Asian Music Review | Asian voices matter

Fresh, vulnerable and totally heartbreaking!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Welcome to Asian Music Review! Tell us a little bit about you and your music.

I am Kuju Fernandez, I’m just starting as an independent artist based in Pangasinan, Philippines. I just released a song titled “Tried” back in 2022, and just released a new song “Dahil Mahal Na Kita” this year. I liked my songs to not adhere to a genre. More importantly, I want emotions conveyed genuinely and through the appropriate feel of the music. But primarily as a starter, it feels my songs are very singer-songwriter-y, and very much pop.

Congrats on the release! What was your inspiration when you were writing this project?

“Tried” was written through a guitar after my prior detachment with someone that I love.

Released August 16, 2022. I never thought that the coming months after would actually be that difficult. The relapses. The need for distractions and escapes. The denials and the coming to terms.

That time I need to process or understand what’s happening, and I did through writing this song. After finishing it, there was a sense of relief in me that those moments are now given closure. That I was in love and choosing to go away was hard and those moments and emotions are now immortalized.

What lessons would you like to impart with your audience?

Tried is all about accepting your vulnerabilities in love relapses, and that’s okay.

It’s about being human at its core, and just baring all the demons and the ugliness in that process of moving on. It’s important for the song to feel as a gateway to make those people that go through that difficult time feel seen or heard or have all their emotions feel valid.

What is your favorite part of this body of work?

Probably the song structure. I didn’t like the song having kind of like a traditional third chorus. I like that after the 2nd chorus it’s just pure outro of feeling defeated.

What’s next on your journey?

I will definitely be releasing more songs, though finding the right producer, and a passionate one at that, is probably the hardest. Secondly is being financially constrained. Nevertheless, I’ve always want my own discography, no matter how dim the spotlight would be. Hoping to have singles and possibly an EP of my teenager songs.

Stream “Tried” here: