He's like Celldweller, except different.
Bret Autrey is the only member of the Michigan based electronic, heavy metal, dubstep, and a bunch of other genres band Blue Stahli. He started out under the alias VOXiS and released his first ever album called Darkeworld Project One which caught the attention of the FiXT labelhead, Klayton, who worked on his first instrumental album titled Antisleep Vol. 1. Three years later, Bret managed to put out his first vocal based Self-Titled Album to commercial and critical success. His music has been used in plenty of video games, trailers, and tv shows. As time went on, Bret became one of the more famous members of the FiXT team and defined himself as one of the weirdest people on the label, but for reasons we won't discuss here, he has since left the label and is now self-releasing his work. He also has a YouTube Page
where he answers questions, posts his music, tell people about stuff he's selling, gives updates, and other good stuff.
Blue Stahli himself was compared to Celldweller a lot at first due to the fact they're both one man heavy metal electronic bands fronted by guys with red hair who writes songs with oddly sci fi-ish themes and lyrics, but as time has gone on, people have realized how different they really are in terms of vocals, music and personality.
Blue Stahli provides examples of the following tropes:
- Badass Creed: Has "l'art est une arme" tattooed on his neck, which translates to "art is a weapon".
- Black Comedy: On many of his YouTube videos, a lot of the jokes he says can range from disturbing, disturbing and funny, to just plain outright scary.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Not only does he have a weird way of thinking, but he also has a weird way of playing his music. He does not use tabs and simply holds all the music in his head, plus he's a self taught guitarist, so his style of playing is very odd.
- Hot Librarian: He's said, "My clothing style is best described as, 'sexy librarian'."
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: "Shoot 'Em Up" is about how media coverage of mass killings turns the perpetrators into celebrities, with the lyrics proposing that news outlets intentionally encourage these tragedies so they can have an interesting story to report on. Bret wrote the song out of his disgust at seeing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone.
- Instrumentals: Four albums worth, no less!
- Last Note Nightmare: "Demon", complete with backmasking, pitch-shifted chanting and chopped-up, distorted singing.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Never Dance Again" is an upbeat, 80s-esque danceable song about a man who finds out his girl is cheating on him and then runs her over.
- Metal Scream: Many of his songs feature harsh screams. He's even confessed to how much he loves this trope.
- Non-Indicative Name: His hair isn't blue and he is in no way related to Susanne Stähli. *
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: "Shoot Em Up" is the only time Bret has ever gone out of his way to explain one of his songs, partly because he felt so strongly about it, but also because it could be taken the wrong way.
- Protest Song: "Shoot Em Up" is really a protest about how the media covers mass shootings and how it almost glorifies them.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Down In Flames" is a song about calling the target of the singer's wrath a "self-inflicted pretty little martyr", calling their target out as someone who only pretends to be nice, and that "if forcing empathy is as clever as you can be, we'll gladly watch while you go down in flames" as a result of their actions.
- Self-Titled Album: Blue Stahli, his first vocal album.
- Special Guest:
- Blue Stahli:
- Klayton provides some backing vocals for "Kill Me Every Time".
- Antisleep Vol. 3:
- A version of "Suit Up" features some vocals from rap/rock duo Southpaw Swagger.
- A version
- The Devil:
- Emma Anzai of Australian rock band Sick Puppies on "Not Over Til We Say So".
- Mark Salomon of The Crucified & Stavesacre on "You'll Get What's Coming".
- Blue Stahli:
- Subliminal Seduction: According to him, his music contains subliminal messages telling you to do inappropriate things with cowboy hats.
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Throw Away," which is much more mellow than his usual style. Musically anyways, lyrically....
- Vague Age: It's very unclear how old he is, and to make matters worse his age is not online. However, he has stated he started out his project VOXiS in 2000 when he was in high-school, so he's most likely in his late 20s-early 30s.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: "Rockstar" says that "you're a rockstar, a superhero", and that you need to "show 'em what you're made of" because you're more capable than you realize of getting what you want.
