Tender, warm, and bright, Ethansroom’s ‘BIGGER LOVE’ is an enchantingly intimate indie pop masterpiece: A radiant, spirited record full of light, raw passion, and heart-on-sleeve emotion that channels Ethan Fortenberry’s innermost humanity out into the world.
for fans of COIN, Medium Build, Joe P, Winnetka Bowling League
Stream: “Shower Thoughts” – Ethansroom
I could pay off my student loans, or I could record my dream record. The choice was obvious.
Ethan Fortenberry knew exactly what he wanted his new record to sound like before he even started recording it.
“I wanted it to feel like you were there while the songs were being written,” the Nashville-based singer and songwriter, who records under the name Ethansroom, says. “Live, but also more than live. Like you were inside my brain.”
It’s always inspiring to see your visions pan out, and that’s exactly what happened for Fortenberry on his third studio album. Tender, warm, and bright, BIGGER LOVE is an enchantingly intimate indie pop masterpiece: A radiant, spirited record full of light, raw passion, and heart-on-sleeve emotion that channels Fortenberry’s innermost humanity out into the world.
It’s achingly vulnerable and breathtakingly bold at the same time – a spellbinding soundtrack to life itself, ready to accompany us through our highs and our lows.
I’m running my hands through
My hair under water
I’m cleaning my head out
I’m reaching up under
Cushion’s and bed frames
Where I left you always
Along with the remote
The water has turned cold
What if we made out
Know I’m not in town but
I’m thinking about it
And wherever you are
Watching it all
Go down the drain
Along with the timeline
The one where we made it
I can see the
Whole wide world from here
– “Shower Thoughts,” Ethansroom
Independently released October 4, 2024, BIGGER LOVE is a dynamic, dramatic, and sweeping mission statement from Ethansroom. The artist’s third studio album (following 2020’s self-titled Ethansroom and 2021’s A Year and Then Some) arrives on the heels of a year-long campaign that began with September 2023’s “Laughing Out Loud,” a dusty, cinematic indie rock reverie about making peace with our demons and learning to let go. The ensuing twelve months have been the most active and engaging of Fortenberry’s career, as he’s released and promoted eight more singles in the lead-up to BIGGER LOVE.
That’s just the kind of effort you put into something you so deeply believe in.
“BIGGER LOVE feels like the first Ethansroom record to me,” Fortenberry tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s the first time I’ve felt like I made something truly timeless both in this world and within myself. In the past there were limitations on what I could do, but with this record there were none. I could pay off my student loans, or I could record my dream record. The choice was obvious.”
“We left no stone unturned in the making of this record. We spent 2-3 hours on the first five seconds of ‘Can I See You Again?’ We retracted the guitar for ‘Best Thing You’ve Ever Seen’ three times, and I think four times for ‘It’s Like I Know When Imma See U.’ All that to say, I feel like this record captures what I’m capable of when I’m given the space to unashamedly obsess over something. I’m forever indebted to [my producer] Jason Bennett for being so willing to dive in with me. He’s the only person I’ve met who’s as down as I am to live in the weeds, and he somehow knew what that sound was and was able to help turn it into something tangible.”
Fortenberry candidly describes BIGGER LOVE as explosive, understanding, and eternal.
“BIG LOVE to me is what happens when you see yourself not apart from the world, but within it,” he explains. “It’s this feeling of being directly connected and entangled with whatever the object is. It’s bigger than romantic love, but romantic love is certainly in it. It’s bigger than a love for the world, but a love for the world is certainly within it. It’s bigger than any sadness and any form of anger, but those too are within BIG LOVE. BIG LOVE to me is living with a full understanding that everything belongs. The more you live out of it, the more life you get out of it.”
“I drew this picture on my iPad of cartoon me hugging a giant red ball, and for some reason looking at it, it made me think of ‘BIG LOVE,’” he adds. “I knew I wanted to release the record in this drawn out kind of way (it’s taken me a year to get it out) in order to give all the songs the chance and visibility they deserved.”
“That being said, ‘BIG LOVE’ was the EP, so ‘BIGGER LOVE’ would be the album. It’s stupid. It’s just literally bigger than the EP, that’s it. I wanted every cover to contain the ball, and I wanted it to eventually feel like a companion/sentient to everyone who’s been following along this journey with me.”
