Clara Benin is beginning a new chapter in life and in music.

On 11 August 2023, the Filipino singer-songwriter dropped befriending my tears, her much-awaited sophomore album. A record about "learning to believe in yourself," Clara sings about embracing your fears and worries and comforting yourself in times of self-doubt. With songs like 'imposter syndrome' and 'darling i've been there,' Clara emphasises that "We all need to learn how to befriend our tears in order to heal.” “

this is my way of making sense of this world—turning my innermost thoughts and unruly emotions into songs.

I hope this record makes you feel seen and loved—just like it did for me. 🫀

befriending my tears is now all yours to behold, available on all streaming platforms! 💧✨ pic.twitter.com/a8KpDGbWZ4

— cb (@clarabeninmusic) August 11, 2023

Three EPs in and eight years since her last full-length record, the 'Wine' act finds herself exploring dreamier soundscapes with a little help from her friends. Tapping familiar names in her music circle such as producer Francis "The Ringmaster" Lorenzo and multi-instrumentalist Gabba, Clara also reached out to her "favourite band" One Click Straight, with Sam and Tim Marquez helping out on a couple of tracks. 

For this album, Clara shares how she has learned to be "intentional with all the details and elements of production".  “I wanted every song to sound new and fresh to the listener’s ears, and I want the songs to not just have an emotional impact but a visceral impact as well, which is what song production can do," she adds. 

Bandwagon got the chance to get a first full listen of befriending my tears at Clara's "coffee date" and listening party with her collaborators and Patreon community last 31 July. Check out the anecdotes for each song in this track-by-track guide.

 

 

 

 

 

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'imposter syndrome'

Produced by One Click Straight's Sam Marquez, 'imposter syndrome' opens the new album and Clara's next chapter in music. Thanking her friend, Fiona, who she says inspired this song, Clara shared how it all came about as she was going through an episode of "imposter syndrome". The alt-pop track sees the singer-songwriter navigating uncertainties in life, and coming to terms with the fact that "Life is strange, I'll just ride it out anyway." 

'small town'

"Gabba and I were jamming one day, and he handed me the electric guitar."  This is how Clara's first official co-written song with partner and multi-instrumentalist Gabba Santiago started. "Naka-open tuning siya, and it was a tuning that was unfamiliar to me, so I just started playing random chords on it while he had a drum loop on." While she called it a fun process, she recalls how they got stuck for the production part of the track, and that's when they decided to tap Sam and Tim Marquez from One Click Straight to produce it. "It just made sense when they started working on the song."

One of Bandwagon's Top Releases of 2023 so far, 'small town' is about "the time I spent growing up in the province, where everyone just kind of knows each other and it’s kind of annoying and you just wanna hide. I wanted to write about what it would be like to deal with a break-up in a small town like that."

'blink'

Setting the pace for the direction she would take in her sophomore studio album, Clara wrote 'blink' in an unexpected way. Writing the track with a laptop, a ZOOM mic, and a MIDI keyboard, "I felt like a new songwriting process was unlocked for me after writing this song," she reveals. Produced by Francis "The Ringmaster" Lorenzo, the track won Best Engineered Recording at the 2022 Awit Awards. "He did an amazing job with making my super lo-fi demo sound a lot bigger and dramatic, yet still very intimate." Clara also shares how she "felt really confident in exploring the electronic synth-y sounds" with the award-winning producer as that's his signature sound. 

"Writing blink played a really important role in my healing process during the pandemic," she says. "It’s a song about surrender and being present where you are."

'different'

While most of the album was written during the pandemic, Clara had a few tracks she's held on to for a while now. "I wrote 'different' back in college, and I wanted to include it in this album cause I’ve always loved this song." Produced by Gabba Santiago and Francis "The Ringmaster" Lorenzo, Clara shares how she wanted to play around with the production so it didn't sound like she wrote the song way back when she was 18. "I kinda wanted to update it, so Gabba and I played around with it. We added beats to it, and The Ringmaster added his dramatic strings. And of course, my dad (Joey Benin) played the bass on it. I just love how minimal and weird this song turned out."

'affable dork'

"This song is about romanticising what it would be like if your crush liked you back," Clara shares as she talks about 'affable dork'. Working with drummer Chico Macorol and bassist Miko Villena, the song is one of Clara's older songs. While the new album is all about exploring new soundscapes, Clara admits that "it’s also very important to know what the song needs." The singer-songwriter wanted to go the "traditional" route of "just the acoustic guitar, upright bass, and drums. No harmonies. Just the vocals upfront. Tapos isang take lang." Produced by Gabba Santiago and Francis "The Ringmaster" Lorenzo, Clara stresses that it's important to know what serves the song best, and she thought the song didn't need too much in terms of production.

'momentary'

"I wanted to perform an original song with my dad." Performed with her father and founding Side A bassist Joey Benin, Clara shares that she wrote the track just weeks ahead before her 2-day Coming Home concert at Teatrino way back in 2016. The song is precious to the singer-songwriter,  "I have this attachment to the song, that's why it took me so long to release it. I was going through a lot at that time, and I wanted to write a song just about feeling inspired and loving life."

'keep still'

If you've been listening to Clara since her debut offering, you'd be pleasantly surprised by 'keep still'. The artist also felt the same way, after receiving the version produced by Sam Marquez. "I was really surprised with what he did with the song. It was very bold. I kinda wanted to back out," Clara reveals. An entirely different sound than what she was normally accustomed to, she initially thought it was "too pop" for her style. "Gabba talked me into it, and I'm glad he did," Clara says, sharing how happy she is with how the song turned out. "Releasing it was also very cathartic, and I feel very relieved that it’s out there. I’m really happy with the reception that it’s been getting."

'darling, i've been there'

"I wrote this song for myself," Clara says about 'darling, i've been there.' She had no plans of releasing it, but realised it's a very comforting song and thought she'd share it with her fans in the hopes that it would also do the same for them. "Whenever I feel anxious, I just sing this song to myself and I feel a lot better."

'don’t hurt yourself trying to get it all back'

The album closer, 'don’t hurt yourself trying to get it all back,' is the track that almost didn't make it to the album. One night, while having some musician friends over, they were all listening to a demo of this song. Tim (Marquez) asked Clara "Hey, what's your plan with this? Can I produce it?" "I was like yeah sure," Clara said, but also revealed that at that time she wasn't really sure if it was going to be part of the final tracklist. While she's still not sure how to explain the song, she shares how glad she is that the song made it. "I love how organic it all happened." 

befriending my tears is out now via OFFMUTE. Listen here.