JJ Ruby is a Filipino-American self-taught singer-songwriter and music producer. By training, she is a physician. Her love for music began when she was 3 years old, when her caretakers in the Philippines helped to teach her English by singing American and Filipino classics on karaoke with her. In university, she would often listen to and was inspired by artists such as Maggie Rogers, Raveena, and Clairo. To offset the stress of applying to medical schools and studying for the Medical College Admissions Test, she self-taught ukulele, guitar, and piano. She realized the power that songwriting had on her mental health and would often create songs in her bedroom to reflect and journal. On February 1st, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, she officially released her first single, daisies and butterflies (an ode to pixie cuts) as a declaration of self-love and to reflect on cutting her own hair into a pixie cut on New Year's Day. She recently has conducted research on the unique sonic aspects of Filipino music. She aims to produce music which pushes emotional and sonic boundaries, decolonializes her own relationship with music, and seeks to blend sounds of Folk, RnB, and indie with Filipino sounds.
to yours
May 2, 2025
It's truly been a wild ride, reflecting on my path to this point, and yet it feels like mundane, like “everyday.” Hours upon hours spent holed in, romanticizing about making music and performing, yet filling my brain with biological pathways…
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