Every parent eventually hears their own parents come out of their mouth. For ErickOscar, it happened in the middle of disciplining his daughter, when he realized he was repeating the same lines he had been told growing up. Some of those lines, he noticed, don’t hold up to science; they were just handed down from one generation to the next. And when his kids asked “Why?” and he had no answer, he fell back on the oldest line of all: “You need to do as I say because I say so.” That moment became “Because I Said So,” which was released on September 11th.
He wrote the song years ago, inspired by his two children, who are now adults. The song comes straight out of that experience and the way parenting habits get passed along.
ErickOscar, based in Cave Springs, has played acoustic guitar with his church worship band for more than 35 years and says he has written over 1,200 songs in that time. His father was a singer who introduced him to love songs and ballads as a kid. More recently he picked up music production software, which he uses to choose style, tempo, vocals, instruments and arrangement, and he describes himself as an amateur producer who enjoys bringing music to life.
He is open about his process. He writes his own lyrics and plays acoustic guitar to land on the rhythm and tempo he wants, then uses software to add the vocals and other instruments, so some AI is part of the finished recording.
“Because I Said So” is part of a larger catalogue. It appears on his country-Americana album Two Flags, One Heart, alongside songs built around his Panamanian heritage and life in the United States. He also released the album Still Fighting on October 1st, with One Rhythm, One World due on October 8th.
