What is going on, friends? Welcome to My Weekly
Mixtape, the show that takes the classic mixtape
approach to building a modern playlist. I'm your
host, Brian Colburn. Joining me today to talk
about his new single, For Real, a collaboration
with Grammy -nominated soul artist Aloe Blacc,
is Eric Hirschberg. Eric, thank you so much for
joining me tonight on My Weekly Mixtape. Brian,
great to be here. Thanks for having me. Well,
since you're a first -time guest, let's start
with the basics. What does the word mixtape mean
to you? You want to see my mixtape collection?
I'll go to the garage and get it for you. Some
of my best friendships that's still enduring
started by exchanging mixtapes. When I went to
Europe and backpacked through Europe after college,
I made one of those little carrying cases full
of mixtapes. I still have them today in the garage.
It's such a great time capsule because it's like,
what was I listening to the year I graduated
college? And courting my wife, you know, mixtapes.
So they've just been a great time capsule. That's
all, of course, shifted to playlists now, but
I keep that discipline alive because I do think
just like photo albums, collecting the music
that you're listening to at any given moment
is just a great way to mark the chapters of your
life. Amen. I like that mindset there. Well,
Eric, you've taken a pretty unique path into
the music world, first as the CEO and chief creative
officer at Deutsche LA, and then the CEO of Activision,
home to video game behemoths like Call of Duty,
Skylanders, Destiny. River Raid, if you grew
up playing the Atari 2600 like I did. Yeah, Pitfall.
Oh my God, the hours I spent between Pitfall
and Pitfall 2. And of course, for all of the
music fanatics listening, Guitar Hero. Did your
path ultimately lead you to start creating music
or has music been running alongside your career
the entire time? It's a great question. It's
always been there. I started writing. So I played
violin as a kid from age five to age 15. And
then like a lot of kids who play violin, I decided
I wanted to play rock and roll. And I shifted
first to the bass, then to the guitar. I wrote
my first song, I think when I was 15 years old,
I was in a band with my older brother and then
he graduated and then I had my own band and then
I had my own band at UCLA. And, you know, when
I was that age, this was what I thought I was
going to do. And, you know, we had kind of we
had a band with a following at UCLA and we played
a bunch of the cool L .A. clubs at the time.
And, you know, I remember getting feeling like
we were maybe getting close, like an A &R guy
from Warner Brothers showed up at a show and
this and that. But, you know, it never took off.
And in the meantime, a whole other career did
take off and kind of took over. And I kept. performing
and kept playing in bands well into my twenties,
probably longer than was advisable from a career
management standpoint. But my advertising career
took off and eventually I stopped performing,
but I never stopped writing. And I kept waiting
for it to kind of degrade itself to what I would
call like a hobby status where, you know, it
was something I did every once in a while and
it never did. It was just always kind of tugging
at my shirt. And I always had songs running in
the background and I always had notes, you know,
to capture lyrics when they came and capture
melodies when they came. And so as I became more
and more public as a business person, I became
more and more private as an artist. And when
I took over at Activision and I was an officer
of a public company and I had to speak on an
earnings call every 12 weeks, I became completely
uncomfortable being public with my music. Maybe
that was all in my head. I don't know. It just
felt like no one wanted to hear. your love songs
when you've got it, you know, when you've got
thousands of employees and, you know, investors
and, you know, it just felt like serious business.
And I wanted to at least appear to be completely
on point. But I think with the time that a lot
of people spend, I don't know, playing golf,
doing stuff that I don't do, I was always doing
this. And so when I stepped down as the CEO of
Activision and I, you know, lucky to have the
opportunity to kind of rebalance my life. The
first thing I wanted to do was put on my music
because it was just, it became, there was a moment
when a friend who I really do consider a friend
who I was close to, but met through working at
Activision was at my house at a cocktail party
and saw a guitar in the corner and said, oh,
who plays guitar in the family? And it was at
that moment that I realized, wow, this has really
become like a secret life. You know, like it
really was hidden from view. So I wanted to come
out with an album and put myself out there as
a musician publicly. And it's funny when I first,
there was a plan to come out with everything
under a band name. The name of my first album
was Spare Room. Spare Room was going to be the
name of my band. Band, quote unquote, because
they didn't have a band. It was me. And I had
a bunch of other session players and other musicians
who contributed, but it wasn't really a band.
