Premiere: Liney Blu’s ‘The Explanation’ is a story of a personal journey

Photo Courtesy of Liney Blu

Over the past year, artist Liney Blu has rapidly become one of those artists where, should you see them on a bill, you make the time to catch them. Their songs are heartfelt and passionate, with live performances managing to convey all of that emotional heft while being willing to get a little silly.

Case in point: a recent show at Lucia in Lawrence saw Liney Blu and bandmate Renee Huey handing out dollar bills from the stage so that showgoers could play the claw machine. The cheers from the crowd and the band when someone snagged a stuffy were amazing, with the quip coming from onstage, “I went to a Liney Blu show and all I got was this stupid fucking duck.”

That said, we are excited to share “The Explanation”—the first single from the upcoming Liney Blu album.

It hits streaming services on Sunday, May 11 (Liney’s birthday), but we have it here for you as a Pitch exclusive. Take a listen below and read Liney Blu’s story of how the song came to be.

“‘The Explanation’ is a letter explaining my personal journey in gender queerness. I was taught by my mother that sometimes we have a tendency to write things off as excuses as a way to not hold accountability for our actions, whether bad or good. She told me that, instead, we should attribute our behaviors as an explanation as to why someone has done something, not an excuse.

Photo Courtesy of Liney Blu

This song is not an excuse, but an explanation to myself as to why I hid from my own identity for so long. I’ve always beat myself up and been overly critical about my own gender queerness for so long while being so open-minded to others. Writing ‘The Explanation’ was an act of self-empathy to give myself permission and allow space for me to be true to who I am.

We recorded ‘The Explanation’ at Levitate in Leavenworth. Producer and recording/mixing engineer Caleb Fankhauser was tremendously helpful in bringing this song to fruition. He’s such a joy to work with and does an amazing job holding sessions together while allowing the music to go where it wants to.

We brought in Adee Dancy aka Sisterbot to record cello on this one, and it was truly one of my favorite times creating music.

They are such an excellent talent based here in Kansas City and working with them was such a special experience.”