Filipino folk-pop outfit Ben&Ben were over the moon after they were chosen to helm the musical score for the commercial top-billed by “Crash Landing On You stars” and real-life couple Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin.
The band’s lead guitarist Poch Barretto shared that they had fun working on the song “Inevitable,” which was paired to loveteam “BinJin’s” romantic-sci-fi commercial for a telecommunications company.
“It was a fun process that we worked on and we’re really excited also because Hyun Bin was gonna be featured in the commercial with the song, and also Son Ye Jin, so that’s like something for all of us–a super kilig moment for us,” Barretto said in a press conference last Monday.
“So, working on the song, we had them also in mind and we had the whole idea of the song, the whole concept of the couple also, and it was fun,” he added.
Jane Basas, Smart’s senior vice president and head of Consumer Wireless Business, said Ben&Ben was not really part of their original plan.
She said proposing the project to the well-loved Filipino band was serendipitous for them.
“We were on our way to meet them and we were playing Spotify and then ‘Leaves; just played on radio and then this big idea popped up, ‘What if a Filipino band, Ben&Ben sang a song, prepare the music to score for the commercial?’ So even that was just meant to be so we signed them up officially in December,” Basas said.
Basas furthered that the storyboard was given to the band mid-December and the shoot for BinJin’s commercial was shot a month later.
Ben&Ben’s vocalist Paolo Benjamin likewise said the partnership with the telco company was “serendipitous.”
“The chemistry was very natural between us… We didn’t really actually force anything in terms of the creative process for the song and it just so happened that what Smart wanted to achieve in the next few months starting of course with this campaign was very much in line with what we wanted to pull off also as a band,” Benjamin said.
“And so, because of that, it is just like we both… we flowed in the same direction. So it’s really a beautiful partnership,” he added.
The nine-piece band’s latest track, born out of shift-in production, has an eclectic blend of sitar-sounding riffs, propellent rhythms, jazzy chords, and ethereal arrangements.
Its lyrics were also inspired by recent events surrounding the band’s lives.
“Inevitable is a song that tries to describe the nature of fate, and how all our actions somehow lead us to some better place that is destined for us. It’s also a song about being real with someone, and that no matter how scary that may seem at times, there is freedom in baring your truest nature with someone dear to you, even if that someone is yourself,” Paolo said.
His twin brother and fellow vocalist Miguel Benjamin also shared that they just started with a mix of acoustic guitars.
“The songwriting in itself presents a concept of the state that is both a surreal mystery and a peaceful certainty, so we wanted to create an aural representation of what these lyrics felt like. Our process started with a mix of acoustic guitars, which I tweaked with sitar effects as the main intro riff; kind of like a representation of the two contrasting feelings working together,” Miguel said.
The song was first made available in all digital music platforms worldwide via Sony Music on Valentine’s Day.
It made a second debut via Smart 5G‘s latest campaign where the track was heard in the background while Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin pursue each other in the TVC.
The Philippine TVC is the first campaign of the Korean stars after they announced being a couple.