But I thought like Conor Oberst goes on under
Bright Eyes. Sam Bean goes out under Iron and
Wine. I was just going to do that just to keep
the Google searches separate. And my wife called
me out on it. And she said, If you can't be comfortable
being your whole self in public right now, you're
never going to be. And, you know, you should
go out under your name and just be your whole
self. And she was right. I took the leap. I'm
glad I did. And you know what? Nobody cared.
It was like, it was all in my head. I was like,
oh, you play music too? All right, cool. I'll
give it a listen. You know, like there was no
backlash or, you know, there's that great Mark
Twain quote that says, I think it was Mark Twain.
You wouldn't care so much about what other people
think about you if you knew how infrequently
they do. Yeah. As I mentioned at the top of the
episode, For Real is your new single and latest
collaboration with Grammy nominated soul artist,
Aloe Blacc. Let's take a listen to it. Now, Eric,
this is actually your second time working together
as you first teamed up with Aloe in 2024 on the
Dry January anthem, I Love Not Drinking. Yeah.
Can you walk us through how this partnership
began and how it's grown between these two collaborations?
Sure. It was completely serendipitous. We met
through a common friend. Her name is Zem Joaquin.
She puts on a... a TED -like conference that's
awesome called the Near Future Summit every year.
And she integrates music into the, you know,
in between the speeches, she'll sometimes have
music acts and there'll be thematic, right? So
whatever is sort of being talked about on stage,
she'll try to find a musical actor or something
that kind of fits with the theme. I was there
to close the day that day because there were
some, I think some speeches about addiction or
about that kind of theme. And she wanted to end
on a little bit of a higher note. and my song
i love not drinking is on theme with those topics
but way more joyful and way more fun and kind
of a fun anthem and aloe was the the musical
act in the morning and she put us together i
think on a group text saying you guys need to
meet and aloe you need to hear eric's song i
think she knew he was also a non -drinker so
i think she thought it would you know speak to
him and so We met, we hung out. I played it for
him. He liked it. And it was just one of these
great rock and roll spontaneity moments where
I kind of had the thought bubble over my head.
I wonder if he would sing this with me. And then
I just went for it. And I said, you want to perform
it together? And he's like, sure. And I had a
couple hours before I went on. We literally went
out behind the venue, like sitting between two
air conditioning units and rehearsed it. And
he learned it. And then we took the stage together
and got the whole place singing it together.
And, um, that's a great way to start any friendship,
you know? So, um, then I said, I had already
recorded the studio version. It wasn't out yet,
but I said, if I reopen the mix, you want to
come in and, you know, lay down what you did
today, you know, on the studio track. He said,
yes. And then we became friends and we actually
performed together again at another event and,
um, did both his songs and the song we did together.
I love not drinking. And then eventually we said
we should write a song together. We have good
chemistry and, you know, we. have interesting
conversations about the world and see things
sometimes the same, sometimes differently, but
always good conversations. And that's how this
song came about. We're having a conversation
about our phones and we both said, you know,
this would make a good topic for a song. Well,
I want to lean into that a little bit because
your music leans heavy into the folk and Americana
genres while Aloe's vibe sits more in the soul
world. Yeah. When you two got together, how did
you blend those styles in a way that pulled from
both of those backgrounds, but still felt natural
to each of your respective genres. Again, it
started with a good conversation. It was the
first topic, actually. We said, we've got to
find a genre that works with both of our styles
or both of our natural settings. What is that?
And we had a good chat about it and we pulled
up some, you know, kind of spirit animal tracks.
