Denise Julia continues to feed the streets and grow her fanbase with new releases! Fresh off dropping her "Sweet Nothings (Chapter 1)" album, the Filipino singer has just dropped a music video for one of the project's fan favorites: "Sugar 'n Spice." According to the rising R&B star, the music video and song are inspired by celebrating a woman's love. She shared the following statement on an Instagram caption detailing the track: "I’ve always believed that a woman’s love is one of the most powerful things in this world. While I’ve been open about my sexuality throughout my career, I’ve recently realized that my feelings extend beyond someone’s gender or preferences.
In my debut mini album, “Sweet Nothings (Chapter 1),” there’s a song called “Sugar N’ Spice” that personally stands out in terms of the way it was made. It’s a light, positive, and love-filled track, and interestingly, it’s the only one in the album celebrating a woman’s love. This song reflects my belief that love is love, and everyone should be free to love whomever they choose. This message isn’t just for the queer community; it’s for everyone who believes in love, no matter its form.
I want to share the beautiful experience of falling for a woman, something I treasure so deeply.
I’ve never been so excited for a music video to come out, and I hope you celebrate love with me in all its beautiful forms."
DENȲ is one of the fresh faces in the newest generation of modern Filipino R&B artists. Hailing from Quezon City, she represents WAYBETTR — a collective of creatives composed of artists, producers, audio engineers, and directors.
The rising star just dropped her new album "LOVES7AGE" featuring a collection of previously released hits and new music. This album represents a sound that is uniquely and recognizably DENȲ, with each track serving its own purpose in a seven-part chronological order of the stages of love. The album, fully written by DENȲ, features collaborations from Filipino industry icons such as Just Hush, Thirdflo, and Arthur Nery.
From experiencing love at first sight and representing the beginning of something wonderful in “Alam Ko Na,” to the sweet, playful, and upbeat “Mahiyain” that speaks on trying to muster up the courage to show how you feel about someone, or even how “Say My Name,” a track that represents wanting to experience new things with the person you’ve chosen, flows into “Sabik” featuring Arthur Nery, which speaks on the inevitable dilemma of feeling hurt about the idea of the one you love being with
someone else, "LOVES7AGE" lets audiences feel the rawness and the intimate journey DENȲ has had with her stages of love.
The latter part of the album consists of “FG2GF”, a poetic R&B-drill track that talks about having the best time in a relationship and how a fangirl (FG) turns into a girlfriend (GF), “Kudos” which speaks on losing trust and being disappointed by the person you love, and ending with “Don’t Love The Same” which talks about the definitive moment when one decides to end the BS and accepts the fact that someone has fallen out of love.
Executively produced by NAKI (Wilde Quimson), featuring production from WAYBETTR-affiliated producers such as Saint (Noy Gaspan), NJ (Neil John Subong), Jin Chan (Miguel Chan), NEXXFRIDAY (Emmanuel Salen), and MADEINDVN (Don Rios),
and with visuals directed by y.stacey (Justin Naguit), "LOVES7AGE" serves as a peek into DENȲ’s world and brings audiences along through the journey of the ups and downs in the stages of love. This is merely the beginning of DENȲ’s journey, with the first chapter being LOVES7AGE, as she continuously builds this world with upcoming music videos and releases that will surely leave audiences wanting more. There is no telling how high and how far DENȲ will go, but for now, enjoy and listen as we enter "LOVES7AGE". Check it out below!
DENȲ is one of the fresh new female faces in the Filipino RnB music scene. Repping the WAYBETTR collective, a youth movement composed of promising artists in the Philippines, DENȲ has been making waves in the local industry recently. To date, her hit song “Gusto With Ya” has amassed over 1.7 streams on Spotify! We had a quick conversation with the songbird to discuss her sound, her influences, her latest single featuring Cean Jr., and more.
Q: First and foremost, let’s have those who are meeting you for the first time get to know you more through your music. Send us three links, which can be anything from released songs, music videos, TikTok challenges, covers, etc for our readers to get a glimpse of your sound.
Q: Describe your sound in 3 words:
New, distinct, and versatile!
Q: Who are your biggest influences as an artist?
Well, it varies over time, but one of the biggest influences I'd say would be BTS. Both as an artist and as a person! I don’t think I'd probably be into RnB and hip-hop (yes, they are RnB and hip-hop artists as well) as much as I am now and I'd probably wouldn’t grow into the artist I am today if they weren't some of my first catalysts. Kinda unexpected, am I right? I have so many more influences though, but I don't wanna go over time.
Q: Your name is very unique, what is the inspiration behind DENȲ?
To be honest, it's really not that deep! Mainly, it just came from my real name - Denise. I decided on using 'DENȲ' when some of my friends and I just finished recording my first independent single "Weakness", and we were brainstorming on stage names that we thought would fit me the most. One of us suggested "Deni, but spelt with a y!" and that sounded best, so I went with it.
Q: WAYBETTR has been making waves locally. The sound definitely is on a global standard, shout out to all of you. How does being a member of WAYBETTR influence your sound?
They are a HUGE contributor as to why my music sounds the way it does. Quality-wise, I have no words for our work. I am working alongside some of the best producers and ears for hip-hop and RnB in the Philippines, and I couldn't be more grateful. The vision for how the output would be, comes from me, but they are the ones who elevate and materialize the ideas I give.
Q: “Gusto With Ya” is a certified HIT! What was your inspiration and creative process like behind this song?
I made this song in the middle of the pandemic, probably around May 2020. I was getting really frustrated because we were all stuck at home, as artists not being able to create as much as we would want to. Plus I had little to no resources, so one day I just borrowed my sister's old laptop and tried to make a beat from scratch, even though I had no idea how to.
After it felt kinda satisfactory, like I could write something to it, I decided I was going to do a love song. I just thought of what I really would like to convey as a person when it comes to affection - then a sentence came to mind, which eventually became the catchphrase of the track: "I know I'm independent, but I think I need ya, kayang mag-isa pero mas gusto with ya". Lines and melodies just came and flowed when that idea struck me, so I finished writing the track in no time.
Months later, I became a part of WAYBETTR. I let them hear my demo, and I didn't expect them to like it as much as they did! So then we elevated it into what the track is now, and the rest was history.
Q: Now let’s move on to “Still Miss You.” How was it working with Cean Jr. and how did this collaboration come about?
I knew Cean Jr. early on in my career as a musician, so we were already mutuals for at least a year when he approached me for a collab. This track was originally his, and he called me right after he finished writing. I liked what I heard so I hopped in and wrote a verse immediately after he sent the demo. This collab really was just a constant exchange of ideas, so making the song was never hard.
Q: Speaking of collabs, who are your top 3 dream Filipino collabs?
Aside from my WAYBETTR fam, I would really love to collab with these three amazing artists: Al James, Arthur Nery, and Skusta Clee!
Q: What’s next for DENȲ, anything we should look out for?
All I'm gonna say is look out for A LOT. I have so much in store for everyone, y'all haven't seen the best of me yet! But I'll give a little hint...an EP may come this year, so just wait a while!
Discover DENȲ's music here:
Cover Photo Courtesy of Joseph Bermudez Instagram
