Blu DeTiger is proof that bassists are main character material. The New York City born-and-raised artist picked up the bass guitar at age seven and soon after played her first gig at the legendary punk venue CBGB. Fueled by the hustle mentality of her environment, she was a fixture in the Lower Manhattan music scene by age 17, playing in various bands and DJing clubs while adding her live bass to her crowd-moving sets. The energy of this fast-paced nightlife world manifests through her pulsating bass lines that serve as the emotional anchor of her eclectic songs melding art pop, electroclash, funk, disco, and alternative rock.

Now with the arrival of her debut Capitol Records studio album All I Ever Want Is Everything, Blu is claiming her spotlight as a rising pop icon who’s not afraid to feel it all. “This album is about really enjoying the high moments in life, but also learning how to talk yourself out of the low moments and become your own best friend,” she says. “I want to let people know that you can feel it all and do it all. Wherever you’re at is cool.” It’s also the culmination of the past few years in which she has grown tremendously. She built her profile opening for artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Jungle, her own headline tours around the US and Europe, and becoming one of her generation’s most sought-after bass players, lending her talents to Bleachers (with whom she appeared on Saturday Night Live), Olivia Rodrigo, Dominic Fike, Caroline Polachek, Chromeo, and Fletcher among others.

All I Ever Want Is Everything is a portrait of Blu at her most unstoppable and her most vulnerable, as she captures the thrillingly unpredictable process of coming into one’s own. Inspired by sleepless nights out on the town and memories of her thumping DJ sets, the album sees Blu staking a claim to her desires and transforming into the messy protagonist of her fantasies. On the thumping “Dangerous Game,” she playfully pledges to someone that she’ll “break up the band” so the two can have an unforgettable evening of dancing and indulgence. “Let’s blow our money / Let’s go all night,” she sings. “I wanted a song that portrayed this fun character who doesn’t give a fuck, who wants to go out and experience life — which is a big part of my personality,” she explains.

These hedonistic and infectiously groovy songs are balanced out with mature introspection, in which she admits to feeling imposter syndrome and the loneliness of growing up in the digital age. Yet Blu’s more melancholy songs are still upbeat, as on the Mallrat-featuring dance track “Cut Me Down.” Laughing off memories of past detractors and critics, her pitched-up vocals have a canny robotic effect, adding to the track’s layered emotions. “The high-pitched vocals sound like angels talking to you, or this encouraging part of yourself trying to bring yourself out of feeling down,” Blu explains. “I love songs that have a sad tinge, but make you feel good at the same time — where a DJ could play it and everyone’s dancing and screaming along.”

The album captures the spirit of New York, but it was created in Los Angeles, where Blu moved in 2022. Since it was her first time living in an entirely different city, she found herself having to adjust to the newfound independence during a period of immense growth. Newly signed to Capitol Records and adjusting to the Los Angeles songwriting circuit for the first time, she also embarked on her first headlining tour across North America behind her debut EP, How did we get here?

Supporting Blu in the making of All I Ever Want Is Everything was a star-studded group of friends and collaborators. The album features co-writes from rising pop stars Chappell Roan and Alexander 23, as well as indie sleaze originator Uffie and soul aficionado Mayer Hawthorne and Blu’s frequent collaborator, her brother, Rex. Meanwhile, “Disappearing” was made in collaboration with Magdalena Bay, with whom Blu immediately bonded over being producers and multi-instrumentalists.

Blu also worked alongside GRAMMY-winning producer John Hill and Sam Homaee in experimenting with different bass tones and vocal effects, making the album more multifaceted. She strived to expand the range of her vocal delivery, too — from falsettos to sing-speak sections. All of these elements are captured compellingly on her single “Kiss.” “I wanted my voice to feel like another instrument,” she explains. “Just like how we manipulated the bass in cool ways with pedals, we processed the voice to get a bigger range of emotion.”

After studying at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music for two years, she left in 2019, which allowed her the space to fully become the solo artist she was always meant to be. “I was putting out singles while I was running around New York hustling — playing gigs, doing sessions, DJing, and saying yes to every opportunity that came my way,” she says. Then during the early pandemic, her bass cover videos started to gain steam on TikTok, where “Figure It Out” ultimately went viral, and where she now has more than 1.4 million followers. In 2023, she was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for music and on the cover. Blu is expanding her entrepreneurial footprint with Fender and Bose partnerships.

Now, with her electric-blue bass and effortlessly cool head-banging, Blu is inspiring a new generation of fans to take up the bass. “When I was young, I didn’t have any archetypes to follow,” she says. “Then once I started doing more, I was like, honestly, I’m making my own lane. Now there are young people who are messaging me saying, ‘I started playing bass and making music because of you.'” This line of thinking is part of what inspired her, during her last headline tour, to bring someone from the audience up on stage each night to jam on the bass alongside her.

“My motivation as an artist is to help the younger generation discover their passion, pick up an instrument, and find an outlet to express themselves,” Blu concludes.

$1 from each ticket goes to the Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund, a partnership between Lollapalooza, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and Chicago’s leading arts education institution, Ingenuity, that distributes funding for transformative arts programs to CPS schools with the least amount of arts access.