Northwest Arkansas has become an unlikely music hub with venues like the Walmart AMP in Rogers or Tin Roof and George’s Majestic Lounge lining up and down Dickson Street in Fayetteville. The loud rambunctious groups of drunk college kids can’t allow for everyone to enjoy the scene to the fullest. The bouncers blocking teens under 21 from the inside clubs that regularly host gigs have left musicians in high school and younger college students at a loss.
That’s where The NWA Collective comes in. The organization is a northwest Arkansas-based record label and music collective. However, there is something that makes this no ordinary group. The Collective is a women and teenage led organization promoting bands and soloists under the age of 21.
Milcah Hulen-Posnak is the president and owner of The NWA Collective. The organization focuses on artists that are in the age group of highschool and college-aged bands that are often overlooked in the industry.
“It all kind of started with my own personal band which is still around, The Misdemeanors. So we started my junior year of high school which was Fall of 2021. I’m only a freshman now at the University of Arkansas,” Hulen-Posnak said. “I play guitar with them and it formed in a very high school jam kind of way without really knowing what we were doing or having much experience at all. And through that I kind of took on [the] role as manager as well.”
Through various roles in student groups, Hulen-Posnak had the networking experience to get several people involved.
“We started making connections with people that wanted to be photographers or designers or producers as well all within this little high school community. Eventually, some of us were like ‘this is more than a band at this point.’ It’s a whole community of lots of creative adjacent people and so how can we make this more of an official thing,” she said.
Gathering those creative people, The NWA Collective was formed to be a supportive environment, she said.
Hulen-Posnak said she noticed how difficult it was to book gigs in the area for the band when they started seeking more professional experiences with the lack of underage venues in the area.
The Misdemeanors played gigs in Hulen-Posnak’s backyard with the support of her parents, but once they were ready for a professional environment, she said they realized how difficult it was to be taken seriously as a band made up of young women.
Even when The Misdemeanors were able to get into a venue to perform, they couldn’t fully experience the scene.
“We started making connections with other local bands. We were able to open for them and kind of get around the venue rules. And we do the thing where we go in, we play, we get stamps on our wrists, and immediately when we’re done we have to leave. We couldn’t hang around the venue. And so that kind of thing was pretty discouraging,” Hulen-Posnak said.
“To know that people wanted to hear our music, wanted to go out and see us. Would pay to do that, but we couldn’t even hang out after. We couldn’t experience that full thing. Then to also only be able to play, even if there were people who were willing to come, only be able to play if another older band invited us,” she said. “And so with all of that I was kind of like ‘wow there’s not really a young space for people, a third music space. Indie scene that's also professional enough that you could be, you could really expand. And so that’s kind of my main goal with the Collective is creating those spaces.”
The organization has grown as a management label and studio with two locations based in Fayetteville and Springdale. Services include recording, live equipment, show management and a community of supporters for young musicians in the NWA music scene.
“I’m a big believer in local creative organizations supporting each other. Northwest Arkansas is not a large enough area, not a substantial enough area for us to be territorial with our events or with our projects,” Hulen-Posnak said. “And so that’s kind of this other aspect of the Collective that I’m trying to figure out how to combat or address, but is trying to link all these separate production, music, organizations.”
As a first-year student at the University of Arkansas, Hulen-Posnak started there this fall to find more creative partners.
The music organizations on campus include Headliners, Hill Records, KXUA and University Programs.
“I started going to the main organizers in each of those spaces and talking to them. Drew Bethell at Hill Records… we’re going [to] partner with a lot of our artists… so trying to be that kind of inbetween. Not taking up my own space, but trying to support everybody and then organizing things that there’s a lot of organizations apart of...That’s kind of been my starting place on campus with all those organizations. And then in addition to that kind of my own work I have a lot of connections in the outside community as well,” Hulen-Posnak said.
Official community partners for The Collective include Fayetteville's NWA Young Authors and Artists, a high school student-led creative organization that organizes art exhibitions, poetry readings, theatrical performances and other creative events by and for high school students, the Teen Action & Support Center (TASC) in Springdale where The Collective is able to use their recording studio and equipment in exchange for sound and industry workshops with the center’s teens, and finally the Fayetteville Folk School where The NWA Collective hosts under 21 songwriting jam sessions where young musicians can go to the school every second Sunday of the month from 5pm-8pm.
“Those are the three current partnerships and then I’m also now in the process of working with Ignite Professional Studios in Bentonville which is juniors and seniors at Bentonville High School that are interested in production and audio engineering. They’re going to be working with us on most of the projects next semester,” she said.
The partnerships in those spaces help support the six talents that are currently a part of the Collective.
With Hulen-Posnak, The Misdemeanors consists of drummer Addison McArdle, bassist Erin Funkhouser, keyboardist Breanna McArdle and lead singer Jessi Morrison. The band’s sound is a blend of kinds of genres.
“So whenever we played together, we all sort of have different ways that we’re going about it and sometimes it sounds like we clash with each other a little bit, but then I also think it creates this type of sound together that we couldn’t ever replicate with anyone else. It’s a hard sound to describe,” Jessi Morrison said. “It’s like we’re kind of going for like an indie pop sound, but we never set out to get that type of genre or anything so it kind of differs from song to song whether it's more like alternative or I don't know. A lot of our songs are kind of stripped down a little bit to like rock and roll basics, but still with an indie pop modern type feel.”
In addition to The Misdemeanors she performs as a solo artist through the Collective. In her solo work, Morrison’s sound is a blend of alternative and folk rock, but is still in the process of developing her own unique sound.
“I haven’t been able to gather that many musicians to play with me right now, so when I play on my own I can’t really differ my sound that much. It sort of just depends on the tone and the effects that I want to use on my guitar but I think a lot of times I’m trying to aim for a kind of an Americana type feel but also mixed with even more sludgier type alternative rock. Just a little bit heavier than what we do in our regular band,” she said.
With The Collective behind her, Morrison is working to not only develop her sound, but grow her opportunities as an artist.
“I definitely have a goal of using The Collective to sort of advertise to find more musicians to help me cause a lot of times when you’re just one person on their own it's just hard to get people to really be committed to something unless it's kind of set up for them a little bit beforehand. I think me having someone that gets gigs and a lot of connections to those venues already really really helps me with that so I’m just sort of hoping that having The Collective as a whole thing that can aid me along will be really beneficial in the future,” Morrison said.
In addition to The Misdemeanors and Jessi Morrison, The Collective also includes Caroline Albertson, lilyanna, Trinity Ashlynn and Liam Fast.
Through The Collective, the artists have been able to book gigs, such as performing at NWA Pride in June 2023 and the Clapp Auditorium on Mount Sequoyah, where Morrison performed Nov. 10.
Although the performance wasn’t exactly her audience, she was grateful for the opportunity, she said.
The Collective is shifting from focusing more on the promotion and performance opportunities of their artists to the production side of things in the new year, developing demos for their artists.
“There’s a lot coming. We’re kind of at the brink of an explosion of Collective events and projects coming next semester. And there’s just been a lot of preparation for that this semester, a lot of back of house stuff,” Hulen-Posnak said.
