Arduino Uno (Atmega328P-PU) with ISD1700 Audio chip

Hello, there I'm a newbie to Arduino and have struggling with this one problem for a while now.

I have used play and fwd pins (23 and 26) from ISD1700 audip chip. connected these pins to pin 8&9 on arduino that is pin 14 & 15 on Atmega 328.
Although the code works when I connect the pins through arduino . But on the prototype with Atmega alone and all the connections . I can only hear the play and the fwd is not working and hear it play the same file again.

the prototype is fine, because I was able to use pin change interrupts to control two push button switches to turn the LED's on and off. But if I upload the following code through Arduino Uno, take the chip out and place it on my prototype , the program just doesn't follow what it says , its just the forward doesn't work but goes through the process ,and never forwards but plays and continues that way .
Also, I'm a little confused with PWM and regular digital I/O pin. Because the forward is a PWM digital pin where as play is on digital pin .

Below is the code I used. Someone please help me, I need to make it work soon

int play = 8;
int fwd = 9;

void setup ()
{
     
   pinMode(play, OUTPUT);
   digitalWrite(play, HIGH);
   
   pinMode(fwd, OUTPUT);
   digitalWrite(fwd, HIGH);
}

void loop()
{
  
  
  
  //waiting 10 seconds play time / wait for start
   delay(30000);
   
   // hitting play button
   digitalWrite(play,LOW);
      delay(1000);   
   digitalWrite(play,HIGH); 
   
   //letting 20 secs of play time
   delay(30000);
   
   //hitting forward button
   digitalWrite(fwd,LOW);
       delay(1000);
   digitalWrite(fwd,HIGH);
   
   //waiting 5 seconds to press play again
    delay(5000);
     
    //hitting play again 
   digitalWrite(play,LOW);
     delay(1000);
   digitalWrite(play,HIGH);
  
  
  
}