The folk-pop nine piece have just come out with their highly anticipated third album, The Traveller Across Dimensions.

It’s been a busy month for Ben&Ben, as they have just recently concluded their North America and Canada tour. Since then, they’ve been preparing for their upcoming first-ever arena concert at the Mall of Asia Arena this December 14. To build anticipation and establish the narrative behind this concert, the group dropped The Traveller Across Dimensions last November 29, revealing an entirely new set of eight original features amongst a thirteen-song track list.

On this full-length record, Ben&Ben worked with multiple collaborators to produce a unique, but whole and fully-fleshed sound. Co-produced by Ziv, Petra Sihombing, Sam and Tim Marquez, and JP Veronahe, the new album sees the band build their own universe from scratch. Following the journey of Liwanag, the traveller, and her loyal pet, Puhon, the storyline is meant to reflect the ups and downs of everyday life. One of their initial pieces to come out of the album, “Triumph,” introduced these characters as part of their music video for the song. While it takes place in a vibrant animated universe, the band sees elements of themselves behind Liwanag’s persona.

On this note, in an exclusive interview with Billboard Philippines, Ben&Ben explore this universe they’ve created and taking power in their newfound production style.

Billboard Philippines: Hello, Ben&Ben! You’ve had a really busy November with your recent tour in the United States and Canada! Now, you’re prepping for an entirely different concert experience in the MOA Arena. How is the band these days?

Pat: Honestly, excited ako bumalik sa rehearsals. Because of that break, yung buong US tour, and yung break pagkauwi, and leading up to today — excited na ako mag-rehearse.

(Honestly, I’m excited to go back to rehearsals. Because of that break, the whole US tour, and the break when we got back, and leading up to today – I’m excited to rehearse.)

Miguel: I think this whole season, including that tour, is something we’ve been preparing for. In fact, even if it was a beautiful tour that was really formative, in a way, we also saw it as preparation for the concert. Kasi (because) we were able to hone ‘yung mga (the) songs by performing them in different shows, doon sa US at sa Canada (in the US and in Canada).

So, in a way, it was also like practice?

Miguel: It was also practice, because it’s different from when you’re practicing in a room, versus honing it on stage. It’s a totally different aspect of performance.

The upcoming album The Traveller Across Dimensions will also be incorporating multimedia elements into your product. Your storytelling is going above and beyond, building an entirely new universe. What was the creative process like behind the album?

Miguel: I think it all still starts from music. But what was interesting for this album is [that] the animation concept came into it when we were working on the songs. And then, the rest of the songs were inspired a lot by the animation concept. Both the animation and the music helped each other — they completed each other. A lot of it was also collaboration, so there’s a lot of new things that you will hear in this album. Musically, we really stretched our musical brains and enjoyed the process of doing it, but it was also very challenging. 

But it was possible also by working with a lot of new producers that we have not worked with before. One of them is Ziv. He’s a Korean born in the Philippines, but he worked in so many different music industries in other countries. So, he guided us to bring out the parts of us that we never thought were there, but they actually were. In terms of sound, that he put those sounds together in a way that you would hear in the album. Another one was an Indonesian producer named Petra Sihombing, and also, he brought out a grit that we were looking for in some of these songs that needed it. And of course, our ever-trusty collaborator, Jean Paul Verona, who’s done most of our songs in the past. And Sam and Tim Marquez from One Click Straight, also worked on a sample for us; they also produced for us.

I guess from the music collaborations, down to like animation part, we worked with a studio called Puppeteer Studios. They are based here, in Ortigas. They have such brilliant minds and skills to bring out the story that we wanted to bring out and to tell. I think they really did a great, great excellent job in bringing that out into a whole universe, like you said. This whole year and years past have been such a, and it’s both a challenging but beautiful season of creativity for us. And honestly, that’s what also scares us. 

