Whether you’ve been acutely aware of it or not, you’ve heard of Homer. Or rather, you’ve heard Homer on some of your favorite songs. 

Having spent the bulk of his vast career working with modern musical greats like Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, and Mark Ronson as a drummer, Homer Steinweiss (who uses the monkier Homer for his solo work) has released his debut album, Ensatina. 

“I knew kind of early on that I needed to do something else [besides drumming], because I’m just a real homebody and a dog person, I couldn’t be dependent on touring all the time,” Homer says of what initially drew him to wanting to creating his own solo album. 

Homer’s initial response to this was to start dabbling in the recording industry. It was here where he first discovered that on top of drumming, he also enjoyed the collaborative process of working with a band and producing music. After briefly working with the band Holy Hive until its dissolution, Homer set out to continue to continue his newfound love of music producing. 

“[When Holy Hive] broke up, I was like, ‘Man, I really loved that project.’ I loved releasing stuff, whatever we wanted. And it was just very easy. I knew I would love to have that on my own, just be able to put out whatever music I wanted under a certain moniker. I started making music, kind of with that intention, but I thought it was gonna take me, like, 10 years, so it’s just like background. But once I got inspired, it just like, kind of came out, and so then I was okay. Now I have a solo record, and we decided to call it ‘Homer,’ because everyone else was telling me, like, I gotta just call it ‘Homer.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, fine.’” 

The end result was, of course, Ensatina, an eleven track golden aura of an album, that offers dreamlike-coffeehouse vibes to boot. It feels like it sits on the intersection of jazz and lo-fi. The perfect album to have playing in the background while cooking dinner, working from home, or simply just for some smooth listening. An album that nearly begs to be listened to on vinyl. 

While Ensantina is the brain child of Homer, it is not lacking for collaboration. Among the names credited on the album alongside him are artists like KIRBY, girl named GOLDEN, Flikka, Hether, Michael Rault, MINOVA, and Dave Guy. And often times, the collaboration was able to occur without any of the artists sitting in the same room together. 

“It makes for a different collaboration than you can do in person,” Homer says of the process. “Because, of course, collaborating in person, as musicians, that’s what we all love because we could get immediate feedback. But when you get to take it and bring it to your own world and then bring it back? I mean, I know a lot of bands who intentionally do that. When they write a record, they go in together, and then they go apart, and then they go in together, because you need some time to tinker. The little tinkering stuff is really like a personal process, at least for me.” 

With having worked with so many different artists that cover an expansive range of genres, I can’t help but ask if his previous work has made him feel apt to try out other genres down the road, a thought that Homer responds to with great enthusiasm. 

“Honestly, the solo thing is so fun for me that I want to consume every different genre that I love over the course of the next 30 years of my life. I want one record to just be like video game music. But they’re all gonna probably end up somewhere along my first record, where it’s like, there’s influences from video games and from folk music, and from Soul music, and from indie rock, and all that stuff. But it’s never gonna be exactly like that, you know? But I want to get more into a folky world with my next record. I would love to work with someone like Jessica Pratt, or, just any cool folky singer. The mix of folk and Soul, that’s a real sweet spot for me. I feel like my first record doesn’t have that much of that.” 

Which, even if it doesn’t, it does have much to offer. Standout tracks include “Now That It’s Over” (a song that Homer cites as the album that “set the whole thing off”), “So Get Up!” and “Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever.” Each song is a strong entry, and the stacking of the album creates strong cohesiveness for the listener. 

With such an upward trajectory, it feels all but certain that even though he’s been well established within the business for a while, the launch of this solo album is a new beginning for Homer. Though he seems content to just take the ride in showing the world what he’s capable of as a solo artist. 

“This not a drummer’s record. This is just a music record, which happens to have a drummer as a producer. Everybody knows me as a drummer. When I walk into a room, I feel like, [people say], ‘Okay, that’s the drummer.’ I’m still hard to say, ‘That’s that songwriter guy,’ or ‘That’s the producer.’ So, as the drummer, here’s my solo record. There’s almost no drum fills on the record. I mean, I like the drums on the record, but they’re very intentionally understated. I want to treat myself as an artist. I want to treat myself like if I was playing for Bruno Mars or Amy Winehouse, with serious intention. Usually that’s very simple, let the artist shine. So to let the artist of ‘Homer’ shine, I gotta, like, let the drummer of ‘Homer,’ shine, just support him.” 

And with that, I’d invite you to become acquainted with Homer as an artist. It’s well worth your time. 

You can stream Ensatina below.