Blü Eyes sings through big feelings

by V. S. Wells on November 2nd, 2023 at 6:30 AM

1 of 1 2 of 1

After almost every show she’s played so far on this tour, fans have told Blü Eyes how much her music means to them. Some have said it’s helped save their lives.

That’s heavy stuff—but Blü Eyes takes it all in stride.

“It feels like pressure in a way. I want to show up for them,” says the singer—real name Katie Stump—over the phone from her tour bus, on her way to her first-ever headline show in Detroit. “But it also weirdly takes pressure off to know that so many of these people have been through so much… I feel like my fans are just the most understanding crowd ever.”

The singer previously toured the world as part of a band. But her current fall excursion is the first time she’s been doing it entirely on her own terms.

“Being able to be the decision-maker for everything—choosing who I’m surrounding myself with, and choosing how it’s all gonna shake out—is so valuable,” she enthuses earnestly.

The three-month road trip kicked off in the UK in September before heading through Europe in October, and now sees her criss-cross North America before wrapping with a hometown show in Los Angeles on December 9. Everywhere she goes, Stump says, there’s a sense of magic in the air.

“It feels like we’re doing something more than just playing shows,” she reflects. “It feels like we’re doing something really meaningful and special for these people’s lives.”

Stump took her ocular stage name from the way softer-coloured eyes can be more sensitive to light. That gentleness carries through her music. She feels things deeply, and shares them in lyrics that can feel like a diary entry (but without the cringe).

So it’s no surprise that her acoustic guitar and piano-led pop has made quite the splash on social media, where denizens of Instagram and TikTok have latched onto her confessional, trauma-informed tracks. Her music frequently sits with the heavy stuff. Being betrayed by a friend? Check. Chronic anxiety and negative self-image? Check. Mysterious illness that results in hospitalization and ongoing ramifications? Check.

That last one might be what Stump’s best-known for.

Though she emphasizes that she hasn’t been formally diagnosed with any kind of chronic illness besides anxiety, a serious—and still unexplained—health issue led to the singer experiencing severe struggles, and documenting the whole process through song. Blü Eyes tracks tend towards the more minimal: Tumblr-style lower-case titles, deceptively simple-sounding production, a sheen of hazy bedroom pop, and the raw emotion of Stump singing from her heart.

“you’d never know” chronicles the lingering trauma of unexpected sickness over a heartbeat-like piano: “It took me months to step outside alone/Cuz my body still gets tense when I walk home/Past the spot where it all went dark.” Similarly, “healing hurts” deals with the frustrations of recovery with an affecting soprano and gentle strings: “It gets better ‘til it just gets worse/A full-time job isn’t this much work.”

That topic “wasn’t an intentional thing,” Stump explains. She had always set out to write songs about “more real” things, embracing vulnerability and honesty. So she processed her health through music, too.

“The writing portion is very healing and cathartic, but the most healing thing for me is when I post on social media, or release something I’m proud of, and then people go, ‘Oh, that’s exactly how I feel,’ ” she says. “Knowing lots of other people have the exact same deep, scary thoughts that I do is so healing.”

Those songs have resonated with people going through similar things, giving a lyrical voice to much of the unsaid pain that goes along with disability or medical trauma. Sharing your struggles can be enough to change the world—even if just for the one person who really needed to hear exactly what you were saying, right at the moment that they heard it.

As a result, many of Stump’s fans are united through common difficulties, which she says makes for an incredibly empathetic, connected community. Don’t be surprised if there’s not a dry eye in the house at a Blü Eyes show—or if it’s a total stranger handing you a tissue.

“We’ve all got this common ground of, ‘We’ve been through some shit,’ ” Stump reflects. “Because we all have that background, we know how to take care of each other.”