The nine-piece collective Ben&Ben has released a new international #TOTGA song with a unique perspective on love, forgiveness, and breakups, kicking-off for their first-ever North American tour in September
The Ones We Once Loved, or #TOWOL, as we'd like to call it, was released on all streaming platforms at midnight of August 26, a "song that owns up to one's faults, makes proper apologies, but also expresses hurt, as breakups are often two-way things," says the band in an official statement, manages to hit the nail on the head with another heartbreaking track. Produced by Johnoy Danao and Jean Paul Verona, 'The Ones We Once Loved' takes a deceptively stripped-down approach in terms of musicality, carefully not losing the purpose that defined their recent hits over the years.
Written by the band's very own Paolo Benjamin, the stripped-down track is emotionally impactful, even in its apparent weightlessness. "It's also one of the hardest songs we've written because it requires the writer to forgive himself for his past and own up to his faults and mistakes. The painstaking process towards that state, the cycles of anxiety and catharsis that the writer went through, and the eventual expression of all of that in the form of this song, as an encapsulation of such a heavy journey, is what makes this song stand out among our other songs."
"The Ones We Once Loved" serves as Ben&Ben's official single in support of their Philippine send-off concert and North America/Canada Tour in 2022. It also marks their first collaboration with globally renowned photographer Geloy Concepcion, whose work was recently featured in Vogue Magazine and other notable publications and exhibits worldwide.
"We've always wanted to do a collaboration with Geloy Concepcion as most of the band members look up to him, that when we realized he would be the perfect artist to work with for The Ones We Once Loved, we instantly took a chance and set a meeting up with him," Ben&Ben shares. "In Geloy's current project 'Things You Wanted To Say But Never Did,' we saw how resonant and resemblant his messaging was to The Ones We Once Loved and that he may be the best artist to communicate the song's message. Geloy's eye and his way of introducing a space to let out feelings and emotions was one we wanted to emulate in this campaign—a space where people sit safely and quietly with their feelings."
Earlier this week, Ben&Ben encouraged their fans to use the hashtags #BenandBen #BenandBenTOWOL, #TOWOL, and #TheOnesWeOnceLoved as part of its Twitter activation campaign promoting the international release of "The Ones We Once Loved." The hashtags revealed official Ben&Ben Twitter emojis, and unlocked a special preview of the song last August 24, 2022.
Ben&Ben's "The Ones We Once Loved" is out now on all digital music platforms worldwide via Sony Music Entertainment. Check it out here: