The nine-piece folk-pop act Ben&Ben, known for hits such as “Pagtingin,” “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay,” and “Kathang Isip,” were preparing for their nationwide The Traveller Across Dimensions tour when Jam Villanueva, their drummer, was diagnosed with De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis, or drummer’s wrist, on her left hand. The band had just announced their Bacolod and Davao City stops, and were hoping to add Baguio to their itinerary. The timing couldn’t have been worse, and it forced the band to confront the toll that years of playing had taken — and might continue to take — on them.
“We’ve grown together as a band and as people, but we know there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” vocalist Paolo Benjamin said in a press statement. “When we’re faced with seemingly impossible challenges, we begin to understand that one of the ways to overcome our struggle is by understanding the purpose of everything that we do.”
Villanueva’s wrist injury became a wake-up call. “It just became very real to us how precious our bodies are,” percussionist Andrew De Pano said in a press conference on June 30. “Even if we could get different drummers to play for us, they don’t ever play quite the same way as Jam plays. And we’ll never sound the same without Jam.” De Pano even considered doubling his parts to cover for Villanueva, but she stopped him, knowing the risk it posed to his own health. “It just gave us a bit of an eye-opener na hindi kami invincible, kailangan po natin i-take care ng ating joints, wrists, mag-vitamins, mag-rest, warm-up before playing. I think we’ve been doing this for so long that we didn’t really realize how much of a physical job it is kasi ang bata namin dati. Ngayon, nagkaka-adjust ako, masasakit ang likod, ganon.”
The reality of playing live for almost a decade, especially as a large ensemble, means more than watching out for injuries. It means managing the emotional and creative labor that comes with being in a group that works as closely and collaboratively as Ben&Ben. “All of those quirks, all of those strengths, all of those weaknesses blend into one,” guitarist Poch Barretto says. “It’s not easy. We have to make sacrifices, we have to make compromises. Our egos, we have to check them constantly to make sure na hindi siya babangga. But ultimately, our goal — through our differences and similarities — is always to bring out the message of the song and to serve the song the best way we can.”
For Ben&Ben, persevering, at this stage, is about working through limits with care. Their tour continues not because of some romantic notion of resilience, but a bond that allows them to pause, regroup, and keep going without pretending they’re unbreakable.