And I had never heard Aloe's voice used. kind
of in this way. He has that gospel tone to him,
but it's usually kind of pop based R &B and pop
based production. And I kind of wanted to put
him more in that hosier lane, you know, a little
bit more of that God rays coming through the
stained glass, you know, windows. And that has
a lot of folk in it that has a lot of roots in
it, but it also has this kind of big modern production
to it. And we thought, okay, if we can get on
the 50 yard line between those two things. this
is what it would sound like. And I don't know,
you tell me how you think we did, but I feel
like we found a spot that really got the best
out of both of us. I think it was an absolute
home run. Thank you. Well, the song carries what
I consider to be a really powerful message about
pushing past the things that divide us. Because
if there's one thing about that's what's happening
in the world now is there's a ton of division,
especially when it comes to technology and social
media. Yes. Since you spent such a huge part
of your career in the tech world, does this song
feel like a bit of a change of heart for you?
Or is it more of a self -reflection on what you've
seen from maybe the inside? No, I understand
why you're asking the question, but no, I think
that there's different lanes within the tech
world. I actually think video games are one of
the things that bring us together. I think games
like Call of Duty cut across all. partisan politics,
age groups, racial groups, everybody plays. It's
one of the few things everybody does. And it's
a beautifully, naturally inclusive, diverse audience
that's attracted to those big blockbuster games.
So that's very different than social media and
different than what's happened to what we used
to call the news. I don't know what to call it
now, but anybody in the tech world that has a
kind of endless scroll to manage. develops an
algorithm and let's assume best intentions. Let's
assume that they are trying to detect what we
like and what we prefer. That may be what they
were aiming for, but they hit what you can't
ignore by mistake. And what you can't ignore
is not always what you like. And it's not always
what's good for you. It's just the thing you
can't look away from because it enrages you or
it makes you afraid or it. you know, makes you
feel some kind of tribal connection to your quote
unquote team. And that there's so much of that
in our world right now. And, you know, technological
change often brings about some kind of upheaval.
There was a lot of fake news at the beginning
of the printing press I've read, you know, so
there are some, there are some analogs, but we
definitely don't have our arms around it yet
as a society. And there's nobody I know who isn't
trying to use it less, who isn't trying to disconnect
from those powerful tools that are dividing us.
So that was our starting point lyrically. And
I think the first line we wrote was the first
line of the song, why am I so addicted to the
bad news? And it went from there. And I feel
like all songwriting, all the best songs, all
my favorite songs, just as a music fan, find
some personal... that ladders up to a universal
experience. And that's why love songs and breakup
songs are so timeless because most people can
relate to them. This is something a lot of people,
unfortunately, can relate to right now. So, you
know, hopefully it's striking a chord out there.
It did with me because the opening line, why
am I so addicted to bad news? I literally have
written in my bullet points as something that
I wanted to talk about. Yeah. What am I so afraid
of? Why am I so confused? Why am I so addicted
to the bad news? Now as creatives, there is the
tension here because the song encourages stepping
back from social media. But at the same time,
If you're a musician or a podcaster such as myself,
there's no social media is kind of part of the
beast. Yeah. What do you think a healthy balance
looks like? Or maybe the better question is what
balance do you personally try to aim for? Okay.
So I don't want to get in trouble with meta,
which I am trying to use as a marketing platform.
You and me both. Yeah. I uninstall it from my
phone every time after using it. And I only use
it for this. Meaning if you scroll through my,
I used to, just like everybody, I used to post
pictures of my kids and my opinions. And I stopped
a long time ago because I felt like this is.
tearing us apart and um i don't want to be a
part of it so i use it as a tool to promote my
music and to share my music i actually challenge
the assumption that we all need it i i know none
of us have the guts to try to go without it but
i have noticed that i'll give you one anecdote
i had one instagram reel go truly viral 5 .3
million views oh wow you know many multiples
more than my average or than the next highest
one you know i don't know why it was like chorus
two of track seven of my last album you know
and i had already posted chorus one so you know
that chorus had already had a shot on goal and
it didn't connect and i scrolled past it it was
like weeks later i'm like wait i think my mind
filled in 5 .3k because everything else is in
thousands and it was 5 .3m and i'm like what
And I clicked on it. But when I look on a calendar
at when that thing took off and had millions
of people evidently clicking on it, sharing on
it, commenting on it, liking it, I saw no correlative
spike on Spotify or Apple Music. I saw no correlative
spike in visits to my website. I call it a lamp
that lights only itself. I think that Instagram
is a lamp that doesn't shed light on other platforms.
