Ben&Ben gets songwriting advice from Lin-Manuel Miranda

Ben&Ben received some wise pieces of advice from Lin-Manuel Miranda himself.

On TikTok, Paolo and Miguel, the folk-pop band’s twin vocalists shared their interview with Lin and "Mufasa: The Lion King" director Barry Jenkins, where they asked Lin, the genius behind "Hamilton" about his songwriting process.

The vocalists told Lin, “The first 30 minutes, two songs in, the hooks were already like, they were there and they can’t escape the brain once you hear them.”

“Our questions, especially as musicians, how do you write a chorus for a film like this, or just a hook? It’s just so catchy. And where do you even begin?”

According to Lin, a lot of the songs were inspired by dialogue lines in the script.

“’I Always Wanted a Brother’ felt like such a specific sentence and that was a line that Taka said in the script. And I said, ‘That’s my song title. Now I have to go prove the song title," Lin said.

He added, “It’s anything. You’re doing everything to get these songs to exist.”

Lin also said that to write a song for the character Milele, he listened to a lot of religious songs “for chord progressions that move me in that way that church spirituals tend to do.”

For the villain song titled “Bye Bye,” Lin said, “That was just a weird instinct I had.”

The songwriter said he told director Barry, “I know we don’t have a villain song, but I’m hearing dance hall underneath Mads Mikkelsen’s [who plays Kiros] voice and I think that’s gonna two weird tastes that taste great together.”

Lin advised Paolo and Miguel, “You just have to honor those impulses. Kind of like—you have these assignments and you daydream, and you think about stuff, and you listen to stuff, until you have this sort of alchemy.”

“See, that’s a masterclass right there,” the twins said.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” will hit in theaters on December 18. It explores the origin story of Mufasa, the father of Simba.

Meanwhile, Ben&Ben recently figured in a Time Square billboard, in Spotify's effort to promote their latest album “The Traveller Across Dimensions," which includes the previously released tracks, “Could Be Something,” “Comets,” and “Triumph.”

Ben&Ben will be having a concert on December 14 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in support of the album. The show will feature Ben&Ben’s live music with filmmaking and multimedia elements to create an animation-concert hybrid.

@benandbenmusic

We interviewed Lin Manuel Miranda and Barry Jenkins for Mufasa: The Lion King!!! ???????? We also got to give them a copy of our unreleased New Physical Album (and dried mangos ????) Feels like a dream! ???? This one’s for you, Liwanag! Movie comes out in the Philippines this December 18!

? original sound - Ben&Ben

— Nika Roque/LA, GMA Integrated News