“What Will We Tell Them” by ERICKOSCAR poses one very simple question at its very core: what will we have to say to the generations that come after us? Rather than being a song about personal success or personal achievement it’s really a song about legacy. It’s a song about what we will have to say to the future when we look back and see what we’ve done. It’s a song about whether we will be remembered as people who embraced other cultures, who worked together and who genuinely tried to make the world a better place. That’s the fundamental thrust of the song and it gives it a real sense of purpose and direction. It’s a song that makes you think. The “them” in the title is clearly the future generations that will be inheriting the world we’ve left them. The song is really asking the question: “What will we have to say to them if we’ve left them with a world that’s divided by differences rather than united by the things we have in common?” That’s the emotional core of the song. That’s the question it’s really asking you to consider.
The strength of the song is in its vision of cultural understanding as something you have to work at rather than just something you can admire. Erickoscar wants to be remembered as a man who loved other cultures and who worked with other people to make the world a better place. It’s a song about co-operation rather than opposition and it’s about the idea that you can actually achieve something positive through cultural understanding. Rather than a legacy for the few, it’s a legacy for the many and it’s one that you can achieve through the choices you make as a group. It’s a very personal song to a man who was born in Panama and who has spent most of his life in the US and has worked in Latin America for many years. That experience gives it a real authenticity, although the core message is one that is absolutely universal: different cultures don’t have to be a barrier to working together for the common good. The emotional power of “What Will We Tell Them” is in that very simple but very important idea that the future can be shaped by greater understanding, greater respect and greater co-operation.
speaking ERICKOSCAR’s background is a good indication of the approach taken to the recording. Grown up on his dad’s love songs and ballads he’s spent over 35 years playing acoustic guitar and writing music, starting with the lyrics and guitar and then working out the rhythm and the emotional arc of the piece. He then uses music production software to shape the vocals, the instruments and the arrangement around the feeling he wants to get across. The information provided doesn’t go into any detail about the instruments, the tempo or the structure of “What Will We Tell Them” but the process of writing as described is very much in keeping with his stated desire for every song to have a clear emotional purpose. In this case that purpose is to prompt us to think about the kind of world we are creating together. “The legacy that really counts is not how loudly we are remembered but whether our actions have in some way made the world a kinder, fairer and more united place.” That’s the essence of “What Will We Tell Them” and it’s that very point that he’s placed at the heart of the song. It’s a simple message really but one that can be a very powerful one. It’s a reminder that the answer to the question of what we will tell them may well be in what we do for each other today.
Facebook, X, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, website