Denim Blù is a Chinese-born upcoming queer musician from Toronto whose music explores the struggle of finding one's identity and being inspired by rebelling against social structures. In this conversation, I spoke to Denim to discuss their latest single 'Extraordinary Feel' and the reasons why they gravitated towards music as a main outlet for self-expression.
Hi Denim, how are you?
Hello Keiko, I am feeling great. Thanks for taking the time to interview me.
For those who haven’t heard your music before, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your musical journey?
Music is my life. Growing up in China, we are dissuaded from pursuing creativity. Being an artist is frowned upon. But there was no denying that music was the life for me. From the age of 3 I figured out how to put CDs into CD players, playing popular Chinese music, and my love affair with music never subsided. I quickly went from listening to music to having the desire to create my own. Being queer and Chinese, I feel that I have a unique voice. Despite the stigma of homosexuality, I feel compelled to be unapologetically queer in my music. My art is a reflection of my life and experiences, and I want it to be as authentic as possible so that it can resonate with others in my position.
Were there any particular artists/musicians who inspired you to pursue music, or have you always naturally gravitated towards writing and creating your own music?
I would say both. As I mentioned earlier, I have always loved music. It is an integral part of my life. I listen to a lot of artists, but Christina Aguilera, Paloma Faith, and Florence and the Machine have been my all-time favorites in the music industry. I admire their creativity and their ability to stay true to their own artistic visions - they inspired me to express myself through my own music and my own production, as well as staying true to my own artistic vision. My upcoming album, Blue, is a sonic manifestation of my love for music. I pulled from sounds that I love, artists that I admire, and a process in songwriting and music production that is organic, inclusive, and expressive.
"Growing up in China, we are dissuaded from pursuing creativity. Being an artist is frowned upon."
Your music discusses themes related to exploring one’s identity and being expressive about who you are, would you agree with that interpretation? How would you personally describe your sound/music?
I definitely agree with that interpretation. As a matter of fact, I would say that all music should be about self-expression: your genuine ideology towards emotions, towards politics, towards meanings of life. I would describe my music as pure pop fantasy with emotional intrigue - sounds draw from blues, dance, electronica, and R&B elements, all while being unapologetically queer, and always with a story to tell.
I discovered your music during the release of your single ‘Burn’, how did it feel to finally release your music into the world and were you surprised by the response?
It is every musician’s pleasure to release their music to the world, especially their debut release. I felt so nervous when it was released - everything was new to me: Spotify for artists, press releases, EPK. I was so afraid that everything would go wrong. But it went well. I made new connections with the release of ‘Burn’, and I learned so much about the proper way of releasing music as an independent artist. It was definitely a milestone for me as a musician. As for the response, I wasn’t surprised. I was happy with all the feedback about my music, and I was so grateful with all the support I got.
You are releasing a brand new single titled ‘Extraordinary Feel’ featuring Lizzy Clarke, what was it like to collaborate on this project and did you face any challenges recording under the current restrictions?
Lizzy is hands down one of the best singers I know in my life. I remember listening to her singing for the first time - the emotions articulated through her powerful voice reminds me of Adele. I reached out to her immediately with this project, and she was so down to be a part of it. We actually have two songs in my upcoming album - Blue. One of the songs is “Extraordinary Feel” - we recorded this song before Covid, and you won’t believe it: the entire vocal recording took less than 2 hours. She is so good at her craft and she knew immediately what I was looking for after knowing the concept for this song and my production ideas. The other song is called “I’ll Die”. It’s a heartbreaking duet performed by Lizzy and I. This song was recorded during covid, and it’s a vocal-focused production. There were definitely challenges during the recording of this song as we did everything separately and virtually - we discussed the arrangement online and we recorded our separate vocal parts in our own studios. It’s quite hard to work on a duet virtually, but the results turned out to be amazing. She is such a nice person to work with, and I learned so much from her. Our magical duet will be released very, very soon :)
The single has a heavy gospel influence especially in the vocals, how did you initially come up with the melody and structure for the song?
‘Extraordinary Feel’ is one of the first few songs I wrote for the album. I have always wanted to write a powerful rock song with a drastic dynamic range; a song for those powerhouse divas: Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey - just to name a few. The melody of the song was developed based on the chord progression. Most of the chords in this song were major chords, which brings the holiness and the church vibe to the song. During the writing of the song, I imagined myself as a powerhouse vocalist (Adam Lambert, to be specific) and started to jump between octaves to create the dynamic and drama. After several times of singing it out loud, the melody and the basic structure were both created.
"I learned so much about the proper way of releasing music as an independent artist."
Could you tell us a bit about the meaning behind the lyrics?
'Extraordinary Feel' is about the exuberance of falling in love so hard that you’re willing to sacrifice everything for that person. This is what inspired the lyric “you made a martyr of me.” The song is about complete and utter devotion, very much in the same way some have faith in their god. Given the gospel-esque melody, it just seemed natural to go down a religious route lyrically with a lot of religious sentiments and allusions (“Church belles are wailing”, “collecting my sins in the house of the divine”, “converting to you”). To give imagery of vibrant Southern US African American church choirs, the song is set in Louisiana (“the bayou”), which also has important meaning for the context about who the song is about--and yes the song is about someone. But overall, the song is about the magical element of this chaotic love (“extraordinary feel”, “given me solace and wonder and magic in all that you do”).
What do you hope your listeners take away from ‘Extraordinary Feel’ and your music in general?
I hope listeners take away that love is powerful, love is dangerous, love is beautiful, love is omnipotent. It’s divine. I want them to be injected and feel inspired by the force of love.
How has the past year affected your creativity and motivation to write music?
Covid has actually been a good time for me to slow down and reflect on my life, to know what is precious and to experience different emotions. It allowed me to sit down and pour those emotions into my song-writing. My lyricist Nick and I have been taking time working on our next album and we can definitely say our song-writing has been elevated through last year, and we can’t wait for the songs we wrote during Covid to be released in the future.
What advice would you give to someone who may want to start writing their own music and pursue a creative path?
The best advice I could give is to stay true to yourself and your art: don’t follow the trend, follow your heart.
What is the best advice you have received?
The best advice I have received is to believe in yourself and the art you create. There will always be different voices, but if you believe in your art and stay true to yourself, the time you spent will be worth it.
Check out Denim Blù's brand new single 'Extraordinary Feel (ft Lizzy Clarke)' in the link above or hear the song on my Spotify Featured Artists Playlist (link in bio).