Bill Eberle Explores Cosmic Connectivity with New Single “In The City”

Videos by American Songwriter

Nashville singer-songwriter Bill Eberle is back with a new single called “In The City.”

The song starts softly and dreamily, with touches of beach-y psych grooves. Eberle’s narrative zooms in and out of city living: In just the first verse, listeners encounter a pair of red lips, a police shooting, and a sunset walk.

“I wanted to make a song that felt like the city,” Eberle said. “That felt like looking up at an apartment building at night, seeing all of the lights on, all of those stories being stacked up on top of each other. Or riding the train to work, while three stops ahead of you someone is being arrested or needs medical attention, so your train has to sit there, and you and 100 other people are all 20 minutes late for work. It is a layered and collaborative way of living, and I’ve always felt this strange sense of both cosmic and practical connection when moving through big cities.”

The song’s story continues with scenes of wine-drinking, the presidential election, and an uptown party where “kids are rising off the ground.”

But then the song’s marker hits 2:33. There, the track sonically breaks and takes off in a driving, yearning fashion, with Eberle singing, “I gotta get out.” But Eberle doesn’t mean the need to get out of the city.

“In an age where we receive most of our major news through our phones, there is a tangible connectivity and tension that comes with being surrounded by so many different people trying to live their lives the same as you are; a precarious grace. That tension builds throughout the song until it breaks wide open, the need to get outside of your own head and to surround yourself with other people becoming my mantra to be repeated over and over again.”

Instead, he means the needs to get out of one own’s head and connect with others.

“In The City” teases Eberle’s upcoming album, Soft Light, out Spring 2018 and produced by Nashville band The Beech Benders.

Listen to “In The City” below.

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