It doesn't radiate. It wants to keep you there.
That's in their business interests. So they make
it hard for you to leave. That's why they give
you only one link in your bio, which is really
frictiony and hard to find. They could make it
really easy where like every post can have a
link to the thing I want you to go do, the YouTube
video or the Spotify track or wherever I want
to take you. But they make that really hard because
they want you to stay. So I feel like, okay,
so it's another place where people heard a little
piece of my song, at least. It's getting out
there. Hopefully there's some reverberation from
that. I can't prove it. So I don't know. We all
do it because we feel like we all have to do
it. But as far as my consumption, I really try
to stay as off as I can. I can't handle it. Every
time I install it to put up the next reel or
do whatever I have to do for my music, they know
I'm back. They serve up something. They know
that like, well, this is going to piss him off.
I have to click on it. And then I'm in it. And
sometimes an hour passes before I shake out of
it and uninstall it again. Well, I find it fascinating
that you say all that because it's something
that I've struggled with with this podcast, where
if you post a clip, yes, people might enjoy the
clip on Instagram or on any of the sites, but
then they don't go and actually listen to the
full conversation. Correct. And being a 25 -year
radio veteran, to me, it's all about the full
conversation or the full album listen or the
full song. And I don't know how old you are,
Brian, but I'm a 20th century animal. I care
about the albums. I care about the whole song.
I don't know that Mr. Listener or Mrs. Listener
out there really care about it as much as we
do. And the way people are consuming music is
changing. Is it for the worse? I don't know.
We all have our biases about what we grew up
with being the thing that we prefer. So of course,
I think that's worse. And I still listen to stereo
speakers with high resolution files or vinyl
too. But I guess I've come to peace with the
idea that wherever people connect with it and
however they connect with it is what I want.
You know, I've had people, you know, friends
say, I heard your new song and I'll always poke
a little and go, oh, great. Awesome. Where'd
you listen to it? Oh, on Instagram. And I'm like,
well, then you haven't in my mind, you haven't
heard the song. You heard the second verse maybe,
you know, or you heard the guitar lead or the
chorus or whatever that post was. But, um, but
that's okay. You know, people are good. We got
to meet people where they are and music still
matters. And if it touches people, just hearing
the clip, if your podcast, you know, connects
with someone. Just seeing the clip that you,
you know, the brief portion of it that you post,
that's still good content for them. You still
made them think. Well, I am going to embed the
entire music video as well as the making of on
the episode page over at myweeklymixtape .com.
If anybody listening wants to view the entire
video for this song, I want to dive into the
actual music part of this now, because in the
making of it and the video itself, you see the
band playing, you kind of get this feel. Can
you talk about the recording process? Was this
done live? Because it has a very live, vulnerable
feel to the track. And you had mentioned gospel
in that. I catch that from the performance. And
I'd love to hear more about how the song came
together in the studio. Okay. So I know no other
gear than to be authentic. We were not recording
it the day that we filmed it. So we were playing
it. And, you know, it's funny, all those musicians
who are playing with me are all super experienced
and they all commented on, hey, at least we were
playing it today. A lot of times I just come
in and lip sync, you know, and I guess that's
fairly normal. But I to me, that felt like a
step too far in authenticity. So we we just played
it over and over again. And we had a great director
and second cameraman there to capture it. And
so those moments are our moments where we are,
where the chemistry is real. You know, the moment
where. you know the drummer hits just at the
right moment in the chorus you know the lights
start to shine all of that's real and all that's
being captured and then of course there's an
editing process where you try to match the best
takes to you know but um it was important to
me that we all actually be plugged in and playing
it but it wasn't that wasn't the day we recorded
and that actually wasn't the room we recorded
it in the recording process was actually more
in pieces and the the reason for that was because
we started aloe and i in this room with a writing
session And for me, as the technology has progressed
and the writing process and the production process
have become very intertwined because you have
the ability now to stick a mic in front of an
amp and capture something at a really high level
of quality as you're writing it. And sometimes
you go back and replay it. And sometimes you're
like, yeah, that first take was pretty good.