BIG LOVE to me is living with a full understanding that everything belongs. The more you live out of it, the more life you get out of it.
Highlights abound across the thirteen-track journey from the album’s dramatic opener “Best Thing You’ve Ever Seen” to the sweetly smile-inducing closer “Getaway.”
From the dreamy, hard-hitting “NA NA” and the seductively smoldering “It’s Like I Know When Imma See U” to the breathtakingly brooding “Shower Thoughts,” the beautifully pensive “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and the gentle acoustic reverie “Gravity,” Ethansroom bares his heart and his soul in song. His poetic lyrics are honest and unflinching, his voice aching, emotive, and impassioned, his melodies as catchy as they are cathartic.
“My favorite moments are the screams at the end of ‘Shower Thoughts’ (shouts out Sam), when the drums come in on ‘Laughing Out Loud,’ the bridge on ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (most of what you hear is a bass guitar played with a violin bow), and the strings on ‘Best Thing You’ve Ever seen’ (shouts out Drew). They’re massive and uncontained and messy and I love them,” Fortenberry smiles.
“I think if I were to hand pick which lyric encapsulates who I am as a person, it’d be verse two of ‘Shower Thoughts,’” he adds. “‘I’m scratching my temples / This water is sacred / I’m watching my skin turn / Pretending I’m ancient / I’m laughing about it / Probably cause I’m naked / There’s nothing to get here / And no one to get it.’ I’m always thinking about the bigger picture but it’s always in this weird way, haha. I don’t “think deep” by thinking about deep shit, I think about deep shit by pretending to be an old person in the shower.”
BIGGER LOVE is invigorating, it’s inspiring, it’s authentic, and it’s life-affirming.
As Fortenberry himself sings in “Dust” (albeit far more sardonically, and sarcastically than I mean it here), what a time to be alive. The third Ethansroom LP is a triumphant indie pop tour de force that holds nothing back in capturing life’s majesty, its intensity, and its complexity – all the beauty and ugly within us and around us, that ultimately makes every day unique, special, and worthwhile. Housed within this album are songs of self-reflection and self-discovery, of unapologetic inner reckoning, of heartache and hope, uncertainty and questioning, redemption, and so much more.
In short, BIGGER LOVE and its big red ball are here to be a companion as we go about our own journeys. Whether you need the high of “Can I See You Again?” and “Why” or the moody space of “Mad at Nothing” and “Indiana” – or something in-between – Ethansroom has delivered, in this album, a wide world of emotionally charged sounds, colors, and textures to propel us forward, onward, and ultimately upward.
We had everything we needed
But didn’t want it didn’t keep it
Not everything can be convenient
Everything is sacred don’t you see it
Built on top of the
Promised Land you’ve got
What would happen if it all blew up?
Look around till you have no one
I don’t think I’m ready to go back to dust
What a time to be alive…
– “Dust,” Ethansroom
“I hope people hear this record and feel closer to themselves and closer to the people they hold close,” Fortenberry tells Atwood Magazine. “I hope people walk away with more understanding and tolerance both for themselves and for others around them. This record gave me life, and is continually giving me life. I hope it does the same for anyone who listens.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Ethansroom’s BIGGER LOVE with Atwood Magazine as he takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his third studio album!
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:: stream/purchase BIGGER LOVE here ::
:: connect with Ethansroom here ::
Stream: ‘BIGGER LOVE’ – Ethansroom
:: Inside BIGGER LOVE ::
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Best Thing You’ve Ever Seen
This song to me feels like it was written by your uncle who’s really into conspiracy theories. I had just gotten into Christian Lee Hutson and loved how he used irony/sarcasm in his writing and wanted to try and introduce that kind of tone into my own writing. We’re born, we go to school, we’re taught that everything is okay and that there’s nothing to worry about, we grow up, we go to work, we die. Ain’t it the best thing you’ve ever seen? I hope we wake up one day.
Laughing Out Loud
Laughing out loud is a song about learning to laugh at the things that used to haunt you. It’s both a mantra and a feeling. Look back at all the stuff that used to be such a big deal. Being late to school, getting a bad haircut, feeling like you’d never get over your ex, thinking the first time you smoked weed that you’d be high forever…Learn to laugh as it happens. That’s what life’s about I think. The sound the Iron Giant makes whenever all his pieces are finding each other was a reference for the outro of this also.
