Work Crush, Stephen Bluhm’s new project, debuts with ‘Emotional Plea’ featuring Mike Watt on bass
Work Crush, the new project of Hudson songwriter Stephen Bluhm, released debut single “Emotional Plea” on 28 August 2026, with Mike Watt on bass.
Artwork: Steve Teare
Mike Watt returned his bass part within a day. That track now sits at the centre of “Emotional Plea”, the debut single by Work Crush, the new project of Hudson, New York songwriter Stephen Bluhm. The electropop and disco-leaning single was released on 28 August 2026 and is available on Bandcamp.
Bluhm wrote the music and lyrics and handled vocals, guitar and synth. Watt, co-founder of the San Pedro punk band Minutemen, plays bass. Alex Wernquest contributed drums and percussion and shares the recording and mixing credit with Bluhm. The track was recorded and mixed at Basement Floods Records in Catskill, New York, with Watt’s bass recorded at Studio tHUNDERpANTS in San Pedro, California. Jeff Lipton mastered it at Peerless Mastering in Boston, with Costanza Tinti as assistant mastering engineer. Musician and illustrator Steve Teare drew the cover, a child playing with a toy military plane.
Why Work Crush wrote ‘Emotional Plea’
The song is a first for Bluhm, who had not written directly about politics before. He explains what pushed him to it: “With Emotional Plea, I’d never written an overtly political protest song, but I felt I couldn’t ignore in my writing what’s happening around us, with ICE, with Gaza, with the complacency and lack of compassion.”
The recording came together faster than his usual pace, and Watt’s involvement is the reason he gives for that. “I usually write slowly, but this came together quickly because I felt it so urgently,” Bluhm said. “Mike Watt is one of the funkiest bass players I know, and I knew he’d be perfect for the song. I’m grateful he agreed. He sent his bass track back within 24 hours. The man works furiously.”
Musically the single sets a steady dance rhythm under synthesizers and clipped rhythm guitar, with Bluhm singing in a baritone. He describes the project’s method in one line on its release page: “At Work Crush, we believe all kinds of messages and stories can be told through the fine art of disco.” The same note states that no generative AI was used on the release.
About Work Crush and Stephen Bluhm
Work Crush is the current project of Stephen Bluhm, a songwriter based in Hudson, in New York’s Hudson Valley. Bluhm began releasing music under his own name, issuing the self-titled album “Stephen Bluhm” on 17 September 2017.
“Easter” followed on 14 April 2023. His second full-length, “Out of the Nowhere. Into the Here.”, came out on 19 April 2024, recorded, mixed and produced by Bluhm with guest players including musicians from Bard College’s The Orchestra Now and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra. It is built around strings, horns, flutes, piano and reeds rather than synthesizers. An instrumental version of the album was released alongside it.
“Emotional Plea” is his first release since that album and the first under the Work Crush name. It moves him from orchestral chamber pop to a synth and dance-rhythm setting, with two collaborators he has worked with before, Alex Wernquest and Steve Teare, and one new one in Mike Watt. No further Work Crush releases have been announced.
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