Zild Benitez celebrates first anniversary of his album ‘Homework Machine’
Zild Benitez celebrated the anniversary of his quarantine-core album entitled Homework Machine last Friday, August 6. Furthermore, the Instagram post showed the album’s tracklist written by hand. The singer-songwriter wanted to produce an album in three months right after his birthday last April 2020. And, he later then produced his solo album via Warner Music Philippines.
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Zild Benitez celebrates the first anniversary of his album ‘Homework Machine‘
The IV Of Spades‘ bassist used more electronic sounds and chiptune influences in this album. Moreover, during his NME’s Aldus Santos interview, he said that he overdid the 8-bit thing:
“I think I was too afraid of using organic instruments because I knew it would just be compared to [IV Of Spades]-“
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Furthermore, Zild spent most of his quarantine writing and recording for the album. And, he purposely attempted to make himself uncomfortable upon creating this masterpiece. Furthermore, he also stated that people played video games during quarantine, and this is what inspired the album.
“I think I saw people playing games during the pandemic. Tapos naisip ko, bakit kaya ang saya ng games? At saka bakit ang gaganda ng soundtrack ng games? Parang nainspire akong gumawa ng songs, lyrics, na ganun yung tunog. Bumuo ako ng virtual world kong sarili.”
[I think I saw people play games during the pandemic. Then I asked myself, why is playing games fun? And, why does the games’ soundtrack sounded good? Then, I got inspired to write songs, lyrics, with the same sound. I created my own virtual world.]
Now, let’s talk about the Homework Machine‘s first singles.
Last June 12, 2020, Zild announced the release of the first single, sinungaling. He said that it was an old song that he didn’t know where he can use it. Moreover, he decided to rewrite it and release it in June 2020. The early 2000’s sound is what inspired the heavy distortion of the song.
The next single that he released on July 9, 2020, is entitled dila. Zild said that the song is about the people who can’t keep their mouths shut. Moreover, the song arrangement was just a sketch before the quarantine. Then Tim Marquez of One Click Straight added some synths as they hangout inside Zild‘s small studio.
Then the rest of the remaining songs have been released on Zild‘s official YouTube channel. The music videos have 8-bit and video game-like graphics.
Truly, the journey of this album is quite relatable because it’s based during the Enhanced Community Quarantine last year where people became isolated. Happy first anniversary, Homework Machine!
