They consist of the twin brothers, Paolo and Miguel Guico on acoustic guitars and vocals, Poch Barretto on electric guitar, Jam Villanueva on drums, Agnes Reoma on bass, Patricia Lasaten on keyboards, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano on percussions, and Keifer Cabugao on violin.
The process in visualizing their debut album Limawasa street. happened smoothly, Nicolai, who primarily practices digital painting and 3D, reveals.
“‘Mitsa’ was the first thing I worked on since it was set to be released as a single in a few weeks. Next came the album’s packaging. Me, Toni, Keifer, and sir Datu Arellano initially worked on the mechanics of the design and how it’ll set itself apart.” Together, they took inspiration from wine boxes and K-Pop albums to develop their vision to release something more than just the usual jewel CD case: a lamp.
The second song I worked on and took the longest, probably 60 to 80 hours from conceptualizing to final, spread out across two weeks. The main challenge with ‘Limasawa Street’ was how I was supposed to capture: 1) the song itself, being fast and having a lot fantasy in its imagery (time standing on bare feet, horses driving, maybe a Bojack reference? I’m not sure, I haven’t asked them, haha) and 2) making sure whatever I illustrated will also represent the album in its entirety, which made sense once we realized that the packaging itself could be incorporated into the artwork. Kind of meta, sure, but it worked for us!
The tiny details in the artwork are very important, as we all felt they should tie together in offering a glimpse into the world the song represented. The process I did in creating the artwork is as follows: I started modeling the composition in 3D to make sure the scale and perspective was accurate, then rendered the image, painted over it in black and white in Photoshop, trying to not go too wild with the textures. I was very nervous when I finished the black and white phase, as it felt very lackluster.
Then I decided to experiment by adding only a gradient map for color. Then it clicked. The entire image is made up of only shades of black, white, blue, and yellow. It was all it needed.
Ben and Ben is an award-winning, fast-rising , Folk-Pop band from Manila. They have been making waves across their home country as one of the leading bands with electrifying shows for audiences of all ages, and chart-topping singles. Their music blends folk, world, and indigenous stylings with pop sensibilities.
Ben&Ben (formerly known as The Benjamins) is an iindie folk/folk pop band in the Philippines. They consist of brothers Paolo and Miguel Guico on acoustic guitars and vocals, Poch Barretto on electric guitar, Jam Villanueva on drums, Agnes Reoma on bass, Patricia Lasaten on keyboards, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano on percussions, and Keifer Cabugao on violin. The band has been known for their popular hits such as “Ride Home”, “Leaves”, “Maybe the Night”, “Pagtingin” and the critically acclaimed “Kathang Isip”.