t rocking out shows together, they support one another’s solo careers both on and off stage
There’s no exact science to making it big on the mic but for the WRIZZARDS, the proof is in the people. If the meteoric rise of the Filipino music collective can tell us one thing, it’s that the difference between setting a goal and achieving it often comes down to the folks you’re riding with. Recently, NUNAR sat down with WRIZZARDS to learn more about their newfound success as a group and their motivations as individual artists.
AB: For the listeners who have been bumping your hit single Ms. Barista, can you talk about the experience of putting it together?
LEIF: We've always talked about it, but I think the function of the group when we first started was to help support each other as individual artists. So a lot of the collaborations were necessarily between, like, let's say me and BEMA, I'm helping them with their single or me and Tina, me and Matt. Or like, Matt will come in and help songwriting each other's songs. And then we also, before we did the song together, we did a lot of duets, so we were always talking about it. But it wasn't something that we were like, Oh, we finally got to do this all together. I remember the story very well, but it was when Tina was going to Japan, and then we all stayed over at our place just to like, you know, hang out. And then Tina was playing this chord progression. It was like a more R and B version, but the same chords.
And then ever since I worked with Tina as the CO producer of the track, I've done a lot of bossa nova with Tina. So I was like, Yo, we just make it Bossa’. And then eventually I wrote the hook, like that night, and then we recorded it with a beat. And then I took Tina to the airport at like, 3 AM or something like that. And then Bema came over the next day, and then Matty was there too. I recorded my hook, and then produced the beat with Bema. And then after that, like, the verses, kind of came naturally. So Tina was in Japan at that point. We had to wait. We recorded Matt's and BEMA’s verse, and we had to wait, like, a week until Tina came back. The moment they came back, and the song came together so fast. It was, at least for me— and I want to hear from the other members too—what their experience was with a song. But at least for me, it was as a producer of the song, it was very freeing to just include everyone's style. We weren't bound to our original genre.
JMATTY: For me, I think it's one of them songs that kind of wrote itself. You know, when you feel like, when you write all these songs where it's like you're just piecing the puzzle together, you'll find the pieces. Obviously, it was different for us too, because that was the first time we had to arrange it so it could showcase all of our talent. So there were some hurdles on like, “how long should the song be?” “How many, how long should the verses be?” But at the end of the day, it was a great representation of our sound, individually and as
TINA: It just came kind of natural. I honestly didn't think it would be like a ridgid song, because the progression was just like a rinse. I was just playing around with it and then LEIF added in the hook, and then it just kind of caught on. I didn't think that it was going to be this natural.
BEMA: I think it's a pretty fire song.
LEIF: in terms of, like the lyrical content and just like what the song is about, the concept. Since I wrote the hook, when I heard it, it played more like R & B, very slow. And then when I introduced the Bossa’ aspect, I was like, Oh, this sounds like a coffee shop vibe, yeah. And then I was thinking, like me and Matt had a recent experience at Starbucks where we saw the most beautiful barista in. From that experience, and then it kind of is one of those concepts that's like, Oh, coffee is a big thing. Love is addicting. It's like, you could kind of put those comparisons together. So we use a lot of metaphors when it comes to the cravings of coffee, that cravings for this person that you just met, or that you're that you're falling for and finding ways to kind of play have some wordplay with that. And I think BEMA did it really well in her verse when it came to introducing the Tagalog Filipino aspect, and then some cultural stuff, they are like three in one packets. They are very famous in the Philippines. They're like, three in one coffee with creamer, sugar and the coffee, instant coffee. It's one of those songs that, because of all these things that we put in, it helped birth the brand of the WRIZZARDS. And that was one of the songs that kind of stamped the “Oh, the WRIZZARDS are Filipino.”
AB: (For Tina) During your experience being featured in the Indelible documentary project, what was it like getting a chance to relive your journey as a music artist?
TINA: Antonio (@eletricllama), who's the one who actually put me on that incredible project and documentary series, so, and yeah, the series is basically just about like it's a platform to really highlight some of the underground local DMV artists. And for me, it was a very eye opening experience. It was at a time where I was still kind of getting back into music again, like since the pandemic. And so just being able to be captured in that way felt very intimate and special for me as an artist. So it was definitely an honor to be filmed that way, capturing the essence of who I was as an artist and how it made me who I am now.
AB: (For LEIF) Along with WRIZZARDS being nominated as a group, you individually racked up three nominations at this year’s WAMMIE Music Awards. For better or for worse, what has industry recognition taught you about your purpose as an artist?
LEIF: I think no one has any power over any artist when it comes to giving them that confidence and pushing so in terms of awards, I think they're great accolades and they're they're landmarks, but just because you get nominated for it, or you have it, it doesn't mean it defines you as an artist. And I'm a lot of what I push and what we push as WRIZZARDS, and why we continue to be independent. It's nice to get nominated and an honor to get nominated, but it's definitely not something I stamp my career on. I think what I stamp my career on is the actionable things that I've done, including being able to produce, write and have songs out from hundreds of artists—working with many artists as a songwriter, producer. That’s what defines me as an artist. As well as to serve and to help as many people as I can.
AB: (For Bema Tadey) Can you walk us through the creative process behind your debut solo EP Reckless?
BEMA: It took a while, took a few months, to get the songs together. I had help from Leif, he did some production, and a lot of the songs he mixed and mastered. Reckless is a story about a person I used to love and the process of getting over, moving on. I was actually going through that as I met the WRIZZARDS. As soon as that left, it's like the WRIZZARDS filled filled in that space. My broken heart. That EP, It's my most special project.
AB: (For JMATTY) You’ve shared on social media how your car accident in 2017 has had a pivotal influence on your perspective on life. In what ways has this experience been a driving force for you to pursue your dreams?
JM: I don't think I would be doing music or chasing my dreams the way I am today. When you almost have a near death experience, it changes your perspective on life. I was 23 years old when that car accident happened, and the thought of me just disappearing from this earth at 23 without doing the things that I love, you know it just hits you harder. It puts things into perspective. What's important to me, love, happiness, peace, my family, my passions. And so after that accident, it really propelled my mindset to where I could be consistent and really focus on doing what I love and just doing things that make this life enjoyable.