So Aloe and I had a full session where we wrote
it and we came up with at least big pieces of
it together. And then there was, you know, a
month of me kind of sweating through piecing
together, trying different instrumentations.
And then there was, you know, his involvement,
commenting and adding things as we went. But
it really kind of went piece by piece. And then
for me, there's also a process where I know enough
on my instrument is guitar and singing. I know
enough behind a drum set and enough behind a
keyboard to be dangerous, but not to be it's
not professional grade. So I'll usually get kind
of a thumbnail sketch down of what I'm hearing
on the drums or what I'm hearing on the keyboards,
but that almost always bring in much better players
than me. And so Michael Chavez on the lead guitar,
Blair Cinta on the drums, Nir Russell on the
piano, Will Hensley, who you met earlier, my
engineer, he actually is an excellent guitar
player as well, and he contributed. Those other
musicians always make my work better. And it's
almost like you have to remind yourself you're
not good enough. Don't think that this demo is
good enough. And sometimes you do. Sometimes
you're like, oh, it's pretty good as is. And
then you bring in Blair Sinton and you're always
surprised. Oh my God, he brought so much to the
party. You bring in Michael Chavez and he does
things that you would have never thought to do
because that's where they have their 10 ,000
hours, not where I have mine. I have mine as
a writer and as a singer and maybe as a rhythm
guitarist. But people who think about nothing
but playing the guitar, they're going to bring
better ideas to your stuff. And I always want
my stuff to be elevated by other people. Well,
For Real is the first glimpse of your upcoming
album, More Is Not The Answer, which is arriving
in 2026. Musically, how does this track set the
tone for the rest of the album? Because we talked
about the difference in genres from your last
efforts. Does it line up with the overall sound
where you're headed? Or is this more of a standalone
moment in the bigger picture? I got very, I felt
like that conversation I referenced earlier where
Aloe and I were talking about what genre is this
going to be in? That was a great conversation
for the song For Real that we wrote together.
And it turned out to be a really great conversation
for me as an artist. because it pushed me out
of a comfort zone that i've always stayed in
which is that kind of very honest roots rock
folk vibe and for me there's almost like a religion
towards that and it's always like you want to
be you want the players in the room together
you want the mics on the instrument you don't
want anything synthetic or inauthentic and with
for real suddenly i'm playing with soundscapes
and i'm playing with more produced elements than
I ever have before. And I actually really liked
it. And I actually thought it took my kind of
folky introspective songwriting and put it on
a little bit of a more elevated scale. So the
rest of the album is attempting to stay in that
lane. You know, it wouldn't go on the album otherwise,
you know, it wouldn't, it would be such an outlier
if you went from that song back to finger pick
guitar, you know, in a room with three other
guys, you know, it just felt like, okay, this
is a new lane that I'm going to stay in. And
so all the other songs. have that production
vibe and hopefully you can intuit a little bit
from the name more is not the answer the themes
of for real are themes that you know appear throughout
the album as well you know not not everything's
about the phone not everything's about division
but i just observed in my life the things i've
gotten happier and happier in recent years by
the things i'm doing less of not the things i'm
adding to my life it's addition by subtraction
And that's sort of the theme of the album. And,
you know, we have a lot more than we used to
as a society. We have more news, but we're less
informed. We have more entertainment, but we're
more bored. We have more ways to connect, quote
unquote, but we're lonelier and, you know, more
disconnected. So a lot of the things that are
supposed to be providing more are actually delivering
less. And so the album is really about recalibrating
for that new reality. Awesome. Awesome. Well,
since this show is called My Weekly Mixtape,
I'd like to bring this full circle, if you don't
mind. If you had to put together a five song
playlist, we'll call it a playlist. Okay. That
tells somebody everything they need to know about
Eric Hirschberg, the music fan. What five songs
would you pick and why? Okay, well, let's see.
