The World's Most Interesting Google Search: A Conversation with Eric Hirshberg

Eric Hirshberg stepped down as the CEO of Activision in part to pursue music full time. He stopped by to talk about his unexpected career change and his forthcoming album.

Maybe the most accurate thing about Eric Hirshberg is the first line of his press bio: “Eric Hirshberg makes for one unusual Google search.” Search his name and see for yourself. First, you’ll see some of his social media profiles. Then you’ll see some of his songs. But you’ll also see information about an Eric Hirshberg who was the CEO of Activision, the video game publisher behind such successful series as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Destiny. You’ll also see information about an Eric Hirshberg who ran Deutsch LA, an advertising agency that has worked with a slew of massive clients including Mitsubishi and Sony. Shockingly, all of these Eric Hirshbergs are the same person.

Throughout his successful business career as the CEO of two companies, Hirshberg couldn’t stop making music, something he’d be doing since he was a kid. In 2018, he decided to step down from his role at Activision in part to pursue his music. Last week, we spoke for an hour about the weirdness of living a dual life as both a businessman and an artist, how he ended up befriending Norman Lear, and his forthcoming studio album Second Hand Smoke.

A Conversation with Eric Hirshberg

In a 2021 interview with American Songwriter, you said that during your time as the CEO of Activision, “I kept waiting for [songwriting] to downgrade itself to hobby status or something manageable, but I found myself coming home at night and staying up until two in the morning writing songs.” What was it that kept pulling you back to songwriting?

I wrote my first song at 15 years old. I had played violin from age 5 to 15, and then decided I wanted to play an instrument in the rock n’ roll vein. Since I had dyslexia, I always learned music by ear and could just fake playing along with the sheet music in a lesson. My teacher eventually caught me when I didn’t flip the page at the right time, but learning that way made me a very careful listener. I think that gave me an appreciation for composition.

The second I picked up the bass guitar, I wrote a song. I'm sure it wasn’t immediate, but I wrote that song just by holding the instrument and finding what I felt sounded good. That experience has haunted me ever since. And I don't mean that to sound negative. It's a very positive and wonderful part of my life. But when I've said songwriting never downgraded to a hobby, it means it never got to the point when I was only doing it when time allowed. When you stay up until 2 A.M. doing something, it’s almost like there is no choice there.

VentureBeat article about Hirshberg stepping down as the head of Activision Publishing

Over time the songs kept piling up, but as I got more and more public as a business person, I got more and more private as an artist to the point where and I was not comfortable putting anything out. Eventually, when I stepped down at Activision, the first thing I wanted to do was put out an album.

I feel like there’s this idea that if you are in a high-powered position, you aren’t supposed to have any other interests. I know David Solomon of Goldman Sachs often caught flack because he produced electronic music producer as he ran the company. Do you think it’s important to enrich our work lives with other interests? Or do those things necessarily have to come at the expense of our profession?

That is a comparison I get a lot, which I understand. But I think as a songwriter there is an additional level of vulnerability. You're putting out lyrics and stories that are revealing and honest. I don’t think that’s always the case if you’re a DJ.

I do think having multiple dimensions to myself made me a better business person. In America, we have this idea that our jobs define us. Often when we meet someone, the first thing we ask is “What do you do for a living?” I think in certain scenarios having other interests is seen as more acceptable. Like when I was Chief Creative Officer at the advertising firm Deutsch LA, songwriting felt on brand. “Creative” was part of my title. A client was coming to me in search of creative leadership. They’d probably want me to have those creative pursuits.

A recent photo of Hirshberg in the studio [Credit: John S. Rose]

Activision was very different. I was an officer of a publicly traded company. I was speaking on an earnings call every 12 weeks. Investors aren’t interested in your love songs. They want to know that you are eating, drinking, and sleeping nothing other than the success of the company. And I get that. I understand the perspective that outside interests would threaten your ability to do the job at hand. But I don’t think it’s correct. Those pursuits made me a more creative, curious, observant person. I think that always led to a better result in my day job.

I know you are overseeing an entire company as CEO, but Activision was a video game company. That is a creative pursuit.

That's a great point. Of course video games are  incredibly creative, so maybe this concern was all in my head. I just wasn't comfortable putting myself out there as an artist when I was in that role.

Many of the songs on your upcoming LP are focused on the ups and downs of life. Songs like “It’s Hard to Be a Human” and “Half Way Home”. One fascinating quote I read from you was “When I look back, I just didn’t have the songs yet. I’m someone who needed to live a lot of life in order to actually have something to say.” Do you think songwriting necessarily must draw from life experience?

Well, clearly not for everyone, because there are a lot of great, young songwriters who haven't had that much life experience yet. But it was required for me. I played in bands from the time I was a kid. By the time I was in my 20s, I was performing in clubs throughout LA. I was comfortable on stage. I was good with a guitar in my hand. But looking back at my songs, I wouldn’t have given myself a record deal either. Those songs weren't great yet. My writing came alive after I had more experiences.

I marvel at people like Olivia Rodrigo. She’s phenomenal at such a young age. She just has this ability to have insight about experiences as she's currently going through them. That's a gift I don't have. It takes years of reflection and therapy and meditation to figure out how I really feel about things.

I also think it takes time to find unique experiences to write about. I find that I'm writing about things that not a lot of songwriters write about. I wrote a song on my last album that I gave to my wife as a 20th anniversary gift. When I gave it to her, I told her that I tried to write her a love song, but I wrote a marriage song by mistake. That process made me realize that most love songs are either about falling in love or breaking up. Very few are about the long, winding journey of actually keeping a relationship alive. I felt like that’s a topic that isn’t often written about but many people can relate to.

Do you frequently try to write about things that aren’t focused on a specific emotion but are more all-encompassing?

I try to dig deep into something personal to find the universal. You’re not the first person to go through whatever you’re going through. Sometimes you have to dig through the specifics to find a song. Those specifics are a useful storytelling tool, but you have to go past those to find the thing that everyone can relate to. That's what I try to do.

To that point, you recently put out a song called “I Love Not Drinking”. It’s sort of a jaunty tune. But I assume anything related to sobriety must have emerged from some point of pain. Was that song based on life experience?

I stopped drinking probably eight years ago. That title was born out of conversational necessity and partially inspired by Jim Gaffigan. He has this great joke about how when you don't drink, everyone always wants to know why. There's nothing else in our society like that. No one confronts you about why don't you want mayonnaise on your sandwich. I never had a drinking problem, but I just liked life better without alcohol.

I wanted there to be a piece of culture for people who are choosing not to drink. That song purposefully sounds like a drinking song is because I want it to be celebratory and communal in the same way that drinking songs are. The language around not drinking is very negative language. We say things like “I gave up drinking” or “I quit drinking.” The phrase “I love not drinking” makes everybody smile.

Years ago, when people would ask me why I wasn’t drinking, I would just say that I was not in the mood or don’t drink anymore or whatever. But people would keep pressing. When I finally started answering that question with “I love not drinking,” it stopped people in their tracks. It communicated that this was a positive, proactive choice. That’s when I realized it would make a great song title.

That song also intrigues me because it features Grammy-nominated singer Aloe Blacc. As I searched through your career, I noticed that you have connections with some highly respected people in entertainment. Aloe Blacc is one of those people, but I also noticed you have had a relationship with Liz Phair and Norman Lear. Did those relationships emerge through your music or your time in business?