What’s better than featuring one artist? How about featuring a motha’ fuckin collective! In the infamous words of André 3000: “The South’s got something to say!” Get familiar with Atlanta based collective & event production group: WERC CREW! Birthed out of a desire to further push Atlanta’s music and arts community, WERC has been holding down the Atlanta party scene since its inception in 2014.
The group offers parties that everyone can enjoy. Whether you want to groove to R&B classics, take a trip around the world, or just leave it all on the dance floor, WERC’s got you covered! If you’re ever in Atlanta, you should definitely do yourself the favor and go to one of their events. It’s always a vibe! Their resident parties include The Groove, an all-night R&B party co-produced with DJ Wally Sparks; WHINE: Global Riddims, an Afro-Caribbean-Latin dance party; and Smothered + Covered, a WERC CREW function with extra sauce, partygoers enjoy funk, house, soul and underground sounds.
WERC has produced over 300 live events around the country and has collaborated with various artists, brands and festivals. In my interview with co-founder Xavier BLK, he gets candid about the pros and cons of being a part of a collective, current issues in the industry, and his frustration with marketing agencies stiff-arming Atlanta creatives for outside talent. He foresees WERC “shifting into more of a full-service agency” that will provide “in-house marketing, consulting, design, production and talent.” WERC wants to make it so no one has to look outside Atlanta to reach Atlanta.
Meet the talented artists that make up WERC CREW and check out my interview with Co-founder Xavier BLK below.
XAVIER BLK
Co-Founder / DJ / Event Production
Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Xavier made Atlanta his second home after moving to the city in 2010. He consistently puts in work in the Atlanta party scene, either dj’ing, producing events, collaborating with other artists or all of the above. With all of his events, Xavier strives to create safe spaces for entertainment. He’s played all over the US, Montreal, London and Paris. And he’s opened up for artists such as Goldlink, Khalid, Kaytranada, Sango, Questlove and others. Some notable collab mentions include Afropunk, A3C, Everyday People and Redbull, just to name a few.
JEREMY AVALON
Producer/ DJ / Event Production
Avalon is a DJ, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist based out of Atlanta. Along with being a part of WERC CREW, he also handles guitar duties for Atlanta punk, hip hop fusion band Heavy Mojo. His music selection and production have heavy international influences. With every one of his sets, Avalon provides versatile sounds that you can’t not move to. “Caribbean Afro-Latino rhythms, Hip Hop, Soul, Funk, Indie Rock to Deep House, are the tip of the iceberg as concerns Jeremy’s musical palette.” He’s played on bills with DJ Jazzy Jeff, Rich Medina, Talib Kweli, DJ Moma, and has also collaborated with big brands, festivals and other talented creatives.
HOURGLASS
DJ/ Event Production
Hourglass worked her way into the DJ booths of Atlanta’s notable venues without any major backing. It was with WERC CREW that she found a “family”. Besides performing, Hourglass also handles the planning and executing of WERC produced events. She knows firsthand how tough it can be to build something as a creative in Atlanta, but that doesn’t stop her from giving it everything she’s got. She’s opened up for the likes of ChloexHalle, NAO, JMSN, Princess Nokia, and other amazing artists! Like her partners, she has also worked with big brands and festivals. She is always down to support other artists. Her motto: Think Outside the Clock.
JAMES LEWIS
Rapper
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Lewis has established himself as an artist shaping the new sound of Atlanta. He is known for rocking parties at your favorite Atlanta venues with WERC CREW—performing hit singles “Pulp Fiction” and “Take You There”. He released his latest album LAYERS in late 2017. He says of LAYERS, “I have shown my fans that I can expand my artistry to a whole new level.” Lewis just finished touring in Japan. Although he’s been quiet since the LAYER’s release, he has plans to roll out new videos and more local shows.
MARIAH MURRAY
Dancer/Choreographer
Mariah is a choreographer, movement artist and creative director that blesses all partygoers with her vibrant and intoxicating moves at WERC events. She has been on stages around the world, working with Machel Montano, Olamide, Beenie Man, Shaggy, Major Lazer, Timaya and Angele Hunte. She has collaborated with several, renowned choreographers. You can catch her on stage with WERC at Whine: Global Riddims. Or join her in her healing and dance concept class: Body Riddims. She combines breathing techniques, meditation, yoga and dance for a complete mind, body and soul experience.
How did WERC CREW come to be?
About 6 years ago a group of Atlanta creatives came together to combine resources, skills and ideas. There is a big spirit of collaboration here. During that first year, we produced a few events together, but everyone wound up getting busy with life matters and career opportunities. A couple of years later a few of us came back around and picked up where we left off. It was at the time of the early SoundCloud era. We were listening to these incredible producers and thought, ‘if we liked them, there had to be others that did as well’. So, we raised money with a few smaller events to book producers such as Sango, Iman Omari, Esta. Each event was a huge success! Things moved fast and we evolved into a full-on events production and creative agency.
As a DJ, event producer, manager and co-founder of WERC, how do you balance it all?