If I was just going to try to squint and pick
my five biggest influences, you know, that kind
of are in there, I would have to pick a Tom Waits
song. I would probably pick Gun Street Girl by
Tom Waits. I would have to pick a Rolling Stones
song. It would probably be Gimme Shelter, which
was also the first song I ever put in a Call
of Duty commercial, by the way. The very first
There's a Soldier in All of Us ad. a classic
um i think there would i think um there's do
you know josh ritter yep uh he has a song called
the curse which just i can't listen to it without
tearing up and uh it's just i often think at
their best songs can be little movies you know
little epic journeys and i don't know that i've
ever accomplished that with one of my songs but
i always try to channel that and i feel like
that song is a is like the odyssey in a three
and a half minute pop song. It just takes me
on such a journey. Um, I would say, uh, God,
I really admired Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Maybe
that Western skyline. Ooh, nice. Or maybe may
all your favorite bands stay together. You know,
he has a wink and a humor. He's a really deep
writer. Oh yeah. But there's humor in his stuff.
And I, I, I've chanted, I've like, and I love
not drinking and a couple of other songs. I've.
added a little bit of a wink that i sort of i
feel like i learn a lot from him and then i'd
have to probably pick there's maybe aretha franklin's
well that whole album of um you know i never
loved a man the way that i love you i can't remember
the name of the album but aretha is a huge influence
of mine there's also there's a bunch of soul
that's why al and i got on well there's a bunch
of al green in there there's a bunch of marvin
gaye in there i don't know does that give you
But then I completely left out Pink Floyd, which
is hugely influential on me. And I completely
left out all the other folk artists. Paul Simon
is a huge influence on me. I don't know. That's
why I saved the tough questions for last. That's
a tough one, man. That is a tough one. The other
thing is that I didn't mention any female artists.
And a lot of my intake is female artists. Like
I'm obsessed with Lorde right now. I'm obsessed
with the new. Have you heard the new Florence
and the Machine record? Oh yeah. Oh my God. It's
like a, it's like reading the Bible. Like, I
don't know how she, she has such a scale to her
drama and you just get pulled in the awake, you
know, with no skis. So like a lot, a lot of female
artists have been hugely influential on me as
well. Liz Fair, who's also a friend, her stuff
is so confessional and so kind of like outrageously
unguarded and personal. She pushed me very early
on, you know, many years ago, like, yeah, you
got some talent, but you're not going deep enough.
You know, like you're, you're, you're pulling
the punches. I don't even know what this lyric
means. You know, she was the first one to say,
no, if you want to look, you know, you don't
have to do this, but if you want to be a songwriter,
you can really put yourself out there. And I
feel like I have done that. You know, I feel
like, I don't know whether it's been worth it.
I don't know whether it connects with people,
but I've gotten very personal and very comfortable,
you know. being unguarded. And again, just kind
of like the story I told about putting it out
there in the first place, everyone's like, Oh,
cool. It's very personal song, you know? So,
um, you know, you're always, the voices in your
head are always way more scared than the, than
the reality I find. Well, for real is available
now on all streaming platforms and Eric's third
album. More is not. The answer is set to arrive
in 2026. Eric, thank you so much for joining
me today on my weekly mixtape. I really enjoyed
it, Brian. Thank you. Great questions. And remember,
you can hear the song over on the episode page
at myweeklymixtape .com. And while you're there,
you can visit the contact page to send in any
ideas you'd like to hear on future episodes of
the show. You can also reach out to me on social
media at myweeklymixtape. And you can connect
with the Mixtaper community at patreon .com forward
slash. My Weekly Mixtape. It's free to join,
and there's several tiers if you'd like to support
the show a little bit extra. My name is Brian
Colburn. This has been My Weekly Mixtape. Enjoy
listening to For Real, and I'll see you next
time. Take care.