Ben&Ben Brings Light and Hope in Debut Album, Limasawa Street

Since topping various streaming platforms and radio charts with their hit singles “Kathang Isip” “Ride Home” and “Maybe The Night” Ben&Ben has been a vital force in the local music scene, charting their own path with anthemic, folk-infused pop that brims with elegance.

Without releasing a proper full-length album since 2019, Ben&Ben has amassed more than 300 million streams on Spotify and Youtube combined, and headlined concerts and festivals here and abroad.

Picking up influence from folk and pop genres and seamlessly creating a niche in between, Ben&Ben is championing a new brand of Filipino music. A nine-piece group made up of twin brothers Paolo Benjamin and Miguel Benjamin Guico (previously known as The Benjamins) on acoustic guitars and vocals, Agnes Reoma on bass, Poch Barretto on electric guitar, Keifer Cabugao on violin, Pat Lasaten on keyboard, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano on percussion, and Jam Villanueva on drums, Ben&Ben is hinged on relatable lyrics that speak to this generation, wonderfully produced instrumentals and performances that aren’t only heard but experienced.

This year, the band is ready to take their journey to the next level with the release of their debut album, Limasawa Street. Derived from “Masawa” which is a Butuanon word for light. The 13-track opus embraces the beauty of finding luminescence in darkness.

“We wanted the album to represent a place of light by singing about hopeful perspectives in troubled situations.” lead singer and guitarist Paolo Guico shares.

It’s also the name of a street that holds a special place in one of the members’ heart. Grounded with a deeply personal story that offers the comforts of life and home.

Despite their hectic schedules, Paolo and Miguel Guico spent significant hours in the studio writing songs for the album. The rest of the band, on the other hand, had to record their parts individually for all thirteen songs. It took Ben&Ben three months to finish the recording, on top of juggling live shows and concerts in between.

Hard work eventually paid off, resulting into an eclectic collection of anthems that challenged their creative process.

“Limasawa Street really stretched and explored our limits, in terms of both songwriting and arranging,” Paolo Guico reflects. “During our arranging retreat, we tackled each song with a very particular mindset, but not necessarily a clear cut direction. There was a lot of sharing of different musical and technical influences, which resulted in arrangements that were all so different from each other, but all still cohesively and distinctly Ben&Ben.”

This level of commitment manages to break sonic and lyrical barriers, exploring various music styles from world music to ’60s soul, jazz to choral music, and employing afro-latin breaks, indigenous stylings, rock arrangements, and other eclectic elements to their brand of radio-friendly folk-pop tunes.

With Limasawa Street out this month, Ben&Ben takes control of their destiny with an album that stretches music-making to exciting, entirely new places.