Filipino singer Jace Roque has never been one to take the easy road — and his latest single, Pagbangon, is proof of that. Written from the depths of personal loss and years in the making, the song arrives at a moment when the music industry faces a question Roque has already answered for himself: can artificial intelligence replace the human heart behind great music? His answer is an emphatic no.
“It’s something I can never support when it comes to the creation of music,” Roque said in an exclusive interview with LionhearTV. “Nakaka-water down ng AI ng talent ng mga tao na naturally-gifted.” For an artist who has been recognized and awarded on the strength of his natural talent, the rise of AI-generated music feels like a direct threat — not just to him, but to every artist who has poured genuine effort into their craft.
His opposition is measured but uncompromising. Roque draws a clear line between AI as a tool and AI as a creator. He acknowledges that it has a limited, assistive role — running plugins, aiding in processes like auto-tune — but insists that human intervention remains non-negotiable. “Kailangan pa rin ng human intervention to make it more natural, to make it artistic,” he said. “Siguro, 1% to assist you, pero 99% from someone who is human.” The danger, in his view, is the illusion of ease — the idea that great music can be generated by a prompt rather than earned through discipline, heartbreak, and time.
That discipline was instilled in him by his late uncle, Direk Boy Roque, a Lino Brocka prodigy who trained him with the rigor of an old-school artista. “Tinrain nya ako like a lumang artista,” Jace recalled. “Just to love your work, give it your all, and always treat everyone with kindness — whether onscreen or offscreen.” Those values, he says, are ones he continues to uphold to this day. When Direk Boy passed away in 2019, Roque didn’t just lose a family member — he lost a mentor, an unofficial manager, and a father figure. The loss was so profound it brought his personal and professional life to a halt.
“I didn’t know how to move forward,” he admitted. “Magkaroon po ako ng moment na parang I wanna quit.” It was from that dark and uncertain place that Pagbangon was first written. The song, originally conceived in the immediate aftermath of his uncle’s death, was his way of honoring both the man who shaped him and the path they had forged together. “He prepared me for that,” Roque said, “and ‘yun po ang naging inspiration to rise again.”
Grief, as Roque describes it, is not something you get over — it is something you learn to carry. “May mga days pa rin na magbi-break down ako,” he shared, “but ang difference ngayon is that kaya ko nang i-manage, better.” That hard-earned emotional maturity is woven into every note of Pagbangon, making it feel less like a performance and more like a lived truth.
The song also marks a sonic evolution for Roque. Known since 2017 for pop EDM, he has now shifted toward urban pop — a direction encouraged by his collaborators, Sir Roxy and Sir Jonathan. “It’s high time para mag-evolve na ‘yung sound ko,” he said, adding that the shift mirrors a global move away from EDM across genres, from K-pop to American pop. But Roque is careful to frame this not as trend-chasing: “Hindi tayo ‘yung riding the wave lang.”
And the timing of Pagbangon‘s release, he says, is no accident. At a moment when the world feels heavier by the day — economic pressures, global crises, mounting uncertainty — he believes people need music that lifts them up. “During times like ngayon na nasa world crisis tayo, important yung mga songs like ‘Pagbangon’,” he said. “Ang pwede mo lang takbuhan is art, entertainment.”
In an era where AI threatens to make music cheaper and more disposable, Jace Roque is betting on the opposite: that what listeners need most right now is something irreducibly, unmistakably human.
