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Blu DeTiger is a singer, songwriter and bassist who has amassed more than 1.4 million followers on TikTok, was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 List for Music in 2023 and co-designed a Fender Signature Jazz Bass (in blue Sky Burst Sparkle, of course) in 2024.
In Episode 8 of Inside the Noise, Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto sits with low-end luminary Blu DeTiger to explore how she built a successful music career by leveraging talent, technology and truth.
“I fully leaned into my truth and what I really connected with,” she says about forging her unique style. “It was challenging at first because bass has traditionally been an undervalued instrument. It’s in the background. That can infiltrate your thinking. I had some doubts, and other people would say things like, ‘You don’t see frontpeople playing the bass.’ But I just said I’m going to do this, and once I started showcasing what the bass could do, people saw that and it cut through everything. So, the fact I’m here is a kind of a signifier that you have to follow your passion.”
DeTiger’s success with TikTok and YouTube points to yet another disruption of the old-school pathway of working with a record label or management company to initially build an audience.
“These platforms enable you to break through without being dependent on gatekeepers,” she explains. “It’s like independence, because you can dictate your career. You can decide what you want to put out there and what you want to showcase. Of course, TikTok has changed so much when I was doing it in 2020. Everyone is on it now, new things are popping up and you have to find out what is working in the moment. It’s timing. For example, I don’t know if what I did back then would cut through today. I was on it at a weird time [during the global pandemic] when people couldn’t go to shows, and that ended up benefitting what I was doing.”
Speaking of timing, DeTiger also shares how walking into a Guitar Center in Nashville ultimately reunited her with her first bass—a Gretsch short-scale—that she bought at the 14th Street Guitar Center in New York.
“I was hanging out with Greg Glaser and Curtis Heath at the Nashville Guitar Center,” she says, “telling them the story about getting my first bass, and then losing it when I left it in a taxicab after a gig. This is so crazy, but Greg tracked down the receipt and serial number from when I bought it in 2005. Apparently, the taxi driver brought it back to Guitar Center and someone ended up buying it. I still don’t know the details or what he went through to find my Gretsch 20 years later, but when I returned to the store after a few weeks, Greg and Curtis surprised me with the exact bass. It was so incredible that I started tearing up. It’s still kind of hitting me, because playing this Gretsch bass is how I fell in love with music. It means a lot.”
Catch the full conversation and other episodes of Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any of your favorite major platforms. When you subscribe, you’ll get new episodes every Tuesday at 3 p.m. PT.