Beyond The Blve Horizon - An intimate interview with Blve
Allow me to introduce Blve, a young and talented hip-hop artist, coming to you straight from the BK. Blve sat down with me to dissect all things music, self and his journey to come.
KiTTN: Where are you from?
Blve: I have always struggled to answer this. I was born in Germany, my father is German. We moved to the US and lived in many different states growing up. Somehow we landed in New Jersey for my formative years and now I reside in Brooklyn, NY. My mother’s side is Colombian so most of our family was based in the Tri-State area, which is how that became my home, in a way.
KiTTN: How’d you come up with the name ‘Blve’ and what’s your government name?
Blve: My government name is Taylor Blue Henne. Funny enough I used to go as “Young Blue” like all the rappers but:
1) there’s an actual rapper named Yung Bleu already, he’s pretty popular, and
2) it sounded silly on me and I didn’t wanna only rap, so I made it more all-encompassing, while still keeping it kind of mysterious with “blve”. I gave the U a V so that if people ever googled me in the future, it’d be easy to distinguish from the color, lol. Also because this band I love called Chvrches did the same thing too, so I copied them.
KiTTN: How long have you been making music?
Blve: I’ve been making music seriously for about two years now. My first ever project dropped like two years ago. Those records will probably (and hopefully) never see the light of day, lol.
KiTTN: Who are some of your influences?
Blve: I’m super influenced by Juice Wrld - he’s my favorite artist now and one of my favorite ever. A melodic and lyrical genius that perfected emotional hip-hop which really affected me during the rise of the “SoundCloud” era of music. My other all-time favorites and influences are Kanye West (endlessly creative and brave), The Weeknd (the goat), xxxtentacion, Trippie Redd, Playboi Carti, Joji, The Cranberries, Cocorosie, Keep Shelly in Athens, Phantogram, Grimes, and TV Girl. I listen and love everything. There’s so many more that I love and am influenced by but I have to stop. I grew up loving Eminem and 50 Cent, and then fell in love with indie music. When the new age of music combined these genres, I decided I wanted to make music too. It had such a powerful effect on me.
KiTTN: How would you classify your music style?
Blve: I’ve heard people describe it as alternative hip-hop, emo-trap, sadboy-rap, experimental hip-hop. A few people have compared it to the likes of Kid Cudi because it doesn’t really fit one genre. Emotional music resonates with me and that often overlaps my favorite genres, hip-hop and alternative-indie (even rock) music. People have said it’s “new age” because it fits in this newer SoundCloud era of mixing genres, and testing new sounds.
KiTTN: You just dropped your (3rd?) EP ‘Crash and Burn;’ what inspired this record?
Blve: Technically it’s my second official public project, as blve. I think total it’s my fifth EP I wanna say? 😂 Crash & Burn has more upbeat records than my previous works. I focused more on making catchy hooks and being as original as I could, lyrically and sonically. I tried to really highlight and experiment with my voice more. I also tried not to repeat what I had in my previous works, and focused on polishing and enhancing a fewer number of tracks that I truly cared about. I also tried to retain a sense of honesty and vulnerability that people could resonate with. The songs weren’t as dark as my previous work that I made during a breakup. I had rekindled with my ex and was making music I enjoyed [in the summertime] rather than the winter.
KiTTN: I noticed you’ve made a few singles with ‘Cyril’; how did you two link up?
Blve: Cyril is a f*cking animal. He’s a beast and a great guy. I saw his comment on SubmitHub [a place where artists submit their music to be placed on Spotify playlists]. He was on the chat board and I wanted to collab with him. I looked up his material on Instagram and knew he would go hard on my track, Hit the Move. I hit him up and he was excited to work with me. Many people that make music will try to charge for collabs or be on superficial sh*t, but we both were on this genuine kind of vibe, both having a similar mentality. We were proud of our first track and people reacted well to it, so I got in my home studio and made another club/party track, OMG, that I knew he would crush. His hard-hitting rap flows really compliment my high-pitch spacey vocals. I am grateful to have come across him and make a good friend in the process. It’s such a dope contrast of sounds that people seem to like.
KiTTN: Who is your dream collaboration?
Blve: My dream collaboration has to be with any of my top 3 favorite artists being - Kanye West, The Weeknd, and Juice Wrld. Imma throw in U2, for kicks. They’re f*cking badass.
So what’s next for this up and coming artist? Blve has plans to create as much visual content as possible, diving deeper into marketing his current songs and collaborating with as many artists as possible. He is still on a high from the success of his last show with a group called Provider at “Pianos Bar”.
Blve attributes his success to his mother, his girl, his family and close friends. Blve says “they give me the push to keep going even when I doubt myself.” Follow Blve on his journey @blvemvsic on Instagram and check out his music here.