Another favorite from Ben&Ben
If there’s a band in current OPM waves that needs no introduction, it’s Ben&Ben. The nine-piece band has made headlines and holds most-listened-to credits for their honest lyrics and that mellow and dream-like quality to their sound. And while I personally love hearing their music on Spotify, their live performances are truly something else to experience.
But let’s not get away from ourselves. The news is out: While the rest of us were thirsty for new content, Ben&Ben was hard at work and they’ve satisfied us with Lifetime.
Was there a lifetime waiting for us
In a world where I was yours?
Paper planes and porcelain
Smell of rain through the window pane
And the sight of you
Oh, you were a good dream
The song, inspired by a fan’s comment and story left on one of the band’s YouTube videos and written by Pao and Migs, was produced by the entire band during lockdown—completely online and in complete respect to social distancing rules. With a little technical help (because no one’s an expert at everything), they released the song on June 4.
The production of the song, with all its varied levels of downloads and uploads and digital meetings, sounds complicated at the start—but truly isn’t, as the members explained that the churn out for Lifetime was actually quick in comparison to their standard timelines. A nine-piece band is no joke after all and scheduling a common time between Pao, Migs, Agnes, Pat, Poch, Jam, Toni, Andrew and Kiefer is no easy feat. With free time on their hands and a little magic from the internet, the song was born.
I was scared to lose you then
But secrets turn into regrets
Buried feelings grow
Oh, you were a good dream
Was there a lifetime waiting for us
In a world where I was yours?
Was it the wrong time? What if we tried
Giving in a little more
To the warmth we had before
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Is this the new norm for music? Maybe, but let’s take a look back first. The truth is that musicians have been working from their homes from the beginning of time, each one painstakingly recording in the late hours of the night to get as much silence in the background as possible. It’s a practice that thousands or so have done before…but we might be able to argue that it’s the first time for a band of Ben&Ben’s caliber and size.
You cannot tell that the band never met in person to produce Lifetime. It easily blends with the rest of its discography, and we’re willing to bet that the song will become a favorite, much like Maybe The Night and Pagtingin.
Tangled with another's eyes
Never mind, you were never mine
glimpse of me and you
Oh you were a good dream
And that comment that spoke so loudly to the band that it birthed a song? It read: “The like I felt for him became love. I wrote poems, songs. After 8 years, I attended his wedding last January. And guess what?” she asked rhetorically, “The world is really overly-cruel. Before his wedding, he thanked me for being his best friend and told me that before he met the girl he got married to, he loved me first. For 5 years…We didn’t know that if only one of us dared to make a move, a lifetime was waiting for us.”
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You just never know until you try, huh? #ShootYourShot
Art Matthew Ian Fetalver