Building the Band, Netflix’s music competition series, set out to answer a simple question: what happens when you form a group the way labels used to, blind auditions and all, with contestants judged purely on voice before they ever see who they’re standing next to?
The show paired strangers based on vocal chemistry alone, then asked them to become an actual band under pressure, on camera, in real time. Out of that experiment came SZN4, a genre-blending R&B, pop, and soul collective made up of four distinct voices: Aaliyah Rose, hailing from Utah; Cameron Goode, from Blue Island, Chicago; Katie Roeder, from Boston; and Donzell, from Little Rock, Arkansas. Aaliyah and Donzell connected first on the show, forming an early bond that eventually expanded to include Cameron and Katie, and the four of them finished as runner-up in the show’s first season. All four now call Los Angeles home.
In the year since the show aired, SZN4 has turned a reality TV runner-up finish into genuine momentum. The group, managed by Fifth & Freedom under co-founder and CEO Patientce Foster, nearly sold out every city on their debut solo run, the Next Stop Tour, back in March. They performed at the 2026 BET Awards in June, made their festival debut at Essence Festival in July, and on August 21, released their long-awaited debut album, I FEAR, a 13-track project executive produced by UndrTheSofa that same night at a release show at The Peppermint Club in West Hollywood.
I FEAR itself moves between vulnerability and confidence, mixing intimate ballads with higher-energy tracks, giving each member room to shine individually on songs like Ordinary Lover, Dead Body, and Time, before folding their voices back together as a group.
It’s the sound of four artists who spent a year turning a TV moment into an actual career, and The Quintessential Gentleman sat down with SZN4 to talk about that journey, from the lessons they wish they’d known walking into the show, to the record that best captures who they are now, to what’s still left on the vision board.
[Interview has been edited for length and clarity]
It’s been almost a year since Building the Band. What has changed about SZN4 since then?
Cameron Goode: Change is a big word. I feel like we just grew. We grew into the people we were destined to be. I would say we’ve just strengthened our gifts and homed in on our talents to be one cohesive project. And we released this debut album, long overdue. It’s just been such a therapeutic process. We’ve just been working on tightening our vocals, getting on stage, perfecting them and telling that story and engaging with our fans. So it’s been so cool now that the show is out to just see our fans in person and finally have the music to deliver to them.
You came together on TV without knowing what each other looked like, only trusting the sound. What’s one lesson each of you wishes someone had told you from the beginning?
Cameron Goode: For me, one of them was definitely just like being perceived. I definitely know how to use my gifts and put them out online for people to see, that’s my biggest passion. But how ironic that coincides with being a public figure. For so long it’s just been my voice, it hasn’t been what’s on the outside. That’s been the new thing for me, but it’s been nothing but greatness. I’ve gotten nothing but positivity from my fans who finally get to see me outside of this little box on a phone and can see me on screen and on stage.
Katie Roeder: I think one thing that I’ve really learned throughout this whole process from the show to now is that communication is key for everything. Having really good communication can solve any problem, especially starting on the show, we didn’t know one single thing about each other, so just getting to know each other and then using what we know about each other to just be even greater.
Aaliyah Rose: I’d say the biggest thing, if somebody could have told me something, is just be yourself. There’s nothing more beautiful than just being authentically yourself. And I feel like that’s kind of what the fans are drawn to, because there’s a lot going on in this world and they just want to see something real. I think like just being yourself no matter what is like the most important part.
I FEAR is a bold album title. As a complete body of work, which song best represents SZN4 right now, and why?
Donzell: I would say Bayou.
Aaliyah Rose: I feel like that really represents SZN4 just because you hear the blends of our voices in the background as well as the leads, and I feel like people love to hear us sing down. It represents a lot of emotion too. It was the first song that we wrote and recorded right after getting back from tour. And tour was like a crazy thing in itself, mentally and vocally. So just getting back into the studio right afterwards, I think we were all feeling so many emotions and we were able to just let that all out in the song.
Cameron Goode: We have so many songs that we get vulnerable in, I was gonna say Closer is a close second, but I would say Bayou for sure. Coming out of tour, it was just such a unique headspace we were all in. To record and lay down Bayou took an immense amount of energy and vulnerability and comfort. Even though recording it, we all had to step out to kind of collect ourselves for our parts, but to really be present and deliver every feeling, every pain, every fear, every miss that we have from tour and put it in this record. It’s so powerful. You can feel it, you can hear it, and it has such a unique story to it.
From a Black man’s perspective, we’re often taught to be strong, confident, and have it all figured out. But this album is called I Fear. What has fear taught you about yourselves?
Donzell: With I Fear you can spin it any kind of way, depending on how you’re feeling that day. It could be, I feared this might be bigger than what I expected, or I fear this is the moment I’ve always been waiting for, or I fear being perceived. Growing up as a Black man, it’s always like don’t cry, boys don’t cry, but boys got emotions too, and I feel like we get to be able to put it in the music. I’m feeling like I fear we’re finna take over, type of I fear, and not so much of a “I fear” I’m scared type of “I fear.”
Cameron Goode: In my own little ways, I’ve dabbled with my version of fear. I don’t really fear much of anything other than God. But it’s just really cool being this vulnerable. These past couple years has just been a journey for me, really being vulnerable. It’s been a growing process, even with myself and even in my day-to-day, like being in a band with four different people, knowing how to communicate, how to be clear with my communication. And I really wish I could go back in time and tell my older version of myself the same things that I’m doing right now. But it all works out.
No budget, no schedule, nobody telling you no. If SZN4 got one dream collaboration, who are we calling?
Cameron Goode: My two were Leon Thomas and Bruno Mars.
Katie Roeder: The first one that came to my head, no budget, no nothing, Beyoncé.
Aaliyah Rose: Mine was Adele and Beyoncé.
Donzell: I was thinking Beyoncé or Drake.
How important was it to build a group where being part of the collective didn’t mean losing your individuality?
Cameron Goode: I feel like that’s something we unintentionally established the moment the booths unveiled. It gave us the canvas, that was the template. Each one of us can sing, each one of us are vocalists, each one of us has our own stories. And I think that was just a given the moment we saw each other. We were like, wait, I’m obsessed with you and I love all of you, we have to showcase that. And that’s just been with us, traveled with us since we were at Manchester filming the show.
Donzell: Each one of us didn’t want to take the moment, so we wanted to give it to somebody else. If all of us were being selfless, it never was a problem of who’s gonna be the person. It was always just four of us, and that just meshed together so well.
When someone experiences an SZN4 show for the first time, what do you want them to walk away feeling?
Donzell: Moved. I would want them to feel something they can’t explain. Just a feeling of zen over their body, or they came to a show and it blew their mind. So for me, I would say in awe.
Katie Roeder: I feel like for me, I want them to feel seen. I feel like we put a lot of different perspectives and different stories in our music, and I feel like there’s at least one story that every single person can relate to. So I definitely want people to feel like their stories are heard and seen through our music and through our performance.
Aaliyah Rose: I also would say feel moved as well. Like whether it’s chills or they’re trying to heal from something. I know that music does that for me, and it’s my outlet for everything. So I hope that they can also feel that as well.
Cameron Goode: I think as individuals, we’re so we have all we have so many gifts in us and we all have superpowers. And I think even when I’m on the stage or when we’re all on the stage, by the end of it, we’re all transformed by what we just did. And if I know we feel like that, I know the audience has to be feeling that as well. I would like to think it kind of coincides with the bayou visuals as well. It’s kind of like a body of water is like they’re washing away, like we’re refreshing.
Check out the full interview below. I FEAR is out now on all streaming platforms.
