Eric Hirshberg wrote “More Is Not The Answer” in the immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles wildfires, and the circumstances show. With minutes to decide what to grab before evacuating, the singer-songwriter found himself face to face with a question most people never have to answer under pressure: what actually matters? That moment is the song’s foundation, and it holds.
The track is the title cut from Hirshberg’s forthcoming album, due later this year, and it’s his most direct and personal release to date. “We were one of the lucky ones, but it got close,” he says. “It was incredibly clarifying, how little mattered, and how much it mattered.” That tension drives the entire song, grounding it in something real without tipping into sentimentality. It’s a quiet, cinematic piece of songwriting that earns every emotion it reaches for.
“More Is Not The Answer” follows “For Real,” his collaboration with Aloe Blacc that marked his national television debut on Live with Kelly and Mark, and earned praise from Kelly Ripa on-air as “an anthem,” alongside a feature in American Songwriter. Where that track looked outward at connection in a digitally saturated world, this new single turns inward, asking what remains when everything else is stripped away.
The accompanying video matches the song’s understated tone, a reflective, intimate performance that lets the writing breathe. Musically, Hirshberg continues developing his signature approach: direct, human-scale songwriting set against a broader cinematic soundscape. The result feels grounded and expansive at the same time.
Together, these releases are building something real. ‘More Is Not The Answer,’ the album, looks to be one of the more considered and thematically cohesive projects in the works this year.