From a small closet to an entire room, singer/songwriter Eric Hirshberg has always found a space for his music at home. Although it couldn’t always be his top priority, music has now become a huge part of Hirshberg’s life, since deciding to leave his CEO position.
Videos by American Songwriter
Now, Hirshberg is releasing the music video for his single, “I Just Want to Be Here,” with American Songwriter. The new tune will be featured on his upcoming album, Spare Room, which was inspired by his late father.
“I Just Want to Be Here” was written for his wife and given to her as a gift on their 20th anniversary. Hirshberg originally thought it would be a love song, but instead it turned out to be a marriage song. Those both seem to go hand-in-hand, but with marriage, there’s so much more that goes on between a couple that not many people talk about.
“I wanted it to be honest and real and something that she would recognize both herself and us in. I realized that most love songs, that we all know, are about either falling in love or getting your heart broken. There are very few songs about the journey and the ups and the downs of making a marriage last,” says Hirshberg. “It has love with more complexity in it.”
Hirshberg has been a songwriter since the age of 14. Even at that young age, he knew where he wanted his career to go, but the timing just never seemed to be right. After graduating college, Hirshberg started working in advertising and eventually moved up to become CEO of Activision. While his job was stable, they didn’t allow much time for his true passion, music.
“During that time, the songwriting just never subsided,” Hirshberg adds. “I kept waiting for it to downgrade itself to hobby status or something manageable, but I found myself coming home at night and staying up until two in the morning writing songs.”
He got to the point where it was too hard to find a balance between his job and music. He knew he had to make a change, or he would have regrets. Hirshberg did not allow the late start to his music career to hold him back. In fact, he found the benefits in it through writing the songs for Spare Room.
“When I look back, I just didn’t have the songs yet,” recalls Hirshberg. “I’m someone who needed to live a lot of life in order to actually have something to say.”
“I Just Want to be Here” fits so well into the album, which contains the themes of marriage, fatherhood, aging, death, fatigue and exhaustion. Because Hirshberg can understand all of those emotions and experiences so well, he was able to create a beautiful music video for his latest single.
Hirshberg explains that the video, directed by Josh Rose, focused on the hands and feet of the two dancers so that the song can be related to every couple and not just the one in the video.
“I love how the video turned out,” Hirshberg says. “The dancers’ assignment was to capture the journey, the tension and the incredible intimacy and struggle that comes with any long-term marriage or relationship.”
Finding the perfect location, an empty apartment that allowed space for the dancers to move freely, helped the video come together elegantly and fall into place.
Spare Room will be available on February 26. Until then, watch the video for “I Just Want to Be Here” below:
