We crossed the pond for Session XI with Elmiene and Olivia Dean. Session XII will bring us back stateside, and into two records that are doing something just as honest, just as unhurried.
Leon Thomas has been in rooms with everyone, writing for everyone, for years before Electric Dusk arrived and made clear what he sounds like when the song is finally his own. It’s a record built on falsetto and friction, sweetness that never goes soft, hooks that carry real weight underneath them. You can hear Mint Condition in it. You can hear the church in it. But it doesn’t sound like homage. It sounds like a man who finally stopped writing for other people’s voices.
SZA needs no introduction, but Ctrl deserves one anyway — not as nostalgia, but as the blueprint it actually was. Before the genre caught up to what she was doing, she was already doing it: unfinished thoughts left unfinished on purpose, vulnerability with no polish sanded onto it, a voice that sounds like it’s thinking out loud instead of performing. Ctrl didn’t just predict where R&B was going. It built the road.
Put next to each other, these two records aren’t a victory lap or a throwback. They’re proof of the same thing Session XI was about: the lineage isn’t behind us. It’s living and breathing. It’s still being written, by people who grew up inside it and are now adding their own chapter.
Session XII will stay in alignment with the ON WAX experience that will have its 1 year anniversary in September. A room with records spinning, wine flowing, and people being.
The wine is its own presentation. A sommelier will guide the room through the pairing, citing notes chosen to move with the music, not just alongside it. The featured wine will be announced closer to the event. When it is, know it was selected with the same care as the records.
The evening will be bookended by curated playlists featuring music adjacent to the featured records. Context and conversation for what’s on wax.
The Early Access Tier is already sold out.
General Admission is $20 — available through August 17.
Last Call opens the final week at $25.
At the door tickets are $30.
The room gets cozy, so you know what to do.
The space has been full, the community has been showing up, and the experience has grown. ON WAX actually turns one in September. I don’t take it lightly that we're still in this room, still doing this. Thank you for building it with me. That said, tickets help us sustain and grow what we’ve been building together. All ticket sales are final. We know life be lifin’, so reach out before you request a refund and we’ll make it work. We never want cost to be a reason you can’t be in the room. If you need to talk it through,
I’m grateful you’re here. See you in the room.
— JP
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