Blu DeTiger on Brian Wilson, Carol Kaye, and Why Geniuses Play Bass

By: Josh Kitchen / June 20, 2025

Photo by: Lucas Creighton

Blu DeTiger is a genre-blurring bassist, singer, and songwriter whose groove-forward sound has helped usher the bass guitar back into pop’s spotlight. With her debut signature Fender bass (the first female bass player with this accomplishment), collaborations with the likes of Jack Antonoff, Chappell Roan, and Chromeo, and a global tour behind her exciting and funky 2024 debut album All I Ever Want Is Everything, Blu is a leading voice in modern music’s low-end renaissance—and her songs rule.

After Brian Wilson passed away last week, I found myself thinking about the integral new voices shaped by his influence—and I had to chat with Blu about his legacy, not just on pop music, but on the bass specifically. We talked about Brian Wilson not only as a songwriter or producer, but as a bassist whose melodic parts helped reshape pop music from the bottom up. We also dug into how Brian’s collaboration with session icon Carol Kaye (whom he called “the best damn bass player in the world”) laid the foundation for a new kind of musical authorship—one that Blu continues today by bringing the bass to the forefront in her writing, her performances, and her sound.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Brian Wilson's legacy—not just as a songwriter, but the way he wrote, arranged, and especially the way he approached the bass. I’d love to start with your thoughts on Brian’s bass work—those early tracks and Pet Sounds stuff—because it feels like he was writing bass parts that no one else was at the time.

Yeah, definitely. With Brian’s parts—and I relate to this in my own music and how I write songs and bass lines—he was writing bass like it was just as important as the melody. His lines are very harmonic, very melodic, and carry so much emotional weight. I’m super influenced by that. Every bass line I write, I want it to feel like something you could sing back. I think he was amazing at that. He paved the way for a lot of players who came after.

A song like “God Only Knows”—I think there are *three* bass lines in that one.

Yeah! And he was layering a lot—electric and upright bass in cool combinations. Even from a production standpoint, that was pretty revolutionary. And the fact that he was a bassist first—writing songs from that place—it brings such a unique flavor. You approach groove and feel so differently when bass is your first instrument. That perspective really shapes how you hear music.

And then he starts working with session musicians—like when Pet Sounds rolls around—and brings in the Wrecking Crew. Carol Kaye, in particular, starts playing his bass parts, and there’s this moment where she asks him, “Are you sure you want me to play this like this?” Then she plays it and realizes it makes perfect sense.

Carol Kaye plays bass guitar in a Los Angeles recording studio in the mid 1960’s. Photo: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images

Yeah, I love that. As a session player, you’re given something and your first thought might be, “I’d never play this,” but then you play it and it works. Carol’s feel was just so important. She used a pick, had flatwound strings, muted the strings near the bridge, and got that amazing tone that really cut through the mix—especially in that Phil Spector-era, wall-of-sound kind of production.

Those parts on a Fender Precision with her tone? It was perfect for those songs.

You’re doing things on bass as a female musician that we’re finally starting to celebrate more broadly. I think of other amazing players right now like Laura Lee of Khruangbin, Beabadoobee and Este Haim. Carol was doing it back then—playing lead bass lines on “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls.”

And so many people don’t even know what the Wrecking Crew is, which is wild. I learned about them in college from a documentary and was blown away—these incredible musicians were playing on everything. And Carol and Brian bringing the bass to the forefront? That paved the way for players like me and how I try to bring the bass to the forefront. It’s not just about the lines—it’s also about physically and conceptually bringing the bass forward, as a focal point.

Did you hear Carol Kaye made the news this week? She's being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and she turned it down, saying that she hates the name "The Wrecking Crew," and that she doesn't like being singled out individually.

That's really sick actually. So iconic. She actually gives bass lessons still! I've been rewatching a lot of her interviews, she’s really good at explaining how the bass works. The way she talks about chordal tones and jazz playing in the ’60s—she just explains it in such a clear way. I mean, I know this stuff, but hearing her say it really hits. A lot of these bass lines are basically walking bass lines, just in pop songs. It’s bridging jazz from the ’50s into the ’60s pop zone. It’s really cool.

I got to see Brian almost a dozen times in concert—if you got lucky, he'd end the show with an encore where he played everything on bass—“Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Surfin’ USA,” even “Johnny B. Goode.”

Was he singing too, or just playing? Singing and playing bass together specifically is really difficult!

Both! It blew my mind. And I would think maybe people there didn't know that not only did Brian write all these songs but he was also the Beach Boy who played bass.

I think of him and Paul McCartney—these melodic kings who also happened to be bassists. I feel like it’s not controversial to say: geniuses play bass.

[Laughs] Dude. I mean, I’ve been saying it for years. I definitely, definitely agree. I think it's cool that not many people are bass players first, as their first instrument. And then the people that are—I don’t know, not to toot my own horn—but the people that are, I just think we have a unique perspective. Like, we make music and hear music differently. It’s the same as if you were a drummer first, you know? Rhythm is going to be so important to you. [Shout out Rex!]

But what’s cool about the bass is that it’s rhythmic and harmonic. It bridges the two. There’s responsibility to both rhythm and harmony in a song—for the bass, right? It’s fulfilling both responsibilities. And I think that’s just a really cool perspective that other instruments don’t always take in the same way.

And because of that, I feel like you can get so much soul out of these records you're writing—especially someone like Brian and Paul, who are like kings of melody and the three-minute pop song.

For sure, and oftentimes the bass is the melody, like in “Good Vibrations”—the bass is the melody. It's so sick.

To close, hit me with your essential Brian Wilson/Beach Boys tracks:

I mean, I have to do the classics. Obviously, like “Good Vibrations,” “God Only Knows”—classics. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is one of my favorites. I feel like I first heard that in 50 First Dates—and I just associate that song with that movie, which is really funny.

Adam Sandler crying and singing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" pretty much sums up all the feelings this week.

Watch Blu play the bass line to Good Vibrations below!