I don’t. I learned a long time ago that balancing means equal, and there’s no way anyone could realistically balance everything without going crazy or taking a lot of drugs. I liked to say I’m way better at juggling everything instead of balancing. With juggling, one task may be soaring high while the other task is sitting low and then you rotate. Everything gets its due time in stride. Staying extremely organized and delegating is helpful. I’m a big believer in utilizing my team for their strengths. I’ve recognized where I may not be strong at and am not afraid to ask for help.
In your opinion, what are some of the pros and cons of being a part of a collective?
Pros: The support system. When one of us is down there’s always someone there to motivate you back on course. We keep each other accountable on career and personal goals. The biggest benefit of being part of a team is the impact. There is no way I could have made the strides we have in Atlanta and beyond if it was just me.
Cons: You can’t do everything for everyone. The entire crew is talented and has amazing ideas. One of the hardest things is being able to time manage projects. We all have the tendency to go all in and be super passionate about each other, but at times that leads to delaying your own projects. Finding that fine line of supporting each other but also focusing on individual goals can be tough.
In studying other groups, I’ve learned that tension arises when the entire team looks at the leader or leadership as a crutch. I personally work great when I see a plan set before me and I know what exactly my role should be. Sometimes, especially leading a crew, you get completely blank pages thrown at you and are expected to deliver the entire script every single time. Ultimately, when you have full transparency with each other every step of the way you avoid the finger pointing of who supposedly promised who something. I’m grateful we are all honest with each other.
What have you found to be one of the most frustrating things about this industry? What do you think this industry could use more of/improve on?
I would love to see some universal standards when it comes to hiring. With the advancement of technology, everyone has access to the tools of the trades, but very few excel at them. There should be criteria set before one can call themselves a “professional” in a field. The bar of what is acceptable has gotten so low because people purchase equipment and go straight into getting gigs without doing the due-diligence of learning the gear, studying the craft and developing the skillset. That wouldn’t happen in any other industry! I couldn’t buy a scalpel today and go into the medical field tomorrow ready to do open heart surgeries. I’ve seen so many photographers, filmmakers, deejays, curators, etc. flop hard because they get hired for jobs they were not equipped for. I do believe there is no better training than real life experience, but you should probably learn how to turn your shit on and install it correctly before going out into the real world [lol].
You are very vocal about your distaste and frustration with big names in the industry that look down on and talk shit about the Atlanta party scene, whether they be entertainers, promoters or agencies. Do you have a thought as to why they think the A doesn’t hold it down? Do you believe this plays into why companies don’t book Atlanta based creatives to execute production?
The world is fixated with Atlanta culture. Every year more brands are activating here and more media outlets are sending teams here for coverage. Unfortunately, most have a very skewed perspective of what makes up Atlanta. The biggest factor simply being because they aren’t based here. The marketing departments and agencies only know what they’ve seen on TV or hear in music. If you think about any city, the cultural exports that go mainstream are a very small percentage of what makes up that region. In our case, the top tier exports wind up becoming larger than life stereotypes. On a trip to Paris I was talking with folks from a huge media brand there and describing how we have a huge international community and they were shocked. They had no clue that we have a massive intersection of Caribbeans, Africans, Asians and Latinos. The perception was and is that we are all trappin or bougie ballers popping bottles in VIP. Atlanta is polarizing on many fronts; to the point if you don’t live here, you have no clue that the city has vibrant Latinx, dancehall, afrobeat, queer, lo-fi, rock, r&b, house, edm, art, fashion and film culture here. Unfortunately, if the same stereotypes keep getting highlighted on large platforms, those thriving communities are going to continue to get overlooked and all of our leaders are going to keep moving away, as they so often do. I’m not mad at the stigma Atlanta carries. Yes, the soul food is banging, the strippers train like Olympic athletes and every other city attempts to mimic our rappers for a reason. I would just like to see a more accurate representation of the entire city. There’s no reason in 2019 I still get industry peers that visit Atlanta, come to my events and say “Oh wow, I never knew Atlanta got down like this”. By “this”, they mean having fun lol. We still have a long way to go. On a positive note, more agencies and companies have recently been connecting with some of the key players leading those incredible movements I mentioned. They are being mindful to be more inclusive of all of the demographics that make up Atlanta. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, but I’m happy to at least see the dots connecting.
What is the end goal for WERC CREW?
Because of the aforementioned issues, I foresee WERC shifting into more of a full service agency. Many of the large scale experiences in Atlanta are being produced from outside of Atlanta, which is crazy to think. It’s actually a backwards way of doing business. We will be able to provide in-house marketing, consulting, design, production and talent. From ideation to execution, we can do it all! You won’t (and don’t) have to export projects outside of Atlanta in order to reach Atlanta.
What does WERC CREW have to say?
My crew has adopted the mantra of not complaining, but being solution oriented. We see all the crazy industry politics, but we avoid it like the plague, and it shows at every single one of our events. There’s always positive energy and an outpouring of real supporters that show up for us, show for our featured guests and show up for the music. No hype beast shit!
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Interview by Rahel Tekle