INTERVIEW: Jewelia releases new single 'Invisible Wall' and announces second album 'Little Wins' will be out on April 19.

Jan 26

Jan 26 INTERVIEW: Jewelia releases new single 'Invisible Wall' and announces second album 'Little Wins' will be out on April 19.

Romanian raised, London based Jewelia today releases her new single ‘Invisible Wall’ and announces her second album Little Wins will be released on April 19.

‘Invisible Wall’ is a gorgeous, uplifting pop track that sees Jewelia embracing the synthpop sound of the 1980s with its infectious electronic beat, and when she slips into spoken word sections to brings to mind the new wave vibe of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The song marks a change in sonic direction for Jewelia who says she is embracing a retro sound after the lush indiepop of most of her previous releases.

“I’ve always wanted to dig deeper into a retro pop sound and imagery,” Jewelia says. “I actually wrote ‘Invisible Wall’ back in 2017, and it stayed in the vault up until last year, when I realised that it fitted perfectly within the concept of my new album. In video games, an invisible wall is a boundary that limits where the player can go, even though there's nothing physically there to stop them. It seems like the perfect analogy for the pre-guided life pathways that society tends to force us into, but also for self-limiting thought patterns, both of which are driving ideas behind the concept of Little Wins.”

‘Invisible Wall’ is the fifth taste of Jewelia’s second album, Little Wins. Written solely by Jewelia and produced with Andy Denyer, the 12 tracks on Little Wins explore the pressure social media, film and television and society itself puts us all under with the message you can achieve anything you want if you just work hard enough, when in reality we all naturally have limitations.

“The binding concept behind Little Wins is that we all do the best we can at a particular moment in time, with the resources we have at that moment,” Jewelia explains. “Those resources can mean anything: time, energy, knowledge, confidence, money, love, other people, self-belief, self-love. So really, there's no point in beating ourselves up, and instead of constantly focusing on the climb ahead, we should take some time to look back and see how far we’ve come, and learn to celebrate the little wins.”

Raised in Romania, Jewelia wanted to be a musician from early childhood. After finishing school, she began studying law, but at the same time was attending Bucharest’s Music Conservatoire. It was music that ultimately won and Jewelia relocated to London to pursue a music career. Releasing her first album in 2018, she has received support from BBC presenter Abbie McCarthy amongst others, and her 2021 cover of Sting’s ‘Fields Of Gold’ has received over half a million streams to date on Spotify alone.

With a new sound and a new album on the way, 2024 is kicking off in style for Jewelia, we recently caught up with her to talk all about her music.

Hey Jewelia! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. How is everything in your world right now?
Pretty great at the moment! I always feel energised at the start of the year and buzzing with new goals and plans. I’m excited to finally be releasing new music, and ready to be back on the socials after taking a bit of a break towards the end of last year. I’ve made myself a “little wins” jar this year rather than writing down new years resolutions, I’m hoping to fill it up with plenty of good things and nice memories! Of course, I’m hoping my new album will be one of the little wins this year.

Your first new single since mid-2023 is out now, ‘Invisible Wall’. It’s a brilliant song, and sees you combine multiple sonic influences including 1980s synthpop and 1990s pop. Can you talk me through the inspiration behind the song?
Thank you very much! At the time of writing this song, I had just discovered the Finnish-French duo The Dø and was listening to them a lot. I was also exploring the idea of performing on stage as a duo, with me on keys and synth bass and Andy on guitars and drum machine. This would have involved live looping, so I tried to write a song with that specifically in mind. It might not sound like it, but the whole of ‘Invisible Wall’ is only two chords, over and over. The times when it suddenly opens up during the chorus and guitar solo, and it sounds so different, it’s still the same two chords, just played in reverse order. The arrangement stacks the parts upon the same progression, and so it makes it ideal for a live-looping performance.

You have dabbled in a retro 1980s synthpop sound previously in your career, probably most prominently on 2019’s ‘The Ones That Never Tried’. What inspired you to explore this sound again?
It’s amazing that you found ‘The Ones That Never Tried”, it’s a song I somehow always forget exists! Since I started releasing music, I’ve been exploring various facets of pop, from chamber pop in the early days, to pop rock to folk pop, synth pop and even dance pop. The new album is also a mixture, but the retro influences are stronger, especially with songs like ‘Invisible Wall’, ‘Queen of Make Believe’ or ‘Fragile’. Why? I’m not entirely sure, I think I’ve just been loving the sound of synths lately. Plus, I’d really like to play more live gigs again, and this kind of music can be really fun to play.

I believe you first wrote ‘Invisible Wall’ back in 2017 but then put it in the archives. I’m always fascinated by artist’s musical archives, can you tell me a little about why you felt the song wasn’t ‘right’ in 2017, and why it is now?
That’s correct, I wrote this song in 2017 in a small flat in a village near Cambridge called Saffron Walden. That same year I wrote most of my City Of My Mind album - songs like ‘Small Death of Reason’ and ‘Queen of the Rags’. City of My Mind is a chamber pop record with occasional psychedelic influences, it’s quite dark in places, it has unusual time signatures, or songs featuring a full orchestra. So naturally ‘Invisible Wall’ didn’t find its way on it, as it had a completely different vibe and style. I like my albums or EPs to be bound by a central idea, theme or vibe, to have at least a ghost of a concept. There are twelve songs on Little Wins, but there are also dozens in the drawer that are still waiting for the right project to be included in.

