ErickOscar was born in Panamá and has spent decades living in the United States, where he now calls Cave Springs home. He has been writing songs on acoustic guitar for more than thirty years and has well over a thousand to his name, writing in both English and Spanish and pulling from country, pop, gospel, and the Latin rhythms he grew up around, from salsa and merengue to bachata. Faith runs through much of his work, and he has long played in his church’s worship band.
His process starts with the words. He writes the lyric first, then works it out on acoustic guitar until the rhythm feels right for the story he wants to tell.
Hope Is The Next Step
This one comes from a very personal place. After a run of earthquakes and aftershocks struck Panamá, ErickOscar wrote the song for his family and friends back home, who were facing the long job of putting their lives back together. It travels from the moment the ground shifts beneath everyone’s feet, through the confusion and grief that follow, toward acceptance and finally a reason to look up again. The point is simple: you can start moving forward long before anything makes sense.
It is also more than a song. Half of the track’s royalties are going to Cruz Roja Panameña, the Panamanian Red Cross, to support earthquake relief, which turns that message of encouragement into something people on the ground can actually feel.
The project comes in more than one form, and the Folktronica version gives the same song a fresh coat of paint. Acoustic folk instruments sit side by side with electronic production, so the warmth of the guitar is set against a more modern, synthetic backdrop. The message stays exactly the same, but the mood shifts, and hearing both versions back to back shows how well the song holds up whichever way it is dressed. A Spanish-language version is part of the project too, fitting for a song written with Panamá in mind.
As with his other recent releases, ErickOscar builds the finished tracks with AI-powered production software. The lyrics and the acoustic guitar foundation are his, and he uses those tools to shape the vocals and fill out the instrumentation around them.
Final Thoughts
“Hope Is The Next Step” has its heart in the right place, and its royalties too. In either version, it is a sincere message of support from a songwriter thinking of home.
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