“Your instrument is your tool for self expression” Blu DeTiger on embracing her roots and inventing new genres to follow her musical muse
On N.Y. Baby, Blu DeTiger introduces you to your new favourite genre: boogie sleaze. It’s the affectionate name she’s given the sonic world of her second record, one filled with buoyant beats, disco and funk bounce, and slinky bass lines courtesy of DeTiger’s virtuosic playing.
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“I like making genres up,” Blu says with a smile, chatting to Guitar.com ahead of her recently released second record. “It’s a combination of a few things… this funk, soul, boogie, disco sound, and the sleaze is for the New York edge, and the edginess that some of the songs have.”
DeTiger is video calling from her home in New York, the city at the core of her second album. “My whole musical journey started here and still is woven into the city,” the 28-year-old reflects. The iconic city that never sleeps has a major influence not only on the record’s name, but also the way it sounds.
“I wanted the music to feel like what New York represented to me,” she continues. “Which is independence and freedom, potential and possibility. A little chaos, a little desire, a little sexiness, a little main character vibes, and I think all of those themes are what the city brings out in me specifically”. With N.Y. Baby, that mission has been accomplished.
Image: Press
State Of Mind
Born and raised in the city that never sleeps, Blu grew up with a love of NYC icons like Chloë Sevigny, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth. Picking up the bass in her early years, Blu immersed herself in music – even playing the iconic venue CBGB before she turned ten.
Gigging around the city and playing bass for other artists while she was in middle and high school, as well as DJing, Blu’s name spread via word of mouth. “All these opportunities were coming from me saying yes to things, then being at the next gig and someone there seeing me and booking me for the next thing,” she adds.
In 2019, Blu started releasing music under her own name, racking up listeners with her euphoric funky sonics – and garnering huge viral success for bass covers of tunes by Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion and Prince during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Excellent projects like 2021’s EP How Did We Get Here?, and 2024’s debut album All I Ever Want Is Everything followed; and along the way there’ve been a succession of starry gigs and side quests.
For starters there was a memorable guest appearance in Olivia Rodrigo’s concert film Driving Home 2 U, then she joined Bleachers on Saturday Night Live in 2022 (later this year she’ll join Jack Antonoff on their UK tour), and in 2024 she became the first woman and youngest bassist to release a Fender signature model.
Image: Press
Changing Lanes
N.Y. Baby comes after at a time of change, though; with a period of time with no label or management. Blu reflects that she “really had to go back to [her] roots, go back to New York, and really think about what I wanted to make; and make that without anyone telling me what to make.”
“I think it took a lot of trust within myself and self confidence,” she continues. “To just be like: ‘No, this is what it’s going to be, and I’m making it because I like this type of music. So if I like it, hopefully other people do too.’”
One way Blu kept her creative vision on-track in the studio was with a PowerPoint presentation that she could always refer back to. It outlined how the music should sound (“I was like: I want it to make people dance, I want to be able to play it in DJ sets, I want it to feel sexy and slick,” she explains), as well as ideas for visuals, notes on how it should be produced and beyond. The results are a whip-smart collection of funk and disco fuelled pop.
From the cowbell groove of Makeup, to the psych-flecked flourishes on Rize; the Flavor Flav-featuring sunshine of the record’s title track (an incredibly supportive pal of Blu’s, who reflects that “everything he says feels so iconic”) and house beats of Heat, it’s elegantly crafted and endlessly catchy. It’s a record that sounds effortless, but take a peak behind the curtain and there’s hugely intricate production and instrumental lines that make up each tune.
Bass In The Place
Throughout, DeTiger’s distinctive bass lines bolster each track. “Most of these songs started with the basslines,” she explains. There was a particular focus going into making sure the bass lines could really shine and be the driving force of each song. “To me, good basslines are basslines that can be sung back as much as a vocal melody,” she muses. Each bassline had to check the boxes of “holding the groove down, being memorable as much as a vocal melody, and being catchy enough, and having a driving force and move the song along, and support the song structure.”
“And it had to be fun to play,” she adds with a laugh, and this infectious fun is a thread throughout N.Y. Baby. In the studio, Blu was mostly playing her signature Fender. “I was playing on the back pickup, which is more of a Bernard Edwards type of tone, a little bit more midrangey and punchy,” she says.
It’s now been two years since Blu first released her Fender sig, but the joy at knowing other people can play the instrument hasn’t worn off. “Oh my god, it’s so cool,” she grins, when asked about how it feels to know other people are playing the instrument. “Your instrument is your tool for self expression, so the fact that someone is using something that I made and created to express themselves, is the coolest thing ever.”
Being a prolific player, Blu also receives messages from young people, and especially women, sharing that she inspired them to pick up the bass (and sometimes, that bass is her signature model!) “It feels really cool,” she reflects, adding that Fender have been hugely receptive to working collaboratively on the instrument, with a new colourway in the works for this record.
The instrument is the perfect addition to the sonic sunshine of N.Y. Baby, a dreamy record that’ll be just at home during late nights at clubs, to sun-drenched festival sets. As Blu prepares to take the record on tour, how would she like punters to feel when they see the album live? “I want them to dance, I want them to get out of their head into their body. I want them to feel joy, and to feel good!” With boogie sleaze, it’d be hard not to.
Blu DeTiger’s N.Y. Baby is out now on Warner Bros, she supports Bleachers on their UK tour in November/December 2026.
The post “Your instrument is your tool for self expression” Blu DeTiger on embracing her roots and inventing new genres to follow her musical muse appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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