As you just mentioned, ‘Invisible Wall’ is lifted from your upcoming new album Little Wins. Can you reveal a little about what we can expect to hear on the album?
If I had to describe “Little Wins” in three words, I’d probably say: catchy, quirky and bittersweet. There are upbeat songs, and there are quiet songs full of warmth. It fluctuates between self-directed messages of encouragement, and unforgiving self-deprecation. It’s like telling yourself that everything will be fine and dancing around in the kitchen to get yourself hyped up, but at the same time not believing any of it and biting back tears. Or like posting an edited picture on Instagram, loving the likes but hating yourself for lying, or even for having those imperfections to edit in the first place. But overall, there’s a constant yearning for self-forgiveness, with the conclusion that we all do the best we can, and that’s ok, and maybe the wins are not astronomical, but they’re also not nothing. And that’s ok, because in reality no one really keeps tabs or judges us harder than we judge ourselves.

You have said the unifying theme behind the album is how society and the media convinces us to believe that we can achieve anything at all if we just work hard enough and push ourselves, but in reality this isn’t true as we all have limitations. Is this a concept you have struggled with, and what advice do you have for people that may also be struggling with it?
From a young age, we watch stories of success against all odds, while getting accustomed to look down on the average people and their struggles - the irony being, of course, that we are them. We are told that we can achieve anything, if only we try hard enough. As inspiring as this sounds, it also implies that we only have ourselves to blame (regardless of systemic disadvantages, biological limits, financial difficulty etc.) for having an average life, in a world where mediocrity is viewed as being worse than utter failure. Something is messed up here!

It would be a lie to say that we all the same starting point in life, of course some people are born with more advantages than others. It’s how society functions, except the same society wants to shift the full responsibility on us. We all do the best we can, with the resources we have at that moment, those resources can mean anything: money, time, energy, knowledge, confidence, connections, love, other people, self-belief, self-love. It took me a long time to come to terms with this simple concept, and to stop beating myself up. There’s no point in negative self-talk, in shaming ourselves or in spending time thinking of ‘what if’s’. My advice is: chin up, and give yourself a pat on the back for making it to where you are today!

Can you tell me a little bit about the creative process behind the album?
It’s been about three years in the making. I can be quite a perfectionist, so maybe sometimes I end up working on a song longer than it needs. A big chunk of the tracks have been co-produced with Andy Denyer, who also mixed the spatial audio for it, the Dolby Atmos version. The album was predominantly mixed by Mario Borgatta (Foster The People, Mallrat) and Niko Battistini (Charlie XCX, Caroline Polachek), and it was mastered by Antony Ryan, who also mastered it for vinyl. I’m excited to be able to make physical copies, all thanks to my lovely Kickstarter backers!

For those that may be new to your music, what is your musical background? How did you get to where you are today?
I started by being self-taught at piano until I started getting lessons at around twelve. I went on to study drama at a specialist school in Bucharest, then got admitted into the National Conservatoire in Bucharest, where I studied classical singing. At the same time I was attending Law school (as requested by my parents, who agreed to support my music as long as I had a “back-up plan”), until I dropped out of both, and moved to the UK to study Music Technology at University of Surrey. During this time, I always worked on my music and tried to improve. And here I am now, ready to share my latest offering!

Circling back to the theme of societal pressure that we can achieve all of our dream if we work hard enough, there is also an expectation for female artists, particularly female pop artists, to act, perform, sing in a particular way often with no room to work ‘outside the box’, with male artists not subjected to the same scrutiny. What are your thoughts on the topic of gender (in)equality in the music industry?
I think it’s fair to say that there has been positive change over the past few years, somewhat more visibility and acceptance for female artists. But there’s still a long way to go! I’d particularly love to see more women producers (we are still a tiny fraction of the total, around 3%)! And less ageism, again especially directed at women. Life doesn’t end at 30, so why should music careers end then? It’s not like as they get older, women forget how to write songs or have nothing to say anymore; if anything, we just get better at our skill and more mature in our songwriting. Thankfully this also seems to be improving, but very slowly. Perhaps it will be better for future generations, let’s hope.

New single is out now, and new album is coming, what else do you have planned for 2024?
I’m currently finalising details regarding the launch party for the album, and I’m hoping to pick up live gigs again, maybe do a small UK tour in autumn. I’m also working on new songs in the background and already thinking about the next release. Stay tuned on the socials for updates!

‘Invisible Wall’ is out now via Pretty Decent Music. You can buy and stream here.
Little Wins will be released on April 19 via Pretty Decent Music. You can pre-order and pre-save here
Follow Jewelia on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Little Wins tracklist: