The new single ‘A Day At A Time’ between Gentle Bones and Clara Benin was written during the pandemic lockdown period in 2020. Overcoming the reality and challenges of not being able to travel, Gentle Bones and Clara Benin managed to spark the collaboration after an online invitation. With the laid-back vibes and enchanting vocals of both artists, the mid-tempo single aims to encapsulate positivity during a difficult time and see the beauty of taking life a day at a time.
Gentle Bones is Singapore’s pride and joy in the local music arena. Debuting in 2014 and still at the tender age of 26, he has released 3 creative EPs, and represented Singapore in London, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other regions to hold solo concerts and participate in music festivals.
Gentle Bones has been actively releasing many successful collaboration tracks with many popular Singaporean acts in 2020. Being the very first official cross-country collaboration single for both artists to kick start 2021, Gentle Bones shared his thoughts of inviting Clara Benin on board for this track. “She has great lyric writing and her voice is beautiful, to say the least. She makes music that I really look up to and always was a benchmark for me for folk music. So I wrote a song I thought she’d be perfect on and we managed to get it started.”
He also shared about his first experience working on a collaboration fully online: “We went through many WhatsApp conversations and calls, also a lot of large files being sent through the web. It’s my first experience working fully virtually and I loved it! Clara actually wrote many beautiful parts to the song which unfortunately couldn’t be squeezed into the final track.”
Clara Benin is not a foreign name for fans in Singapore and the regions. She achieved numerous records in the Philippines, from having a sold-out solo concert in 2018 to representing the Philippines in international events such as the Singaporean multi-artist festival ‘Music Matters’, ‘The Best of ASEAN Performing Arts’, and more. She had previously collaborated with popular Singaporean singer-songwriter Charlie Lim for one of her tracks in her recent ‘fragments’ EP. These records make her one of the most popular artists in the Philippines.
Clara also shared her thoughts on the latest collaboration. “I first discovered Gentle Bones on YouTube back in 2013 when he released the music video for “Until We Die.” I was an instant fan! At that time, I was just starting to build my music career so it was very inspiring for me to see Southeast Asian artists like Gentle Bones thrive in their music and artistry. I feel very honored that he reached out to me for this collaboration. I guess the most challenging thing about this collaboration, in particular, was that Joel and I have never met in person before and we only met through this collaboration via a phone call!”
The concept of the upcoming music video revolves around the idea of celebrating the strength of getting through each and every day, and the small acts of self-care we show ourselves. The Singaporean MV production team held a couple of online meetings before the official shoot with both artists. The online shoot for Clara Benin was carried out for a couple of hours via a zoom call, with overall art and acting direction instructed from the team.
Clara shared her first experience on the virtual shoot. “It was a collaborative effort and I had a lot of fun shooting in the comfort of my own bedroom!”
Fans would get to see both stars showcasing scenes of their daily lives and “reuniting” via an online call.
‘A Day At A Time’ is now available to stream on all digital platforms.
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