The Chicago artist on the stories behind Beneath Hazel, breaking old cycles, and bringing his cinematic vision to life.
Eric Solitude has some of the coolest visuals that caught my eyes. The styling, the photography, the cover art, and the cinematic quality of it all made me curious about the person behind them. But it was his music that made me stay. His debut EP, Beneath Hazel, is deeply personal, with songs like “Eviction” and “Boy Meets World” drawing from experiences of instability, family, and growing up. There’s something especially interesting about an artist who puts so much thought into how his music looks while being equally willing to let the songs get this vulnerable.
Based in Chicago, Eric has been building his own artistic world from the ground up, recording in bedrooms and basements, collaborating with close friends, and finding his voice along the way. With his second EP arriving on October 21, he’s entering a new chapter that he describes as bolder, braver, and more willing to confront things head-on. I’m glad we got to talk about the stories behind his songs, his love for visual storytelling, and what it means to create something that might outlive him.
DicePressPlay: Hi Eric! For people meeting you for the first time, how would you introduce yourself and the world of Eric Solitude?
Eric Solitude: Good morning, good morning. Eric Solitude captures the boldness of cinema and strength through sound and visuals. Each song is like a short film playing through audio. There’s this sweet escape and truth he finds himself in. Almost like an exhale of hope he seems to always trace back to through every high and low. Aware of how scary the unknown can be, yet dives into it head-on.
DicePressPlay: Where did the name Eric Solitude come from? Does “solitude” still mean the same thing to you now as when you chose it?
Eric Solitude: The backstory of how I landed on the name was actually when I was working at this rubber molding factory one summer. Imagine being in this stuffy, extremely humid building with heat already coming from the machines. It’s peak summer, but you get free Gatorade in a pitcher that you stop at once in a while to “hydrate,” and you’re at this machine trying to brainstorm artist name ideas. Previously, I went by HR$ (hours), which was associated with me having such bad insomnia. I was always up for hours, and that’s where that came from. But I needed something that felt like it could stand out on its own. So I wrote a list of names on my work paper, and it was a bunch of names next to Eric. Eric being my name, and solitude was in the bunch. I sat on it for a week, and I kept getting drawn to it. I had to make a decision because this name was one I told myself I’d keep and never change.
I think that solitude, for me, never lost its meaning. If anything, it took shape over time. Real life for me is in solitude, especially as of late. Even to its own detriment.
DicePressPlay: You’ve been releasing music for years, with nine singles before Beneath Hazel, your first EP. Why did that feel like the right moment to finally make a full project?
Eric Solitude: I’ve really been doing this for a minute. I just stuck it out until something shook. I knew it would, just didn’t know when. Even if it did take forever. Anyways, it’s funny though because the last song on that project, “Spilled Milk,” was the first song I actually made. And I don’t know, there was this strong feeling I had that I knew it shouldn’t just be released as a single this time around. It felt strong, so I held onto it. I sat on it for a while and started working backwards, unintentionally, because after that I made “Glare” (Track 3), with “Fear (Interlude)” (Track 2) following after, then going into “Boy Meets World” (Track 4), with the first song, “Eviction,” being the last song I made. It felt like a puzzle coming together on its own. I placed the songs next to each other and realized I had a project. My first one at that.
DicePressPlay: Beneath Hazel feels very personal. Was there a specific period of your life that those five songs came out of?
Eric Solitude: It’s very personal. Man. That version of Eric who was in the midst of making those songs feels very, very unrecognizable. I was so self-sabotaging with intense mood swings, dealing with heavy trauma, and I really pushed people away who were showing me that they genuinely cared for me. But at the time, I couldn’t see that.
I had just moved out of my grandma’s (was there for five years) and was taken in by a family who was the complete opposite of where I came from beforehand. That was startling. I was so used to nobody caring about my existence, not being acknowledged in the same home. For short, living at my grandma’s was a rough time that feels like a blur. I don’t even know how I got through that long battle. I’m not close to my family at all and never had a good relationship with them. Before living there, I was bouncing around, so I didn’t have a stable living environment. When I got to this new home (where I made the songs), it was really challenging to me because I was in a place where all my wounds would show up in the face of what “healthy” is supposed to be.
DicePressPlay: In “Boy Meets World,” you describe yourself as “a boy who got evicted,” and the project also opens with “Eviction.” How connected are those two songs?
Eric Solitude: They’re connected through the reality of my life at that time. I had to leave the home that took me in to find my own place. I’m forever grateful to them for taking me in, and I understand that I had to be a big boy and go out into the real world on my own. Even if that meant them telling me I had to find a place of my own to live. I felt like someone who just got evicted.
DicePressPlay: “Eviction” gets especially vulnerable when you write about something very personal: family, addiction, and relationships. Was there anything in that song that was difficult for you to actually put on record?
Eric Solitude: That first verse. It’s where I acknowledged my flaws and didn’t care what anybody thought of me. It was me. I didn’t wanna hide from that. Sometimes the writing does get so personal and real that it can most definitely end some relationships. It goes into the question of how honest do you wanna be with your music, and also, just honest with yourself.
DicePressPlay: Going even further back, “DOGFIGHT” has the line “I break the trauma line.” Do you notice yourself returning to family, inherited trauma, and trying to break certain cycles in your writing?
Eric Solitude: That’s a deep cut for real. The beautiful part is that talking about that lyric in the song now, I can confidently say I broke that trauma line. At the time of making the song, I was trying and failing so much, yet trying and trying. I didn’t wanna carry the trauma that was passed down from generation to generation in my family. I wanted it to end with me. It’s more so I break those cycles by the being of real life. Doing a lot of the shadow work.