I mean, we’ve always been creative and in the stuff that we do every time. But I think for the context of this time, I don’t think we’ve ever been this creative, in terms of putting it out there. But the thing about creativity is that there’s also a risk. But that’s what’s also exciting, you know, so it it’s a mix of emotions, because it’s exciting because you don’t know what the outcome will be. If people actually get story, and resonate with the songs, but like what Pat said earlier, at this point, you know, we just we just trust that whatever is meant to go out there will go out there.

With the music video for “Triumph,” you introduce us to Liwanag, the traveller, and Puhon, her pet, and we witness them conquer all odds. Can you illustrate this storyline and universe to us?

Miguel: I think the story is allegory to life because, I think, from the choice of defining what Liwanag is, she a traveller, and like, that’s what people do in life, like, we travel from our different seasons, from when we’re young and then when we face difficulties, and then when we grow from them and we learn from them in a way. We wanted to mirror them in the story of Liwanag.

So, the video that you’ve seen was kind of like a midpoint of her journey, where she had to face one of her most difficult challenges. Of course, one is defeating the enemy, Dilim, but the bigger challenge actually is loss. Kasi ‘yun yung, (Because that is) that’s what a lot of us go through, but we don’t know how to process, in a way. But at the same time, there are times that grief, suffering, loss are inevitable. 

It’s something that’s part of life. Once we put the full story out here, what we would like what people hopefully would see is that just like the story of Liwanag, where she learns what she is what life she is about to or what adventure she’s about to take on. And actually going through each phase and then going through difficulty and then learning from it, I hope that people take away, ang takeaway ng mga tao (what people take away) is what life is.  

We we start from learning like in school or with friends but then when we grew up, we also realize that life has a lot difficulty, and a lot of suffering, and a lot of pain. But when you get through those moments, you realize that they’re part of it, and also after, there is something that makes it all worth it. And it’s different for every person. That’s why, I guess the story tries to make people feel something, more than tries to tell them what to learn. Because I guess we all have different takeaways. But that’s the power of storytelling, we tell a story and then you take away something different from the next person.

That’s the power of music — you take what resonates with you.

Miguel: Music as well, yes. So we tried to blend both, the music has a narrative, which accompanies the narrative of story, and the visual universe has a story of its own. Hopefully, people take away lessons from both. 

You mentioned that the story came after the creation of the song, but for the rest of the album, how did shifting towards this kind of storytelling, this kind of narrative, affect your production process?

Andrew: One of the interesting things is, the same way music theory isn’t, you don’t need to understand music theory to create something, and it’s more, instead, a way to explain what is made. I think the narrative was just our way also of making sense of the music that had already been made. It kind of helped us sort out things, because we’ve just been making music this time based on where we are at in life. 

Like we like as we always do, but it’s a reflection of our current experiences, our current phases in life, and when these songs were coming together, in this very room, we were arranging it all here – our arranging process for this album has been very freeing, very open, and we’ve been open to trying out things that we wouldn’t normally. Because we really just wanted to, like change of pace. Sabi ni Pao (Pao said) earlier in an interview, very solidly, YOLO.

Minsan ka lang makakagawa ng (You don’t often get to make) work of this scale, that is really, just purely yourself, and when we were trying to organize all of this into a cohesive narrative, things just really fell into place. Like, I felt like there wasn’t really any friction in figuring out how each song that we had made would fit into the narrative and things made sense. How that happened, I really don’t know, there must be a higher power trying to make sense of our experience as the same way we are.

Poch: Actually, we didn’t intentionally, like Andrew said, adjust our music to the narrative. (We) tried to make it as sincere and honest to the songs and to us as we did this. Nagkataon lang na (It was by chance that) it all fit together into a narrative and astig kasi (it’s cool because) you heard “Triumph” — not all the songs sound that way. But, for each song, we try go into a different place with it where we haven’t been to before. Especially for the scary new single that’s on the new album, “New Dimensions.” We really stretched the concept of a song from what we normally do, kasi (because) we tried putting many genres into each section of the song. 

