An Exclusive Look Inside 'The Cult of REZZ' - River Beats Dance
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An Exclusive Look Inside ‘The Cult of REZZ’

The Cult of REZZ is a Facebook group for fans of the rising electronic star Isabelle Rezazadeh, better know as REZZ. Since its creation in July of 2016 the group has grown exponentially, much like REZZ’s own popularity. The group now boasts nearly 10 thousand members, including Isabelle herself. She posts regularly in the group, and much like on Twitter, interacts with her devoted fan base. Members of the group are actively involved with each other, posting videos, music, and artwork devoted to the woman they affectionately refer to as “Space Mom”. 

The group has even spawned sub-groups, including a Cult of REZZ Singles Page. While the cult is by no means a secret group, it is a tight community for those who truly appreciate REZZ, and joining isn’t as simple as hitting a button. Let’s take a look inside one of the widest expanding “cults” around and see if you’re ready to dive in deep.

Cult Photo at Ultra Miami. Photo by: Tessa Paisan

The group has morphed from a simple fan page for REZZ into a beautiful community and support group. The group has brought people out of their shells and created a community that extends beyond the internet, joining people together as real-life friends.

“I’ve always had pretty extreme social anxiety and it’s prevented me from living life. Since I’ve joined the cult I’ve met great people, built friendships and have people who look forward to meeting me. The kickoff to REZZ’s Something Wrong Here tour in London Ontario I was dragging my party around the venue and finally meeting cultists. Normally, I’m the quiet one who hangs back but the cult changed me. It’s brought me out of my shell. The cult has changed my outlook on life.”
-Cody (Cult Member since October 2016)

The group also organizes Cult Meetups at all of her shows and festival appearances, often with flags and posters, bringing internet friendships into the physical world and creating an amazing atmosphere at all of her shows.

Ultra weekend was literally a trip planned in under a month I would say. Alex, Patrick and I (two other admins) last minute decided to hit up both Ultra & her Something Wrong Here show at The Hangar. I met so many people, met fellow cult members, made new friends, and we got featured by The EDM Network with a photo they took of us on the rail at Ultra.

I’ve never planned out a trip so wild for an artist besides Porter, but this tops everything. Meeting two people I’ve worked so closely with for what seems like a month or two but actually is about 8 months. It was a blast, I know a bunch of us are planning to see her at Something Wonderful, Electric Forest & Shambhala. It makes life so fun having an artist we all appreciate so much and being able to make this a once in a lifetime experience.

-Dylan (Cult Admin and Member since July 2016)

Cult creator Matt Leblanc (right) with REZZ

I talked with the creator of The Cult, Matt Leblanc, about the group. Here’s what he had to say:

What made you decide to start The Cult of REZZ?

“About a month after the festival (Ever After 2016 was his first time seeing her) I was going through her catalog of music as well as any interviews I could find on Youtube. Finding out she was the same age as me, sparked some inspiration and seeing how humble and true to herself she was in the few interviews I saw just made me an instant fan. I wanted to see more footage of her shows, hear some unreleased songs and just converse with her fan base in general because I loved everyone I spoke to about her at that festival. Nothing existed that I could find so I figured I’d start a page called ” The Cult of REZZ ” just to see if anything would happen. What happened was way bigger than I had expected.”

I’m in other groups devoted to artists with massive followings (Griz, Odesza, Porter Robinson) that are only half the size of The Cult. Why do you think this specific group has blown up so much?

The idea I had when I chose the word “Cult” for our group, I wanted this to be a family where everyone is brothers and sisters at least in our circle and certain things like disrespect and useless arguing and saying things to boast or to anger people would not be tolerated.

I figured the word “Cult” would make that clear even before joining. Cults are generally pretty tight knit and that was always the most important aspect for me.

People see REZZ for the first time and they go to search her on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter and they’ll find us right below, with the allure of not only being part of a group but a Cult full of amazing people.

There are cult meetups at nearly all of REZZ’s shows and it’s a very interactive group. What’s your favorite story about a cult meetup?

“My favorite story would be my own, but one still stands out greater than the rest in my eyes. I won’t go into detail with names but there were two guys who, just the two of them, decided to hold their own cult meet up which was the first one in our history when we were at about 300 members.

The two of them became instant friends, one of them said it was an important part of his mental health recovery which is beyond words to me. He got to hand REZZ a poster which she later commented in his photo that she had it hanging up on her wall. I know how much all of that meant to him and he’s an amazing guy who was more than deserving. That will always be my favorite one.”

What’s your favorite REZZ-related item that you own?

“Does my cult count? If not then I would have to say the half assed poster I drew up for her show which was going to be my first cult meet up ever in my hometown so I had to find a way to gather people. My friend got me to the front of the stage after her set and after yelling “I STARTED YOUR CULT” she came over and took a picture with it. Then she took her own phone and took a picture of us and I swear my face had never been so red in my life.”

What do want for the future of The Cult and its members?

“Exactly what we have now. We will adapt and change whenever and wherever necessary but as of right now we are being very picky with who we let in because our family has miraculously stayed as tight knit as it has been since our first thousand and the biggest thing that threatens that is a sudden influx of people who don’t care about our rules or are just casual fans who ask “what is this” when randomly by friends.”

Photo edit made for The Cult. Credit: Jose Antonio Rodrigo Villaluna

I was also able to ask the queen, Isabelle herself, a few questions about the cult devoted to her:

How did you first become aware of The Cult of REZZ?

“I think someone tweeted at me about it, and then I was like ‘woah – okay, sick!’

How involved are you in The Cult aside from posting? Do you talk to the other admins about ideas for The Cult or just let them take it the direction they want?

“I am pretty involved. I follow a lot of the admins and they will always send over ideas and ask for my consent.”

You’re incredibly interactive with your Cult and they absolutely adore you (myself included). What is one of your highlights involving Cult Members or Meetups at shows?

“I just love seeing the smiles on their faces when they meet me. It’s crazy for me to think I’ve accumulated such a fan base, but I really wouldn’t want it any other way.”

I asked Matt Leblanc (The Creator of The Cult) if he could ask you one question what it would be. Here’s the question for you. —

“I have so many questions, most of them involving music and all the other artists she knows that I’m obsessed with. I guess I’d just ask her if she’d rather see a Kill The Noise set or a Porter Robinson set and when she chooses I’d try to convince her to go with me with puppy dog eyes. That usually works.”

“That’s a tough one! I love KTN and Porter. I saw KTN a few months ago, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen Porter… so I’m going to say Porter.”

So there you have it. The Cult of REZZ is probably the easiest cult you’ll ever find yourself invited to, and by far the most rewarding. If you want to join this beautiful community, look up the group (or have a friend invite you) and follow the rules posted in the description. I’ll see you in there.

 

Featured Image by Will Selviz

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