DicePressPlay: How hands-on are you with the production of your music? What does making an Eric Solitude song usually look like from the very beginning?
Eric Solitude: Honestly, I started off on type beats. It’s what I had available to me. I couldn’t afford any music equipment, nor did I have any proper comfortable space to do so. A beat lease would go for $30–$50, and I would just buy that with some money left over from my checks at work. Then it got to a point where I could get something to work on production. It’s still something in the process I’m trying to get better at, but a lot of recent production has been with one of my closest friends, Jayson. He’s a madman when it comes to production, and the world is gonna know of him really soon.
DicePressPlay: Is there usually one thing that starts a song for you, a lyric, chord progression, drum pattern, texture, visual, or something completely different?
Eric Solitude: Freestyling. I just mumble sayings, words, melodies, and my brain will just click, and I write something down. I need to completely just move and not think too much, or else nothing gets finished on my end. I usually move fast when I’m in that state of mind. The tough part for me is landing on a good hook. Still something I wanna get better at. I know when I got something good when I can not only just picture something right away when I hear the song, but when I’m also in my room dancing around to the song. That’s how I know I have something. Everything you’ve heard from me in my catalog was recorded in bedrooms and basements.
DicePressPlay: What actually makes a song sound like Eric Solitude to you?
Eric Solitude: When it’s cinematic.
DicePressPlay: The visual side is just as strong. Your covers, photos, styling, and music all seem to exist in the same world. How involved are you in building that visual identity? How do you build up your visuals?
Eric Solitude: Oh, I’m a thousand percent involved. I do all the treatments. Lately, I’ve been more open to having my close people who I work with kinda steer the ship with me. That being Miya, Zayne, and Araki. I just love visual good anything. I care so much about the small details of it. Clothes, sound, image, video, they all go hand in hand, and it’s so important to me. I’m glad it always gets noticed because a lot of thought goes into it. Sometimes I’ll pass by an area or something, and I’ll visualize it in my head and see it so specifically. The only way I can translate it is through writing it down.
DicePressPlay: With “Suzy Honey,” you’ve talked about creating this fictional character from the confidence and strength you saw in women around you. What made you want to write through another person instead of directly through yourself?
Eric Solitude: Crazy enough, that song almost never happened. One night, I just said, I’m gonna make a song, and the first words to come out of my mouth were “Suzy, called me, on her break again.” I didn’t have the theme until I was done with the song, and I understood what I was talking about and where it was coming from. It was already in my subconscious with just what was going on in life at the time.
DicePressPlay: You also challenged yourself on that song to move away from constantly writing with “I.” Did that change the way you think about songwriting afterward?
Eric Solitude: It did. It challenged me writing songs. I love good songwriting, so I try to push out of my comfort zone to write something good. I’m never complacent though, and always feel like I can write something better every time. A blessing and a curse to have.
DicePressPlay: You mentioned that you already have another EP geared up for October. Congratulations! Where does this project take us compared with Beneath Hazel?
Eric Solitude: October 21st. Thank you. It takes you through the stages of someone finding their courage, looking inward, and breaking everything that’s been set by design. In order to do that, you gotta be completely honest, aware, and brave. That comes with being bolder and less timid. I have a line in one of the songs where I say, “Who am I kidding, I don’t run no more.” That’s growth. In a lot of my songs in the past, I would always mention me running away from things. I don’t run away no more. I deal with it head-on.
DicePressPlay: Are the singles you’ve been releasing this year part of that EP, and is there anything about the project that you’re especially excited for people to hear?
Eric Solitude: Not at all. Those singles were their own lil worlds. I placed ’em by seasons. “Carry Me Through Your Memories” for the spring, “Suzy Honey” for the summer, and “Keep It Alive If You Could” for the fall. I’m excited for the world to hear the whole thing and how much stronger the sound and visuals are. I’m here to stay and to continue to do it my way.
DicePressPlay: You’ve been building all of this independently in Chicago. What has being part of the Chicago scene given you, and what is still difficult about being an independent artist there?
Eric Solitude: Literally from the ground up with no handouts. I dedicated a whole year last year to putting myself out there and getting out of my shell. Best decision I ever made. You know, being a part of something so special right now is historical. I keep saying, a lot of us are writing and making history. It’s so much going on right now, and we’re gonna bring the world to Chicago as much as we bring Chicago to the world.
I would say, in general, what is still difficult for me being an independent artist is funds. I still work a regular day job, and aside from bills that my checks go to, I pay for all the artist- and music-related stuff from my own pockets. It’s a gamble for sure, but I believe in myself and the art. It’ll live forever.
DicePressPlay: You mentioned that giving independent artists space to actually speak is really important right now. What do you think emerging artists need more of from music media and the industry?
Eric Solitude: Actual consumption of the art. A lot of things are click-grabby and momentary. Everything moves fast, where we’re not taking the time to digest anything. A lot of people chase what’s “hot” for the moment till it dies down, and it goes to the next thing. We need more individual thinking and taste and less of what everybody else is thinking.
DicePressPlay: And looking past the October EP, what’s the dream for Eric Solitude? When you imagine this becoming everything you want it to be, what does that look like?
Eric Solitude: Movies, TV shows, runways, directing. It’s a lot. Setting a path for those who look like me, dress like me, come from where I come from. To be able to be the voice of those who are finding their own and the voice to those who can’t find their own. My purpose is something that’ll outlive me.
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