INTERVIEW: Jessie Murph on her breakout hit 'Blue Strips' and her upcoming Australian tour: "I feel such a range of emotions that my music will never be linear in one genre, or one emotion."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Published: 26 May 2025

Jessie Murph has been touted as the next big thing in pop since her debut release in 2021, and the buzz that has grown stronger and stronger around her has proven to be justified with her massive global breakout hit ‘Blue Strips’.

Peaking in the top 20 on both the US and Australian single charts, it is her highest charting single to date. Its left of field soundscape which mixes trap and pop with Murph’s raspy, country inflected vocal dissing a former lover (‘Boy, I ain't mad at you / I had to get back at you….Got a new man / Got a new damn mansion in Malibu’) highlights what makes Murph such a special artist. In her short career, she has shown she is adept at pushing the musical envelope and defying genre expectations, refusing to ever stand in the same spot sonically. While ‘Blue Strips’ has gritty, low key nightclub energy, Murph’s music also includes country, pop rock and ballads, always with lyrics that display a gravity and emotional maturity beyond Murph’s age (she turns 21 in September).

After making her debut at Coachella this April, Murph is launching her Worldwide Hysteria global tour on 27 July. Kicking off in the US, Murph will perform across North America and Europe before landing in Australia for six shows. Staring in Perth on 12 November, she will play two shows in Sydney, one in Brisbane and two in Melbourne before the whole tour will finish in New Zealand on 22 November. Proving Murph’s popularity in Australia, the tour quickly sold out with additional shows being added due to popular demand.

With an assuredness and confidence in her artistry rare to see in one so young, and music that is experimental and unique yet familiar and charismatic teamed with raw and uncompromising lyrics, Murph is undoubtedly a superstar of the future and her Australian shows should not be missed. Women In Pop recently caught up with Murph to talk about ‘Blue Strips’ and her upcoming world tour.

Hi Jessie! It is so great to chat to you again. I'm also stoked about your Australian and New Zealand tour and that ii has been so popular they have had to add additional shows and venues, which is insane. What does it feel like that your music has resonated all the way down here in little old Australia?
It's bizarre. Australia is actually one of my favourite places to go, so it feels extra good. I love it there. I think y'all are so sweet, and I love hearing your accents every time I'm there. So it's really surreal, and I can't wait to sing with everybody. It's gonna be so fun!

Oh that's so nice. You do bring quite an energy, we saw that in your recent Coachella performance, that is some high octane stuff going on right there. What's the moment in the set where you feel like you're most fierce? Because, let's face it, a lot of your new songs are next level ferocity.
I don't know if you saw any clips, but I did a cheer stunt where I was standing on somebody's hands, and I think I felt best in that moment, because that's something I've always wanted to do. It connected to my childhood, I did cheer growing up, so it was really cool to be able to do on stage.

Yes! I was like, oh, that's a cheer dream, right there. Let’s talk about your latest singles ‘Gucci Mane’ and ‘Blue Strips’. They hit different, they're very much survival songs. I'm curious, how do those tracks come to life emotionally with you, particularly when you've got a tonne of people to sing them with?
’Gucci Mane’ was actually one that I was a little worried about performing live. Number one, it's actually really hard to sing. It's a lot of breath control, because there's no breaks in it. So it's one I actually had to cut in sections, I didn't cut the whole song in one take. So I was like, oh, fuck, what am I gonna do live? But I recently did the whole thing, and it ended up being fine, but it's definitely difficult. And it's a very intimate song, you know, so it's one that I'm just kind of hoping people know, so they'll sing it with me. It's very different from ‘Blue Strips’. ‘Blue Strips’ is a party song, so that one is so fun live. Everybody sings it with me, and it's a party. But they definitely can't go back to back live. It gets weird!

With ‘Blue Strips’, there's this contrast of material highs - the house in Malibu - with emotional lows. Was that intentional to go you can be at your highest height and you can still feel rock bottom. How were you playing lyrically with that song?
I want to be so honest with you, that song was just me having fun in the studio, freestyle, super quick. I'm shocked it's doing what it's doing, it was just such an in the moment fun song. But now that you say that, that definitely checks out and I'm really glad that you took that from it.

Your music holds so much space for the rage in the heartbreak, but also the tender and terrifying. There's a real vulnerability without losing its fire. With other artists, that can sometimes can feel forced, the vulnerability can feel forced, but your music really hits that sweet spot.Do you feel like the music industry has finally caught up with accepting and allowing that kind of complexity within young women to be heard in music and on the airwaves?
You know what I feel like? They kind of have to, For me, musically and my system of putting out songs is very much, I just put it on, I share it with my fans, and if they like it, then that's what happens. There's a visible connection with social media, there's numbers that people can see. if I put out something where it's terribly vulnerable and super meaningful, and they connect to it, then that's what the label has to put out, because it's whatever is connecting. So I think that social media has allowed us to be so much more in control of what goes out. I feel such a range of emotions that my music will never be linear in one genre, or one emotion. The stuff I have coming is different from ‘Blue Strips’ and I think it's so cool that there's so much control in the artist's hands right now.

Oh 100%, it’s very very cool. When you're not writing and recording and doing these incredible sellout shows and performing at Coachella and doing a cheer handstand, what do you think that your younger self would just completely pinch themselves over?
I think all of it. Where I live, down to the home I live in, the car I drive all of that would just be a shock to my younger self. The life I live now is so polar opposite to how I grew up that I wake up every day and I pinch myself and I think about that when I'm journaling. I'm always journaling from the perspective of my younger self, because it brings out the most gratitude in me, and I think that that's always a good place to reconnect to. But when I'm on stage, especially when I'm in places like Australia and I get to hear people with different accents singing songs that I wrote with me, it's so surreal. That's always a moment. Performing is definitely a big one, but everything freaks me out. I'm constantly just spewing gratitude about how everything looks around me. I think it's beautiful.

As we said before, you you do write these beautiful songs which really, really speaks to a young female audience that just need more. We just crave to have the dark and the light thoughts put into song. What do you enjoy about young women in your crowd and what do you hope they take from your music and your show?
I hope they take whatever they need. Because everybody's dealing with their own stuff and everybody takes things and perceives it differently. And I think that it's so cool that they can hear lyric a different way than the friend standing next to them. So I think just for them to take whatever they need from it. And also for them to know that they're safe. I have so many songs, and so many songs that are coming, that are very vulnerable and things that people don't really want to talk about, and just letting people know that they're not alone and that they're safe to feel that way, that's a big thing in my shows. I want them to always feel safe - they can cry or they can laugh or they can shake ass or whatever they want to do, but, I just want them always to feel safe. That is my main takeaway. .

‘Blue Strips’ is out now via Sony Music. You can download and stream here.
Follow Jessie Murph on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok

WORLDWIDE HYSTERIA – THE TOUR
12 November: Metropolis, Fremantle
14 November: Enmore Theatre, Sydney
15 November: Enmore Theatre, Sydney
18 November: Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
19 November: The Forum, Melbourne
20 November: The Forum, Melbourne
22 November: Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand