It’s taken Erik Kase Romero some time to reach his first album. Playing with bands in his native New Jersey for more than a decade—including his work with The Front Bottoms, who he has continued on with as a collaborative songwriter and producer—the singer and songwriter was always chipping away at something else, something more personal.
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Romero’s 2022 four-track EP For the Time Being… was only a precursor to the stories he had brewing for nearly two decades for how to be still and still be here, our early 2024. “This record really feels like a documentation of a particular moment in my career and life,” said Romero of the album in a previous statement. “It’s a product of examination, healing, and self-awareness. The last year has been transformative, and this music reflects the echoes of a profoundly traumatic moment in American history.”
Pulling from more Americana soul, sonically, everything is a reflection of Romero’s New Jersey roots, including lead single “Still,” capturing a sense of feeling lost and the upright hope that comes when one puts one foot in front of the other. World’s burning fast, best to close your eyes, then / Sing a lullaby for whoever listens, Romero delicately sings through the rootsy ballad, which follows his previous “shotgun.”
“I wrote this song longer ago than most songs on the record,” shared Romero. “In a practical way, I was frustrated with my own songwriting and wanted to challenge myself to make a song that never deviated from the same chord progression.”
He continues, “I think in the cracks of the simplicity, harmonically, it forced me to try and use melody and lyrics to communicate in ways that I often rely on other elements of songwriting to do. Lyrically it’s a song about unpacking who I am both ancestrally and personally. It’s a song about the struggle of being present.
Romero recently spoke to American Songwriter about the changing seasons of his musical life, songwriting now, and holding on to songs for years just for how to be still and still be here.
American Songwriter: There’s always that adage that it takes a lifetime to make your first album, so how long have you been working on how to be still and still be here?
Erik Kase Romero: I think that idea checks out for me. I feel like art is always gonna inevitably be a culmination of one’s journey up until that point in time, at least in one way or another. For this particular set of songs, the majority were written during a pretty condensed period of time from December 2022 [through] February 2023. The two exceptions would be “still,” which I wrote and subsequently had around as a demo since early 2021, and then “prized” which is a reimagined version of a song from a project I played in called stillhungry. I’m pretty sure that “prized” was written in 2019 but got modified quite a bit in 2023 when I re-recorded it.
AS: After releasing your EP For the Time Being… in 2021, when did these songs start piecing together for you, and around the release of your EP?
EKR: The EP For the Time Being… was truly just an experiment at first. I had never seriously entertained the idea of undertaking the adventure of performing and writing music as a solo artist prior to those songs. I think it felt like a period of time where I was feeling out what my identity was and how I wanted to frame my music and songs. This LP is definitely the next step in that journey of experimentation and is absolutely informed by what did and didn’t resonate with me about the experience of making and releasing those initial songs.
AS: Are some of the songs older or fairly new? If older, why were they ready now, for the album?
EKR: Just “still” and “prized”—the rest are very fresh— [and] “still” I had tried to use for a few projects leading up to the decision to add it to this album. Even when I first decided to try it out when we started tracking for this album, I wasn’t 100 percent sure it would make the cut. It’s a song that is lyrically really personal to me and I think that being so close to it has definitely led to some periods of myopia and frustration about not finding the “perfect” (as if that’s achievable in art) way of presenting it. The experience of recording it the way I chose to, working out the arrangements live in a recording context with fantastic musicians whom I deeply respect. I think gave me a lot of perspective about it and allowed me to see it for what it is more plainly. I think (at least for me), letting go of a need to control everything is really important and can lead to a way better perspective and way less self-judgment.
“prized” on the other hand I felt compelled to release this newer version of and really wanted it to be a part of the album from the start. I love the stillhungry version and I am really proud of how we did that song. I just think that the song has themes of sorrow and acceptance woven into its DNA and I really wanted to experiment with a version that distills and contextualizes that longing in a really intentional way.
AS: Take me into “still” a bit more. It’s an older song. Why was it resonating with you more now? How has the song connected with you over time?
EKR: The initial idea behind the song was just a challenge to myself to write a song where the chord progression never changes. I had been feeling like using clever harmonic arrangements was becoming a crutch for me, or even just taking up too much of my focus when writing. I wrote the verses and the verse melody basically all that first day where I was experimenting with the repeating three-chord progression. The chorus line, which at least for me kind of unlocked the whole thing as a song, was written on a plane ride in early 2021. I had been working with an artist out at a studio in Texas and had to fly home earlier than expected for a family emergency. On the plane, I was reading through a book of poems by David Whyte that my Mom gave to me called Pilgrim. For context, I was in a pretty volatile state of mental and emotional health probably not unlike many people were in 2021. I stumbled across this poem titled Second Sight:
Sometimes you need only the first shyness that comes from being shown things
far beyond your understanding, so that you can fly and become free
by being still and by being still here
And then there are times you need to be brought to ground by touch
and touch alone
To know those arms around you
and to make your home in the world
just by being wanted
It really struck me at that moment and I just scribbled down the words “how to be still and still be here.” That idea turned into the chorus of the song within the next few weeks. It eventually became sort of a guiding mantra for this whole new collection of songs.
