I Live Here Now Hands r.mason's Piano Ballad to a Rock Band, Then Takes It Back
I Live Here Now Hands r.mason’s Piano Ballad to a Rock Band, Then Takes It Back
A 2023 Single From Victoria, British Columbia, Built by Four Players Around One Piano Line
Before a note plays, r.mason has already made a presentational choice. The name sits in lower case, with a full stop where a space would go. I Live Here Now, released on 7 September 2023, starts just as quietly. Then a whole band pushes through, and the alternative pop ballad edges toward rock before it lets go.
r.mason’s I Live Here Now sits in the playlist below with the rest of our dream pop and chamber pop picks. The band’s full run of coverage is collected on the r.mason artist profile. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Hit play, then stay with us for the arrangement.
The I Live Here Now Cover Pairs an Evening Outfit With a Window Seat, Settled in for Good
The artwork makes the same choice in pictures. The cover puts the artist in a sunlit window frame, in a zebra-print dress and pink heels. Both legs are braced against the frame. The outfit says evening out. The pose says going nowhere. The band’s name runs across the bottom in spaced pink letters. Beneath it, the title sits in plain white type, closer to a caption than a headline.
So image and sound point the same way, because the song stays put too.
Rebecca Barritt’s Piano Comes First, Then r.mason’s Band Arrives Around It One Player at a Time
r.mason is a four-piece. Rebecca Barritt writes the words and the music and plays piano. Jonathan Blokmanis plays guitar, Aaron Blair plays bass and Miles Fuller plays drums. On I Live Here Now they come in one by one.
First, the song opens on Barritt’s piano, played with a classical neatness. Everything after it is built on that line. Acoustic colour gathers next. Then Fuller’s drums settle in underneath with a steady beat, and Blair’s bass meets them with a warm tone. The first half feels like a room filling up. By the middle, voices stack into harmony at the centre of the mix.
That patience has precedent. Coldplay built Fix You in two halves in 2005. Coldplay’s organ, piano and acoustic guitar come first, and drums, strings and group vocals arrive later. Chris Martin wrote it to comfort Gwyneth Paltrow after her father died, and critics praised its two-part shape. I Live Here Now follows the same blueprint with four players.
Jonathan Blokmanis Turns the Ballad Toward Rock Before the Whole Mix Folds Back Into Barritt’s Piano
Halfway through, the balance shifts. Blokmanis pushes the guitar forward in a rising run of riffs. For a stretch, the song behaves like a rock track. Then every part folds into one broad swell, and the swell thins out until only the piano is left.
London Grammar build songs in a similar order. London Grammar’s Hannah Reid has said that Dot Major will write a piano part and Dan Rothman will add guitars. The Nottingham trio’s debut, If You Wait, reached number two in the UK in 2013. r.mason keeps the same order but gives the guitar the floor for longer. Even so, at four minutes and 23 seconds the track never loses its thread.
The words deal with acceptance. Barritt has explained the song as being about living with ourselves, and with each other, for our whole lives. It is also about how pointless it is to judge the ways other people find peace or comfort. Its sharpest image lines everyone up for the guillotine, with justice put first even when it is false. The answer is the plain statement of the title.
Where to Hear I Live Here Now and Follow r.mason Across Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
I Live Here Now arrived late in a busy 2023 for the band. The band’s first EP was rains too loud for t.v., and r.mason opened 2023 with L.A. Wannabe (Dance Remix). The ballad European Swimsuit came out that year too, the subject of our look at its Riviera styling. They also filmed a café session of European Swimsuit at Mile Zero Coffee Co.
The Other Side Reviews covered I Live Here Now when it came out. Lost in the Manor also put r.mason among its pop picks. In other words, the band’s music has already travelled beyond British Columbia.
It suits listeners who like an alternative pop ballad that keeps a rock band in reserve. It also suits anyone who treats the last minute of a song as seriously as the first.
From the AltPop.News curator team: “Most ballads that bring in a rock band stay loud to the end. I Live Here Now climbs to its peak, then strips everything back to the piano it started with. That ending is why we keep returning to it.”
Stream I Live Here Now on Spotify, then follow r.mason on Apple Music, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and their YouTube channel, or visit the band’s official site.
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