My Music.
– ZOë ASHBERG
I’ll Be Right Here
I originally wrote “I’ll Be Right Here” for my little (now not-so-little) brother Zac when he was turning 13. It was my way of telling him that I’ll always be there for him, no matter what. Five years later, I finally decided to record it, and it became the first song I ever released on streaming platforms. In that time, we’d both matured and faced new experiences – some harder than others. And the song changed along with us.
I didn’t write the bridge until I was in the studio. When I thought about what I wanted to say, I remembered how our parents used to tell us that Zac and I needed to be there for each other, because one day it would just be the two of us. I think some of my “older-sibling guilt” from moving away to college slipped in there too…
One of my favorite little details: when I first wrote the chorus, it went, “even when you’re bigger and stronger than me.” But when I came back to record it, Zac had already grown taller, so the second time around, I changed it to “even though.”
At its core, the song is a promise to face life together. It’s about growing up, navigating change, and holding tight to the people you love for as long as you can. It’s the one song that, to this day, never fails to make me cry when I sing it.
Fun fact: The piano at the very beginning is a little snippet of Clair de Lune (transposed to match the key of the song) because my brother plays it all the time at home.
Rivers
I wrote “Rivers” for my mom during one of the hardest years our family’s been through. She was going through something deeply painful, and even though we all felt it in different ways, I knew she was carrying the heaviest part of it. I was amazed by how strong she was, but I also didn’t want her to feel like she had to be. I wanted her to know it’s okay to fall apart sometimes. That’s how you heal.
There’s a turning point in the song where I admit I don’t have the answers. I wanted her to choose herself for once, but that meant facing the fact that the version of love and family I grew up believing in wasn’t exactly what I thought. One lyric comes from something she actually said to me: her pain wasn’t mine to carry. But when someone’s your mom — and your favorite person in the world — it’s impossible not to feel it too.
In the end, the song becomes a kind of permission. An invitation to let go. To be human.