As far as the song opening up or shifting for me over the last few years before releasing it, the biggest shift has been in the presentation and arrangement. I am really happy with where it landed. I think the muted piano being the backbone of it really unlocked the song for me as it was previously guitar-based in all of my demos. Definitely have to shout out the inimitable Max Connery (Sonic Blume), who played all of the keys on this record, for really transforming everything with his contribution to the song.
AS: What are some of the core underlying threads, lyrically, throughout these songs?
EKR: Lyrically I think a lot of these songs touch on the idea of struggling with identity, unpacking trauma and loss, and the search for purposefulness and connection in an incredibly broken and fragmented world. For me, the underlying theme would be the idea of presence and intentionality. I think that after looking back on all of the songs that’s probably a big part of what I was chasing and might not have even realized it at the moment of writing. I like that sometimes you can just keep working and collecting things that feel real and connected and then when you finally step back you can see a bigger picture and be like “oh yeah, that’s actually what I was doing, I didn’t even see it until now.”
AS: What led you to land on the title how to be still and still be here?
EKR: I think it was just a few weeks ago that I finally just admitted to myself that it should be the title. I think I’ve known for a long time. I was overthinking and worrying that it was too wordy or corny and just judging myself as we all do.
AS: You’re obviously invested in the production of this album. Sonically, was there something you wanted to approach differently on how to be still and still be here from what you’ve done in the past?
EKR: Yes. I think that the approach sonically and more specifically the approach practically was very different and felt really successful and educational to me personally. The previous releases were really centered on intentionally diving into a bit of a purist Americana approach. The EP and “Shotgun” were all tracked live with no click. Lead vocals live as well. I think it was a really important experiment because my biggest obstacle mentally has always been my own voice. Taking the microscope off of myself and getting rid of the opportunity to go back and fret over nuances was important I think for me to get over the hurdle of insecurity with my own vocals.
This record on the other hand I felt like it needed to feel more connected to who I am and not just an idea that I like. I grew up listening to Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young … so obviously those influences are gonna be there no matter what. But as I was meditating on how to approach the album I decided that chasing that particular aesthetic wasn’t leaving a lot of room for so many other facets of I am. I am from NJ, I definitely have no cultural authority regarding the country music elements of my music. It’s just something I like. I wanted to infuse more of the experimental recording, indie rock ethos and northeast emo influences from my childhood into the music.
The way I decided to go about accomplishing that ended up being a little complex, but felt necessary to separate the habits of what I do for work every day making records with people from my own journey into making a record as an artist.
I got together with Max Connery (keys), Evan Dibbs (all the stringed instruments), Samir Tawalare (drums/percussion), and Matt DeBenedetti (bass), for a string of days in March 2023 to develop the songs. Until that moment, I made it a point to avoid my usual over-demoing and had only ever worked on/cataloged the songs in a minimalist vocal plus acoustic guitar context. We just started from scratch and exercised whatever ideas came into our heads for arrangement, sounds, parts, and dynamics. It was really a special experience and I ended up with a ton of really incredible raw material. I then spent the next month or two combing through all of the ideas on my own and piecing together arrangements of the most interesting and exciting things I could find. I did all the lead vocals and a whole bunch of exploratory production on the tracks to continue building them out during that period of time. After that, I collaborated with the incredible Brittany Byrne (who also was featured on “shotgun”) and my lifelong best friend and bandmate Natalie Newbold to fill out the harmonies and vocal arrangements for the tunes. At this point, it felt like 90 percent of the way there, and in June Max, Evan, Samir, Matteo, and I all got together to put the finishing touches on everything. It felt really cool to write, record, and finish everything basically within six months.
The sonic result was something that I don’t know if I ever could have had a clear vision of going into it because it’s such a conglomeration of the sensibilities and creativity of everyone involved, but it feels great and definitely feels very different and much more developed compared to my previous releases.
AS: Thinking back 10 years or more, are you still the same songwriter now that you were then? How has this shifted for you?
EKR: Oh definitely not. I’m not sure if I would have had any way to identify myself as a songwriter 10 years ago at all. I kind of wrote in bands through high school and college but by 2010 I was so deeply immersed in the grind of trying to make a recording career happen and working such intense hours at recording studios that I went through a serious period of time where I wasn’t even playing bands or writing much of anything. I joined a band called Dollys in 2013 and definitely contributed a lot to the musical end of the writing but the other members were such fantastic and prolific songwriters that I never took on too much of a writing role.
After that band ended I started playing in a few other bands while continuing my recording career but it wasn’t until stillhungry in 2019 that I really tried to take the plunge into writing whole songs and making them a reality with recording and touring. I definitely think that these last four years of my “adult-onset songwriting career” have been a constant evolution and journey that’s perpetually shifting. I feel like I’m still probably too deep into some of my struggles with identity as a songwriter to have any kind of perspective but the one thing I can say is that I truly feel like where I’m landed currently is very centered around being brutally honest with myself.
Emulating others has always been easier for me than just being who I am, and I am now very focused on dismissing that proclivity for mimicry as much as I possibly can and trading it in for just letting my songs be more autobiographical and sincere.
Photo: Luke Ivanovich / Courtesy of Hundred Yard PR
