September 6, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — In any creative field like music production and recording, artists need to start somewhere, genre- and sonically-wise. Since it’s innate to them to explore and experiment, they expand their musical horizons or extend their footprints.
And this is true for Filipino-Ghanaian artist and producer Jewel Owusu, who has also found her footing in alternative electronic pop. Proof of it is her latest single, Spark.
“When I first started, I made low-fi pop, R&B, very different (from) what I’m making now,” answered the singer to this paper’s question on genres she had tried her hand at in early recordings in a recent virtual group chat. “I think a lot of people start off making with low-fi music ’coz when you start producing, that’s the kind of music that is easy to produce and R&B, just ‘coz, I like R&B music and I was very into like bedroom R&B music, but at that time, it just felt like (that was) the music that people wanted to hear.”
From pop and the intimate, mellow subgenre of R&B, Jewel also dabbled in alternative soul and then eventually in electronic alternative pop. Her interest in all this began two to three years ago, as she recalled.
“So, right now, I feel like I’m making the music that I love myself and that I want to put out, but back then, it was just like, ‘I’m just going to make what I think people wanna hear.’ So, that’s (how) I started making low-fi R&B and a bit of like alternative soul, but I would say more of like bedroom low-fi R&B,” said she.
Her first release in the alternative pop space was American Honey, shared Jewel, and she has followed that sound path and become experimental since then as she navigates producing and recording songs.
“I feel like a big thing about, like, making music, for me, is yeah, the sonic experience,” said she. “I love sounds that actually like transport you to different spaces. So, with Spark, I wanted it to sound very like industrial sound, lots of like clashing, lots of like random noises, like mouth noises, like screaming. I wanted it to feel very like chaotic and I feel like that I do that a lot with my songs.”
An example is the tune Mouse, which was also recently released and she wanted it to sound like in a science lab. She added that it has the “science-y” texture and sounds one hears in that space.
As for the Spark, her publicity team describes it as a reflection on “the fleeting thoughts that can surface about someone else… about fantasizing over a connection you know would never actually work” and “explores how easily a craving for aliveness can be mistaken for the thrill of someone new.”
According to Jewel, she made the tune with a fellow pop artist, Aria Wood, who is also into electronic pop music. “We made it together at just my house when we were actually making a different song. Then, we just decided to start a new song, and it came together, really quickly the writing for it and yeah, the ideas came really quickly, which was nice,” shared she during the media interview.
“What inspired it was, I feel like a lot of us, you know, feel sometimes like we get stagnant in our life and feel very bored with the things going on and sometimes, we mistake that for like wanting to be with a new person or like wanting to be like in a new relationship,” continued she, “…it’s just like the desire to have more excitement in your life and feel like more connected to yourself. Yeah, that’s what inspired the lyrics of Spark.”
The single will be part and parcel of a broader EP, said she, including the ones she has recorded and released. She’s also calling it a mixtape.
“Spark is like one of the more dancy songs on the project and I wanted it to just feel like a fun song that you can just kinda go (and join),” concluded she.
Please visit the social media of Jewel and listen to Spark on YouTube and streaming platforms.
