Behind the Blue - An Open Letter from Denim Blù
I have always loved music. My mom talked about how, when I was 3 years old, I was able to put CDs into the CD player and sing along with popular Chinese music. This passion for music has been with me throughout my life. Although there were times it lost its way, it found its way back to me, and made me who I am now.
My lyricist, Nick, has been asking me the same question whenever we talked about my vision of myself as an artist. He asked, “What does this album, Blue, mean to you?” I wasn’t sure what to say, because most of the lyrics and emotions on this album were from him. My answer didn’t come to me until one night with Nick, when I had nearly finished the album. We were watching some live R&B performances. I told him that when I tried to make music while high, the melodies I wrote were like what these R&B singers were singing - irregular, not following any rules. He replied, “That’s what R&B is. It captures the purest emotion at that moment. It’s a love for music expressed through melodies.”
I remembered the happiness and satisfaction I felt when I wrote something good, and suddenly I felt love. When I heard the almost finished version of Blue, I realized what this album meant to me: it is the physical manifestation of my love for music.
I had goosebumps when I finished writing the melody of the first track, Blue, in one take, perhaps the greatest pleasure a musician can feel. I remember the nights I spent tweaking every detail of the production. The whole process of making the album, from song-writing to producing, recording, mixing, and mastering, is me expressing my love for music. The sound of every sound, every foreshadowing, every push, every climax, and every reveal, is about my love of music.
While writing this letter, I can feel my love for music becoming tangible once again. This time, music is like a person to me, and when I make music, I am giving all my love to this person. It feels like falling in love with someone. Making the album, I was able to find myself, to experience everything I wanted to experience, and to know what it feels like to love.
Blue is love.
The experiences of Blue begin to round out within each song, and the album speaks like a work of art. The album captures youthful love, volatile love, and queer love, and takes the listener on a journey from the exuberance and magic of falling in love (“Extraordinary Feel”), to deep and dark places of lament (“Blue”, “I’ll Die”, “I Miss You”), to coming to terms with love lost (“Young and Foolish”, “Burn”, “Again”). Blue’s synthesis is a celebration of Toronto's cultural diversity as the album, its collaborative artists, songwriting, and production are queer and ethnically-diverse, adding to the international and progressive flare that makes Toronto one of the hottest scenes in the music industry today.
Track Breakdown
001. Blue
Blue draws from Burn. The first verse of Blue were lyrical cuts from Burn so the themes are intrinsically connected: both songs are retrospective in nature; however Blue occurs further down the timeline long after the relationship has ended, and represents lament. The sad “blue” tone is obvious given the melodic choices, punctuated by what sounds like crying when you hear the melody with “blue for you” in the chorus. Blue paints a picture and tells a story in the same vein of great, narrative pop lyricists like Taylor Swift. The sadness conveying in the lyrical content is delivered by the production, with the piano arpeggio, drum, synthesizers appears one by one, building up the track, and bringing the song to the climax.
I immediately fell in love with Blue the moment it was written: it should be the start of the album, and the album title should be Blue.
002. Extraordinary Feel
Extraordinary Feel is about love, a love that is almost divine in nature, a love so hard that you're willing to sacrifice everything for that person. The lyric ‘made a martyr out of me’ is the perfect example of selflessness that comes with this kind of passion.
Extraordinary Feel is inspired by the Southern US and vibrant African-American church choirs singing gospel and soul music. The song is a magical amalgamation of creation - crisp songwriting, a powerful vocal, and satisfying production. The gospel elements throughout the track - prominent organs, splashes of bells over modern synths and classic electric guitar - breathes life and gives words to the once indescribable inner emotions.
003. Burn
Burn hurts; Burn is a lament; Burn draws from regret and guilt in a relationship - it’s an admission of messing up in a relationship and coming to terms that something great is gone. The melody and lyrics are in the vein of Charlie Puth and its production draws inspiration from the infectiousness of Robyn’s Dancing On My Own.
004. I Miss You
I Miss You has the contemporary R&B sound that you want to dive into in the late night radio show, or when you’re driving in the city at night. The song was created during a rainy night when I just moved from China to Toronto - living alone in a new city without family and friends, I have to build my life from scratch. I sit in front of my keyboard, the rain was hitting on my window, I realized city life is lonely. I wrote this song that night when I missed my ex who lives miles away in China.
005. I Miss You (Reprise)
I Miss You (Reprise) is the transition from “pop producer” Denim Blù to “artistic experimental” Denim Blù. The lyric was rewritten by my lyricist Nick. I chose to only use acapella with delays and effect to build this transition from the first part to the second part of the album.
006. Young and Foolish
Young and Foolish is the most alternative song on the album, and I bet Lana Del Rey wants this song if she heard this. When you listen to the song, you can picture an old Hollywood movie in front of you - the lyric tells a story, the production sounds like a movie score, and the melody is inspired by blues and jazz.
007. I’ll Die
I’ll Die is inspired by the fallout after heartbreak and the emotions of needing to fall before you rise. The song begins with "I'm drowning in thick liquid without a desire to resist" - a sentiment of falling so deep into a state of despair that death seems closer than life, that death seems more tolerable than life, that life and death are indistinguishable. This theme is repeated throughout the song - the harrowing feeling portrays the real emotion experienced after gut-wrenching heartbreak.
008. Again
Again is “an epic love ballad in the galaxy”. I produced the song in a way that reflects the songwriting, a way that corresponds to the development of the song. When listening to the song in the right sonic environment, you would see the galaxy evolving from nothing, to everything, and to nothing again - there is emergence, collapse, collision. It is the ending of the album, and it comes back to love in the end: love is the meaning of life, and even though there is pain and hurt in Blue, don’t afraid to “love again”.