Spotlight: Inside Sasha Ortiz’s Blue Fantasy With ‘Superblue’
SOME MIGHT REMEMBER HER MUSIC UNDER THE “KISSY” PROJECT — but Sasha Ortiz is her real name. Co-written, co-produced, and co-mixed by Reef Boii, whom she calls a genius, Ortiz’s latest tracks represent a rebirth for the artist. Ortiz dropped the leading singles, “On Your Side” and “Do You Want My Love?” earlier this year, and dropped her super sensual first EP, Superblue, most recently.
Admiring the sonic work of producers such as Empress Of, Blood Orange, and Mark Ronson, Ortiz is already working on her next batch of songs and dreaming about her first solo tour.
Starting her career under the “Kissy” project, she decided to steer the direction of her music under a new, more authentic persona.
“I wanted to take my music in a new direction, away from the electronic-pop wave I was making and … into … my spirit, which is somewhere between psychedelic R&B, jazz, and electronic-dance-pop,” she shares.
So Ortiz dropped her previous alias and is currently using her real name, feeling proud of where she comes from.
“[My] style developed out of a necessity for me to feel seen,” she explains on how she's ended up where she is now, musically. “Electronic, psych, and R&B music are very liberated genres of music that I find joyful to make songs out of.”
In this metamorphic transformation, Ortiz was inspired by an array of diverse artists: Charlotte Dos Santos, Cleo Sol, Little Simz, Amber Mark, to name a few.
Now, Ortiz has left behind the “idea of commercialization and for-profit music” for an anthology of songs that is more honest and expressive of her feelings — even when said feelings scare her.
Which is how we get to Superblue, a sensual project composed of four tracks. Defined by the artist as “devastatingly hard … to write,” the EP was inspired by four seasons that chronicle a romantic relationship. It accurately documents in real time the joys, highs, turmoils, and lows Ortiz experienced while in session with Reef Boii as they worked on these emotions to turn them into art.
“[Reef Boii] was almost like a therapist to me,” Ortiz reveals. “We would have these long existential conversations about love and loss and write these songs almost out of necessity. It felt so good to be able to express myself fully.”
“Do You Want My Love?” is a dreamy, harmony-filled song that “cuddles my ears like a warm blanket on a cold day,” as the artist describes it, while "On Your Side" is about pleasure activism, exploring some adult themes like consent, boundaries, and BDSM.
In full hustle mode, Ortiz is currently working multiple day jobs — mostly part-time and flexible — that start early and finish early so that she may head straight to the studio, rehearsals, or gigs.
“It's tough, but what the fuck else would I do? Not play music? Forget it,” the artist says, determined. “I was born an artist and I'll die an artist. I didn't choose it — the gift was given to me, so I embrace it and am working very hard to make it my full time job.”
If this isn’t true girlboss energy, I don’t know what is.
Once upon a time, Ortiz was able to support herself without a day job. The first tour she ever went on was as a teenager in her first band from Austin, TX, which she describes as “messy, loud, chaperoned, and very, very fun.” This experience brought her out of the country, all the way to Ireland.
“I loved seeing and hearing the local music and feeling inspired to learn about music from all over the world after that,” she remembers. “I don't want to eat blood pudding ever again though.”
Although Ortiz has been on many tours as a backing vocalist for other artists, she’s yet to go on a solo tour.
But Ortiz’s creativity doesn’t stop here. She’s completed her second EP and is already working on her third one. For her next project, she plans on creating heavy dance music with some other elements mixed in.
“Who knows where we'll take it next, but I'm open to receiving whatever the universe wants to send me to put out into the world,” she says, hopeful.
