For his new album 2070, Jeff Eager strove to create a collapsing of the eras – the sounds he loves, inspired by the classic songwriting of the late 70s and early 80s, but for the future – say, the year 2070. His first single “I Don’t Care For What’s Out There” – available now – perfectly encapsulates this blurring of time as Eager, against an energetic, summer-fun groove, addresses the juxtaposition of the musician lifestyle and fatherhood.
A mix of vintage pop, rock, and soul, “I Don’t Care For What’s Out There” blends synth and acoustic sounds (think Raspberry Beret) and a clever, heartwarming message: all of the successes (and more importantly, the failures!) of a music career don’t matter to a small child:
You don’t care where I’m going when I back my bags
You don’t care where the gig is at
You don’t care about the tours played around the world
You just care that I’m coming back
“This album is for my kids in the future … when they reach middle age and they start thinking about what their old dad did when he wasn’t making lunches and cleaning the house,” Eager explains. “This was the motivation that kept me working through this album at such a high level.”
What spurred this concept was Eager thinking about his own parents once he became a dad, what their lives were like when he was little, outside of his memories.
“You don’t really know what your parents do, outside of feeding and clothing you and generally just being around,” Eager muses. “Their lives outside of their relationship with you doesn’t matter much to you, and it shouldn’t; you’re a kid with your own path and life to build.”
Eager didn’t want to pander to a current 2023 sound, he just wanted to make a record he absolutely loved, and the sound he came up with was inspired by his favorite music from a bygone era. “This album is not done as a gimmick, it’s not an intentional throwback, it’s not trying to capture an era-specific sound,” he said. “I simply wrote the music that I enjoy most, and when I was done, I inadvertently made a record from 1980.”
The album is for two audiences: listeners today who will enjoy the pure fun of 2070, and the tiny, tightknit group of people who will find special significance and intimacy in it decades down the line. “There’s tons of hidden gems, references and easter eggs in this record for my kids to find later,” Eager says. “It’s for an Audience of Three in 2070.”
