Vinyl Only EP out today from – Blaire Alise

She’s as influenced by Detroit’s wave of dynamic garage-rock bands of recent years as she is by the ’60s batch of elegantly brash and boisterous breakout women singers like Wanda Jackson, Darlene Love and the Shangri-Las.

Her songs may sound retro, but her mindset is very much of the Internet age. Her drive — which balances professionalism with the love of rock ’n’ roll — is what recently got her signed to the Nashville division of indie music publisher Carlin America. This week’s release party for latest vinyl record, “Just Another Day,” is her last Detroit-based show before she heads off to NYU to study music entrepreneurship.

QUESTION: Though you’re still young, you’ve been working at this for a while. Can you talk about that and reaching the next step of getting signed?

ANSWER: Yeah, I mean, I’ve always done everything myself. I don’t have any help, so I’m booking everything. And a recent tour had a show in Nashville that fell through six days before we were set to play it. So I called Eddie (Baranek, the guitarist-singer of the Sights and the Scrappers), and he helped me get onto a show at Grimey’s, a record store in Nashville. That’s how the people from Carlin found me, just from seeing my name added to Grimey’s calendar and deciding to check out my show. They brought me a Little Willie John record and a Shangri-Las record, so that totally won me over. How could it not? And this just worked out nicely. Traditional labels are kind of in a transition phase lately; it’s not how it used to be. But in some ways it’s good because with the Internet you truly can be independent.

Q: How did you first get into music? And how did you land on the path of blending modern and retro styles?

A: Something clicked when I heard “He’s a Rebel” by the Crystals. I hate to say that I have one favorite song of all time but that’s it if I had to pick; I love the songwriting tricks, the back-up vocals, the storytelling. My mom got me the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” when I was very young and once I got into that then she really wanted me to take piano lessons. When I was 10 and started finding other artists, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, I started on guitar and I began figuring out Beatles chords.

It hit me then: I wanna do this! And then, hearing singers like Darlene Love and Lesley Gore and seeing other women forge successful careers as guitar players, like Wanda Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Barbara Lynn. Seeing how they broke out was inspiring.

Q: What was it like for you to start getting on a stage?

A: Eddie (Baranek) started believing in us before anyone. So I sought him out early and gave him some demos and he responded with this huge e-mail giving me a lot of creative advice. Our third show ever was opening for the Sights at the Blowout’s kickoff party in 2013. We were brand new, nobody had really heard of us, yet, so it was basically my introduction to Detroit’s music scene. There was such a great response from everybody and I met so many new people that night.

But, I’ve also just always been comfortable on a stage. I can get nervous, still. Like, in 2014 when I had to get ready to play a song at the Concert of Colors with Don Was as my bassist. Once you just throw yourself into that scenario, where you’re on a stage in front of people, no turning back, then you just get good really fast. My confidence built up from that and it’s helped, lately, as I’ve been taking on all the lead solos since we’ve gone to a three-piece (with Eric Allen on bass, Kyle Schanta on drums).

Q: How did the songs on the EP come together?

A: I felt I was getting pulled in all these different directions by people suggesting songwriting ideas. And, I appreciate that, but I decided to just stop listening to everyone else and to do whatever came naturally to me. You have to. If you’re not being genuine with your songwriting, you can tell; it’ll sound forced.

It started when I was in the library and the bass lines for “Liked You Better” just came to me. I sang the bass parts into my phone, went home and started demoing it. It took all day and night but I finished it and soon after I wrote “Before I Go To Sleep” and that was it. Backup vocals become a huge part of it, I just love layering atop each other to fill out the sound. My bandmates might get frustrated having to learn them all (laughs).

Q: You’re headed to NYU in the fall to study music entrepreneurship. In what ways will you miss Detroit and what does the future hold?

A: Well, I’m not abandoning what I’ve done here with the Bombshells, in fact, I want to grow it. And we’re going to tour the South again, soon. But, really, this is my last show in Detroit before I leave. I’m going to miss Detroit a lot, but I feel like this is just something I have to do. Detroit’s scene, they just get it, here. I feel like they really understand our music and what it’s about. We’re not super loud and upfront but we’re not quiet or in the background. And I’ve learned so much from the musicians here and from all my band mates.

The main thing, as my mom would say, is if this was easy, everyone would do it. It takes a lot of hard work. People saw me when I started as a 16-year-old girl and assumed I wanted to be on the Disney Channel like Miley Cyrus. No, I wanna be Wanda Jackson! To be taken serious, as “the young girl,” I’ve learned to be very professional. I’m very serious about this and want to take this as far as I can.

Blaire Alise & the Bombshells

Record release party

with J. Walker & the Crossguards, Blood Stone and DJ Jarrett Koral

9 p.m. Fri.

UFO Factory

2110 Trumbull St., Detroit