How Ben&Ben’s Twins Helped Turn Six Songs Into ‘New Day Rising’

The most tempting thing at the One Team Asia event in Nagoya wasn't on the dinner menu. It was a song I couldn't hear in full. For days, I heard snippets: a few seconds here, a melody there, gone before I knew where they were headed. You know when a song gets stuck in your head? Worse. Mine hadn't even finished introducing itself. By dinner, I was hungry for the rest. Then dinner ended, and the musicians finally played it live.

Ben&Ben twins Miguel and Paolo Benjamin joined five other musicians from across Asia for Toyota's Move Your World Beat, turning car sounds—turn-signal clicks, power-window hums—into music. Six tracks. One challenge: make “New Day Rising,” part of Move Your World Beat Volume 1, sound like one song.

I'd heard the pieces. But would I play it again without Toyota?

Seven million Spotify monthly listeners. Shows in London, Toronto, and Sydney. And in 2022, an NME award naming Ben&Ben the Best Band from Asia. That's not just big in the Philippines. That's big, period. Led by twins Miguel and Paolo Benjamin, the nine-piece turned “Leaves,” “Kathang Isip,” and “Pagtingin” into national sing-alongs. Billboard Philippines ranked them fourth among OPM acts in the first half of 2026.

Toyota wasn't a stranger, either. Ben&Ben appeared in a 2022 Raize campaign, and Toyota named the group Toyota Choice ambassadors in May 2026. The company says the musicians own Toyotas themselves. This time, however, posing beside a car wouldn't cut it. Move Your World Beat asked the twins to turn its noises into a song. No pressure. Just the small matter of making a dashboard sound musical.

For “Forward,” they sampled kulintang gongs, echoed the hegalong’s two-stringed voice on guitar, and worked sounds from a RAV4 Adventure HEV into the mix. Toyota gets something more interesting than famous faces: a Filipino musical identity. They get to trade ideas with five other Asian artists and introduce their songwriting to new audiences. A brand campaign can buy airtime. A memorable song still has to earn it.

Ben&Ben brought the hits. The other five brought their own reasons to turn up the volume.

Malaysia’s Belle Sisoski plays more than 30 traditional instruments and has attracted millions online by marrying heritage sounds to electronic beats. Pakistan’s Natasha Noorani co-founded Lahore Music Meet, helped run Season 10 of Coke Studio, and turned “Baby Baby” into a retro-pop calling card. She doesn't just make music; she helps make the scene.

Vietnam’s 2pillz produced for V-pop star tlinh before his own PILLZCASSO earned a Pitchfork review. Thailand’s Valentina Ploy charted in six Asian markets and signed with Warner Music Asia. Singapore’s Shye won Vans Musicians Wanted at 16, then NME’s Best New Act from Asia in 2022. Some lineup.

The surprise? Shye doesn’t drive. For her individual track, she recorded a Toyota bZ4X, turned its everyday noises into drums and changed the reversing beep’s pitch until it sounded like bells. “All the drums you hear in the song come from the car,” she told a+ Singapore. Apparently, you don't need to drive to make a car sing.

The project's creative team says it picked artists whose outlook already matched its emphasis on creativity and community—not interchangeable voices hired to deliver a jingle. Different musical worlds, one unlikely collaboration.

Across six songs, seven musicians from six countries had to find a shared musical language. Tracks & Fields had to turn that lot into “New Day Rising.” Volume wouldn’t solve that.

Belle Sisoski brought heritage instruments and electronic punch; Natasha Noorani, South Asian flavors; 2pillz, bass-heavy production; Valentina Ploy, pop hooks; Shye, dreamy guitar textures; and Ben&Ben, acoustic warmth. Great ingredients. But bass can swallow a delicate flute, and a catchy hook can crowd out a quieter voice. Give everybody the spotlight and you get six songs arguing over the same speakers.

Tracks & Fields tested the pieces in mockups, then led a virtual songwriting camp. Sessions were staggered across time zones but held live, so the musicians could build a song together rather than email one another leftovers. Try getting seven creative people on the same call, never mind the same key. Day zero: briefing. Day one: writing. Day two: recording and feedback. Day three: locked.

Then Belle brought out her collection of heritage instruments. According to Toyota, that sparked a lively exchange about traditions and new arrangements. Bowed strings, breathy flutes, bamboo percussion and gongs could add character; cram everything in and nobody gets heard. Instead, one musician’s idea prompted another. Toyota says the group was open and curious from the start, without the awkwardness you might expect from strangers on a screen.

The four-day sprint wasn't the whole story. Individual tracks began taking shape as early as March 2026; the camp came in June. Ideas kept traveling remotely afterward, with everyone building on the others’ work. The album masters were finished in October.

The musicians' first face-to-face meeting was another part of the project: the music-video shoot in Thailand. Tracks & Fields says they arrived behaving like a band. Toyota says friendships had already formed. Think about that. They'd made their first song together before the group had ever stood in the same room.

Toyota’s car noises had a job: make a beat. Tracks & Fields says it built vehicle samples into the rhythmic backbone of “New Day Rising.” A turn-signal click with a music career? Apparently, yes. Toyota says Tracks & Fields assembled the collective track alongside the artists.

Then the unusual instruments showed up. Belle played the rebab, engkerurai, tapi and bungkau. Natasha brought alghoza sounds, Valentina the khaen. 2pillz sampled đàn môi and đàn t’rưng. Ben&Ben sampled kulintang and coaxed hegalong-like tones from a guitar. Shye used different guitar-plucking techniques to evoke a guzheng. Some sounds were played, some sampled, others recreated. Quite a guest list for one recording.

The artists’ styles also needed balancing: folk-pop warmth, dreamy guitar, pop hooks and electronic drive had to sit alongside the vehicle samples. Toyota says it wanted the artists to lead, keeping their authorship intact. Tracks & Fields navigated approvals with labels, managers and publishers, with royalty shares agreed upfront. Even the paperwork had to harmonize.

That was the real click: the car sounds supplied the beat, the traditional instruments added color, and seven different artists found one sound. Their first song together finally belonged to everyone.

The real achievement wasn't getting seven artists onto one track. It was getting them to listen, trade ideas and make room for one another. Toyota supplied the unusual starting point—car noises—and a stage. The company could arrange a collaboration, but not guarantee chemistry.

In Nagoya, I'd spent days catching snippets without knowing how they would fit. After dinner, I finally heard the song live. The car samples were clever. What stayed with me was the sound of seven people making something none could have made alone.