Eric Hirshberg Makes Human Connection the Point on “Machine Against The Rage”
The title “Machine Against The Rage” sounds like it might promise a technological fix for a familiar problem. Eric Hirshberg uses it to propose something considerably more personal. The machine in his new song is a group of people willing to listen to one another, resist division and maintain connections that outrage can easily overwhelm.
Released alongside his new album, More Is Not The Answer, on October 16, the track gives the ten-song collection a clear statement of purpose. Hirshberg has spent the album’s preceding singles examining distraction, algorithms, family and gratitude. Here, those subjects meet in a song concerned with what people can do together.
The chorus makes that idea concrete: “Gotta build a machine against the rage / Gotta link our arms together in a human chain / Keep bridging the divides till none remain.” Its central image replaces the machinery of competing narratives with the physical act of people joining arms. The language is deliberately direct, giving an abstract concern a human scale.
The verses acknowledge the bad news and competing accounts that shape daily experience. Hirshberg’s response is to preserve a sense of agency within that environment. People may have limited control over the information reaching them, but the song argues that their responses to one another still matter.
That perspective connects with “For Real,” his collaboration with Aloe Blacc, which called for empathy and genuine conversation across disagreement. “Machine Against The Rage” develops that concern into a collective proposition, treating connection as something people actively build.
The rest of the album gives that proposition personal grounding. “Less Important Things” considers parenthood and the experience of becoming an empty nester, while the title track emerged after Hirshberg’s family evacuated during the Los Angeles wildfires. These songs bring the question of priorities into situations with tangible emotional stakes.
The official video for “Machine Against The Rage” accompanies the album’s release. Hirshberg will celebrate with an October 17 show at The Peppermint Club in Los Angeles, featuring special guest Aloe Blacc. It is an appropriate setting for a record whose central concern is the value of people occupying the same space and paying attention.
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