Jem Cubil only started becoming recognized after his stint in ‘The Voice of the Philippines Season 2’, his second time to join a singing competition after ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’, where he emerged as a grand finalist. He already exhibited a great knack for singing in the blind auditions, which earned him two chair turns from coaches Apl.de.ap and Lea Salonga. Evidently, he grew as a singer with Team Lea and eventually signed with Viva Records.
It wasn’t until over a year when Jem finally recorded his first song. In an interview with Viva Records, the balladeer expressed his excitement for the new single, saying he never thought he would get to this point in his career.
‘Tanging Ikaw’, written by Jellica Marie Mateo and Emmanuel Bernardino, is the perfect song for Jem’s debut.
“I can relate to the song, so I hope I did justice to it”, he shared.
Upon initially hearing the track, what Jem immediately noticed was its melody. It wasn’t until they started recording that he finally understood and internalized the lyrics and its meaning.
Jem views the song as a dedication of love, a guy manifesting his feelings for a girl through telling her “wala talagang iba. Tanging siya lang, siya lang ang mamahalin”.
Understanding what the song meant helped him know how to sing and interpret it.
Because of the track’s familiar melody, Jem strived to make it his own.
“I tried to make it, as much as possible, mine and to sound like me.”
The artist aims to offer a new flavor of OPM, hoping to be a ‘Jem Cubil’ in the industry — a new, unique, original taste, veering away from the common ‘pop’ artist.
Because of his desire to march to a different tune and produce unique singles, Jem has entered into the habit of songwriting, which he considers to be a high point in his career.
He began writing between his two feats — ‘The Voice’ and his first single.
“Kaya ko palang gumawa ng kanta. Because before I only do cover songs, which was convenient since I’m actually just singing other people’s songs. But when I got to a point wherein I was by myself, sinabi ko sa sarili ko, ‘Sige I’ll try to write a song’. It went well, and then I kept writing and writing and writing.”
Surprisingly, songwriting became the avenue for Jem to discover more about himself and his kind of music. He is optimistic about an opportunity to release a self-composed single, and hopefully, his very own album.
The 23-year-old singer realizes there is still so much time to achieve his much yearned for title of a ‘singer-songwriter’ who offers new flavors of OPM to the industry. This assures that we will be seeing a whole lot more of Jem, a precious stone with outstanding talent waiting for his time to shine.
‘Tanging Ikaw’ was released in September, under Viva Records, and can be streamed on Spotify and all digital music stores. The official music video is now available on the Viva Records YouTube Channel.
Watch it here: http://bit.ly/2xY3BY7
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