Can I See You Again?
There was a while there where I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to tour. My travel anxiety was relentless. I wasn’t scared the car was going to crash or anything there was just too much time to think. I was scared of myself. I eventually got over and love touring/travleing more than anything now, but it took a lot of self-reflection to get there. This song is just all the stuff I’d anxiously think about while in the car. It’s also about how I don’t like peach rings.
NA NA
There was a while there where I couldn’t see the good in anything. I woke up in a bad mood over and over and over again. I lived on the wrong side of the bed. One day it hit me that I was the problem and that the world could be a beautiful place if I wanted it to be. Love is a choice. Ironically, I had a small tantrum in the studio when we tracked it. All the chord shapes are 5-fret stretches and my hands are small and I was so done. I got to reference whenever Team Rocket gets defeated in Pokemon at 2:05.
Indiana
Indiana is the first song I wrote on the record. I was saving it until I knew I could get it right from a recording standpoint, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s a song about being tongue tied (I have lots of those) and infatuated (lots of those too). Writing for me is a space to get the words just right, and this song was a catalyst in me discovering that about myself.
Shower Thoughts
This is my favorite song on the record. It feels like such a direct reflection of me and the way my brain works. Despite the title, I wrote this one on a plane. They offer a similar headspace for me. I was thinking about how the shower is often the only place where it all makes sense. I can hold my past, present, and every possible future at the same time.
Why
I was talking with my best friend Jack one day about how being down can have this kind of ambiguity to it lots of times. Not knowing what you want, getting what you want and not wanting it anymore, looking for signs that you’re doing the right thing. Sometimes nothing feels right, and that’s alright. I played this one out live for years before we recorded it, and live we’d always do this bossanova thing at the end. We live tracked most of this record and it was such a blast to be able to tag that onto the end just like we would live.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
I was obsessed with the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once and it got me thinking about how I think the people we’re close to now are the people we’ve been close to and will be close to in every lifetime/timeline/universe/etc. I think if you look hard enough into someone’s eyes you can see everything folding in on itself. It’s awesome.
Mad At Nothing
This song is for all of my fellow daydreamers who take it a little too far sometimes. Daydreaming really is a sweet thing. It’s where we’re able to think about the people we hold close, flesh out the things we’re excited about, and for me it’s where a lot of my writing comes from. I’ll usually write a full verse “up there” before I ever bring it to an instrument (I wrote the first verse on a run). More times than I’d like to admit though, I’ve let my anxiety mix with my daydreaming and it’s made me bitter towards realities that didn’t even exist. I wrote the chorus to this song on a plane while being mad at one of those realities. I was still pissed by the time I had gotten off that flight, but it’s because of this song I’m able to cool off sooner than later these days.
Dust
I had just watched the movie ‘Don’t Look Up’ and it shook me to my core. It felt real and synonymous with what’s going on in the world today. We’ve chased convenience to the point of oblivion. I’ve literally heard people say they don’t care if this world fades away sooner than later because it’s not their “forever home”. It makes me sick. The people who believe that are going to look around one day and they’re not gonna have anything. If you really do love a God that made this world so much then shouldn’t that mean you love His creation also?
Gravity
Gravity is about me being so focused on the feeling of being down that I forgot that (to a degree obviously) it was my choice to stay there. You don’t have to get to the bottom of every little thing. Some days just suck. Try again tomorrow.
Getaway
“Think I need a getaway / it’s like I’m never here anymore.” That was the feeling I was left with right before I chose to step away from Nashville. I was sick of everyone around me and most importantly was sick of myself. Everything and everyone felt complacent and I was in desperate need of a change in scenery. The realization I came to is that we live in a world where serving yourself is the norm. There’s a mirror in front of all of us and you have to actively look the other way to escape it. To get close to something or someone else you have to get away from yourself first.
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:: stream/purchase BIGGER LOVE here ::
:: connect with Ethansroom here ::
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© Noah Tidmore
© Noah TidmoreBIGGER LOVE
an album by Ethansroom