Miguel: Nine genres.

Wow.

Poch: Yeah, nine genres in one song. In a way, it represents the story of the song, the story of the album, going into the different dimensions and having these different experiences in life. But we connected it to the life of Liwanag, and the life of the band, or individually, or to, hopefully, the listeners of the song.

Andrew: Pero grabe yung “trust the process” namin dito. Until the final moment that we heard the mixed track, we had no idea how it would turn out because we kind of worked this song like a puzzle na, “Okay itong part na ito, nice. Okay, next part. Okay itong part na ito, nice.” But putting it together, we’re like “Ano ‘to, guys?!” But then it came out nice, so we’re like, “Sweet, nice.”

(We really had to ‘trust the process’ here. Until the final moment that we heard the mixed track, we had no idea how it would turn out because we kind of worked this song like a puzzle like, “Okay, this part is nice. Okay, next part. Okay, this part is nice.” But putting it together, we were like “What is this, guys?!” But then it came out nice, so we’re like, “Sweet, nice.”)

I’m so excited to hear that record – nine different genres.

Miguel: The goal, though, is for you not to feel it as much.

So, something seamless.

Poch: Just vibe with it.

What was something you learned about yourselves and each other while putting this album together?

Miguel: I used to be super intimidated by, I still am, but not as much, by music production. But I learned so much on this album from my bandmate Poch, and Ziv, and everyone. I feel like my ear, as well, for production things that I usually wouldn’t handle, ’cause I usually just focus on songwriting. I have so much, even more, respect for the way music is produced. Especially for how time consuming it is, ’cause it’s a different challenge.

Andrew: Therapy session ‘toh eh (It was like a therapy session). I realized like, not exactly a new realization, but a deeper solidification of the fact that I care a lot about a lot of things. This is like the first time that will be releasing a song that I wrote, personally, and I was able to get the help of one of my best friends, si Toni, to write and sing this song with me. 

And I really put a lot of my heart and soul into it, and I wouldn’t usually push for something that I’d admit because I tend to make myself a bit small. This is a an album where I put in a lot of input with arranging. Like what Miguel said, we really put our everything into this album, and I think that for me, specifically, it’s because I solidified that I care a lot about what we make.

Jam: ‘Yung belief or ‘yung faith (The belief or the faith) in everyone’s strengths. So not just in the band, but with all our collaborators. Trusting that they do what they do, and they do it in the best way that they do it, and that because everyone is playing their part fully, and putting their heart and soul into it, that things will turn out good. And things will be okay. Just having that trust in the collaboration process, throughout the whole album-making is one of the biggest lessons we got.

Poch: I’d say the same thing. Ang lakas talaga ng power of trust and faith in the setting, in our group, with each other.

(The power of trust and faith is so strong in the setting, in our group, with each other.)

Kasi (Because) I had nothing to do with, honestly, I had nothing to do with the animation. But I trust everyone else in the band and outside the band, our collaborators that they’re doing it with their best effort, with their heart, and their whole selves into it. I felt that also with other parts in making this album, that they placed their trust in me. It’s also the mutual trust. Now, even if you don’t know what’s happening on the other end, you know that it comes from the best place.

Ben&Ben are one of the biggest bands in the country. When releasing a new album, especially one of this caliber, do you feel any pressure or worry about how it’ll be received by the public? How do you deal with that?

Paolo: We’re feeling the pressure, and we’re scared. But what brings us peace is that this whole thing that we’re about to bring out, it comes from the right place, and it comes from just the passion for the message we’re trying to send. For this album, it’s specifically surrendering to a higher power, but in general, it is the message of hopeful realization. And given that, we’re very clear with that, and all of the events that led to today onwards, have been our eyes and hearts focused on those things, regardless of the outcome.

Listen to The Traveller Across Dimensions here: