We carry you,
Your skin and bones and blackest suit.
Box made of ash
Will soon be filled with ashes, too.
So is that you,
Or did you float out past the moon?
And may I ask,
If what you thought was true is true?

The more I live, the more I die.
The more I die, I want to live.
It’s clear to me that I don’t get a say.
The more I seek, the more I find,
the point is never to arrive 
but just to know we’re headed the right way.

We carry you,
We bear the name that marks your tomb.
Sons of your sons,
from death to seed to life to bloom.
There’s nothing new
under the sun, we’re just like you.
Blood of your blood,
What’s been will be, what’s done we’ll do.

I wonder who will carry me when I am through. Will he have his mama’s eyes, his daddy’s nose or look just like you?

The Inner World

Bearers

Wake up, go to sleep,
Forget what I did in the in between.
I’m more awake when I am dreaming.
Each day, it’s all the same.
Today’s the tomorrow from yesterday.
Time is a cut that won’t stop bleeding.

Why do I waste so much time?  

Kill time, kill myself.
Thinkin’ ‘bout nothing but everything else.
This grass could use a little greening.
Watched pot, never boils.
The fruit on the counter, it always spoils. Not sure how I wrote this song I’m singing.

Oh, round and round we go.
We’re getting dizzy so we take it slow.
Like kill in the road, timeflies eat floating souls.

Why do I waste so much time?

Floating Souls

I am aimless. I am getting by,
In every corner of this shapeless mind.
In every room there’s something new to find.
‘Round every turn another path that winds.

I am knocking on my own front door.
 I’ve never seen the man inside before.
The great adventure is the inner world,
To shrink and think and endlessly explore.  

Every now and then, I get lost in my head.

The world is set inside the heart of man.
We seek to touch it with these dying hands. 
On every peak and ocean shore I stand,
As sure of their greatness as I am their end.

Every now and then, I get lost in my head.

My dear, my darling, I’m not ready for the leap. 
But, oh, I’m dying, I’ve got death inside of me.
Behold the builder, whose creation we can’t keep—
Who gave us memories as permanent as ink.  

When you can’t hold on for a little bit more,
Look to the sky inside your eyes and see.
I left the ruins in your heart,
So we would never be apart.
Your greatest joy is in your darkest memory.

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. 
The deepest cuts leave scars to be remembered by. 
So take each mark and summon me when you are weak—
Through years and miles to see my face and hear me speak.

When you can’t hold on for a little bit more,
Look to the sky inside your eyes and see.
I left the ruins in your heart,
So we would never be apart.
Your greatest joy is in your darkest memory.

Ruins

Sahara

Stones

Down The Map

Lunacy

Interstates

Millions

“We all die one day at a time, but we live that way, too,” N.W. Engbers says, slouched in a shabby chair nursing a glass a bourbon. “Each of us must make that decision every day—to be alive or to die.”

For Engbers, this choice has been a constant wrestling match. One that is evident in each track of his new EP, The Inner World. The singer/songwriter from South Dakota has held countless day jobs over the past half decade. He’s counseled the mentally ill, worked in a mailroom, sat behind a desk as a financial advisor, and wrote copy as a marketing professional. But none of them stuck. “I was a sellout,” he says. “There was nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but they were killing me. I wasn’t being who I was made to be. So I quit and I quit and I quit. I was a songwriter then. I’m a songwriter now. I’m a songwriter forever.”

With The Inner World, Engbers gives voice to the hopes and fears of the millennial generation. He grapples with the mysteries of life and death and articulates heady themes with plainspoken lyrics and hummable melodies.

Co-Produced by Engbers and Benjamin Brodin (Conor Oberst, Anna McClellan), The Inner World was recorded at Omaha’s renowned ARC Studios and mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago, IL. Far from simply a solo record, Engbers collaborated with his band to create soundscapes reminiscent of the vast prairie he calls home. The record blends the indie/alternative rock influences of his formative years with a more recent appreciation for alt-country and folk to create a genre-bending style that is both honest and accessible.