The story of Fiji Blue owes a debt to both coasts, but his genre-spanning sound is truly global. After graduating Berklee College of Music in 2019 with a major in songwriting, Phoenix-raised Trevor Dering relocated to Los Angeles. There, the Southern California cool of Fiji Blue became fully realized, swirling bedroom pop, indie, house, easy listening and R&B into a sun-kissed daydream. A stamp of approval from BTS’s Jungkook elevated the single “It Takes Two” to the global stage in 2022, while tours in Southeast Asia, an appearance on Spotify’s New Music Friday and features by Ones To Watch (who hailed the “incredibly orchestrated” songs) introduced Fiji Blue to millions of new listeners. After accumulating more than 300 million Spotify streams and 20 million YouTube views across three EPs—Reasons You Should Care (2021), Goodbye (2021) and I Loved You, What Happened? (2022)—, Fiji Blue is ready to share his long-awaited debut album Glide. It’s Dering’s strongest artistic statement to date, mourning endings and practicing love and gratitude for what remains with potent lyricism and a reassuring voice listeners won’t soon forget.There’s palatable emotion reverberating through every note, chord, and melody of Glide, balancing both the pain and affection that inspired them. At its most heartbreaking, it’s a rumination on those who never really leave us, the faint imprints that linger long after lives go their separate ways; at its most uplifting – the emotions Dering prefers to focus on – it’s rich with gratitude for his friends and family, a future full of hope and possibility.“I love sad music, and if I could only write sad music, I would,” he says with a laugh. “The thing I really love about Fiji Blue is having uplifting harmonic and production elements alongside lyrics that sit more in that melancholy world. Sometimes it’s nice to find that middle ground.”