Brian Erickson has had a busy last couple of months. His band The Extensions released the absolutely electrifying “Light the Room” in December and he issued a pair of solo albums, Everyday Forever (Brian’s Version) and Everyday Sketches, the month before. But it wasn’t until 2026 that the impact of those records began to resonate. Everyday Forever was nominated for Album of the Year at the recently revived Asbury Park Music Awards. It has also been spun by radio stations across the United States. We had a chance to talk with Erickson about his new records, and where the art of writing an album fits into the modern musical landscape. 

These albums were recorded in 2015 but released a decade later. What changed between then and now that made this the right moment?

The short answer is ‘ten’ is a nice number to celebrate. The longer one is my former band, The Paper Jets, issued its own album called Everyday Forever in 2018 and this served as the demo. Out of respect to the bandmates, I didn’t want to overshadow anything we had tried to do. That was our final record, and it deserved to stand on its own merit for a long time before being encroached upon.

 Now that it’s out, though, how does Brian’s Version reframe that history?

By the time The Paper Jets landed the plane, we were tired. I was tired. I hear it in my performance on that album. My memory of that time isn’t so rosy; it was the end of an important era of my life. But when I listen to this, the joy really comes back. I hear the sound of myself dumping a barrel of Lego bricks onto the floor. It reminds me why I do it in the first place.

Is that “dumping Lego’s out” feeling something you’re able to access when you record with a group of people, or does that only happen when you’re by yourself?

It tends to only happen when I’m by myself. You’re a kid in the playroom, y’know? The floor is lava, the rug is an ocean, and you’re commanding something that only ends at the edge of your imagination. But there’s a big caveat to that. An artist isn’t always the best judge of their own work, and my own best work usually happens when others get involved. The Extensions records, High Charisma and Gravitas, are some of my best stuff and it wouldn’t have been possible without Becca, Lisa, Pete, and Will. So, while it’s easy to say recording on your own is fun because you’re the master of the universe, the reward of sharing a creative, unique experience with others is a lot greater.

So, do you see yourself as a solo artist who collaborates, or as a bandleader who sometimes works alone?

In practice, I’m a bandleader who sometimes works alone. I was in The Paper Jets for a decade, and I’ve been in The Extensions for eight years and counting. And my solo work tends to just fill the gaps. They both serve different masters, and as long as I’ve got the time, the energy, and the material, I’m going to keep doing both.

You certainly have no shortage of material! Looking back at 2015, that was a prolific time for you as a writer. What were you searching for, creatively?

I had found many of the things I was looking for, creatively, when The Paper Jets released our Strange Friends album in 2014. That was the one where I finally felt I had leaped into my own voice, and that’s what I was searching for creatively. Everyday Forever and Sketches were just refinements of that voice. New colors, shades, and textures. While I’m a better writer now than I was a decade ago, I don’t feel like a different writer, if that makes sense. But, if I listen to anything I had done very early on, it feels like someone else wrote those songs.

So, you didn’t hear your younger self in any of the Everyday material, when you were revisiting these albums and preparing them for release?

I mean, I heard a voice with a little more elasticity to it. But really, no. I am the same writer today that wrote these two records in 2015. I just continue to evolve the process.

Everyday Forever was just nominated for Album of the Year from the Asbury Park Music Awards, how did that feel?

I’m actually really grateful for that. The Asbury Park Music Awards are a decades-long tradition and there are hundreds of people considered before nominees get announced. Anytime you're in the conversation for 'best of' anything, you're already in the hot tub. You've already won.

 It’s safe to say you’ve built a narrative for yourself as someone who thinks in LP’s, arcs, suites, larger narratives, right?  Is that out of a sense of artistic integrity?

There’s room for everything now. Don’t tell me you walked around a summer-and-a-half ago and didn’t see Brat green everywhere. Charlie XCX made an album! Chappell Roan, Midwest Princess, that was basically a 90s record; that thing was absolutely loaded with hits! I’ll acknowledge that my examples are anecdotal, but those were huge records. And when given the right moment, an album can still influence the culture profoundly.

If a listener only knew you from these two new albums, what would you hope they understood about you as a songwriter?

That I’m the best songwriter you’ve never heard of.