Long years Cameron Keiber hid behind the noise. His guitar parts, voice, and lyrics remained veiled, as if he didn’t want them to be heard too clearly. But time changes even the most convinced.

And now, after three decades, he is doing what he seems to have been putting off all these years-releasing “Nurser.” A personal, honest album, assembled from fragments of the past and melodies frozen in memory. On March 14, 2025, it will be released on Midriff Records-the label that Keiber has been developing together with his brother Clayton, dividing his life between Boston and Brooklyn.

Keiber was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and from the very beginning, life tested his strength. A surgery undergone in infancy left not only scars on his body but also a mark on his self-perception. These imprints became an integral part of his worldview, teaching him to feel more sharply.

His childhood was spent in motion: first New Jersey, then New York. There, as a teenager, he would slip away from home, get on a bus, and disappear into the urban whirlpool. Manhattan in the late ’80s and ’90s was the perfect place for those searching for music and chaos-Keiber found both.

In high school, he played in bands, in Amherst he formed his first serious group, performing with Helium, Polvo, Kustomized, J Mascis. After college-Boston and The Beatings, critics’ and audiences’ favorites. Seven tours, stages with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Hold Steady, The National, reviews in Village Voice, NYT, Mojo. In 2019, they bid farewell to the audience on the stage of Great Scott.

But Keiber did not stop. Under the pseudonym Eldridge Rodriguez, he released nine albums, receiving rave reviews from Stereogum, CoS, The Big Takeover. In 2023, the album “Atrophy” was released, and the band continued to play.

The first full-fledged solo work of Cameron, “Nurser,” is the culmination of a journey. A story of scars, growing up, escape, and return. “Nurser” is a new vector, but not a retreat. Keiber experiments with loops and beats, but the essence lies in the lyrics – direct, without hints or circumlocution. There are no mysteries here, only absolute clarity – the most focused and candid lyrics of his career.

From the very first notes of the album, Cameron addresses social issues, as seen in ‘Beach Party Iran 1970’ – a harsh dissection of American gender politics. Cameron exposes the double standards toward women, the control over their bodies, and points to historical parallels that should serve as a warning. A protest encrypted in the sound of an acoustic guitar, light percussion, and expressive vocals.

Next comes the piercingly personal song about loss – “Black Bear.” It carries the pain of losing his father, writer and artist Robert John Keiber. Soft guitar picking and airy violins create an atmosphere of vulnerability, while the warm bass and emotional vocals emphasize how behind personal tragedy lies an understanding of a system where human lives become part of faceless statistics.

The album touches on pressing issues of modern society, where boundaries between people are often built based on characteristics they did not choose. In this context, the track “Sons and Daughters” becomes an important step toward equality and mutual understanding. It reflects reality and becomes part of the conversation about what it means to be human in a world full of social and cultural stereotypes. The song carries a powerful demand for the right to be oneself, challenging established norms and rejecting silence.

But “Forever 25” examines the perspective on depression and death, where personal experiences intertwine with the timeless void engulfing an entire generation. A story about people for whom time has frozen, with no hope for change ahead. Cameron does not seek answers; in his songs, there is only a harsh assertion: politics, society, painful moments of history.

In the track “Deadloop,” he sings about how the radicalization of right-wing views undermines the individual and how fear, isolation, and propaganda turn a person into a weapon of destruction. About how easy it is to fall into a closed loop of hatred and how hard it is to escape it.

The music combines acoustic guitar with a gentle yet powerful sound, light percussion that sustains an atmosphere of tension, and vocals that smoothly transition from contemplative to strong, emphasizing the emotional depth of the lyrics.

For the album’s finale, Cameron chose “Release”– a reflection on religion and faith, on how they can be both a source of comfort and a mechanism of control. An internal struggle takes place with dogmas, doubts, and the search for something more sincere than blind devotion. There is a palpable desire to break free from shackles, sever ties with established norms, and find one’s own path to truth.

“Nurser“ touches on themes that remain in the shadows, where everyday life conceals the bitterness of reality. Social justice. Equality. The fight for rights that have become so natural for most that they go unnoticed. But Cameron Keiber sees it all -beyond the multilayered fabric of daily life. In his songs, there is something that gives faith – that struggle, dreams, and fears – all of it has meaning.

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