Local musician experiences momentum in his music career as he embraces his passion for writing lyrics and releases a brand new album.

Brian Stai was surrounded by music his whole life, he grew up watching his dad’s cover band play at events like weddings, bars and birthday parties. Stai officially started to pursue music himself when he learned to play the guitar at age 12 but didn’t get into singing until his senior year of college. Also during his last year in college was his first performed at a talent show. In addition to his singing, Stai can play a few instruments at a time including the guitar, the kick drum with his right foot and the tambourine with his left foot. His style of music is described as Americana Folk or Lyrically-Driven Americana Folk.

After getting used to performing in front of people more and more over the years, Stai discovered his calling in writing and playing his own songs.

“Once I started to get some positive feedback from playing my own songs, people would say, “Oh I love that song! I really like that particular lyric!” It is just this whole other realm of fulfillment, satisfaction, and enjoyment because you put that time into writing that,” said Stai. “It means something personal to you. So, once I started doing it more, I just kind of caught the itch and was like, I would love to write more music and to play my own songs with people.”

With singing his own music, comes with writing his own work. The process to writing a song, let alone an entire album, can be strenuous but Stai has fallen in love with it.

“I feel like my process is different than other people,” said Stai. “I have not written out the lyrics first and then tried to match notes with those lyrics. I don’t think I have written out the notes first and added lyrics. It kind of happens at the same time. I will have an idea for it-like a chorus, or one line for a verse. I try to set the lyrics to match that mood, match that tone.”

On Dec. 15 Stai released his second album called “Your Dreams”, which stems from one of the songs on the album that shares the same title and a lot of meaning to him.

“I wrote it during a difficult time and it has a lot to do with seeking hope out of a dark place,” said Stai. “Particularly with those who are loved ones, close ones, family. That song seems like the backbone. Playing this record-the last six months-I wanted to choose a song or two to build everything around and that was just kind of out of this pile of maybe 15 or 20 songs I had written, that one kind of always seemed like kind of the back of what I wanted to build the album around. If the album is a book, and every song is a chapter, you want some sort of common theme.”

Stai is working hard on promoting his new album by booking a lot of shows in Cheney, Spokane, Seattle and Northern Idaho. He is also planning a weekend tour in Colorado.

“You will be seeing me playing a lot to promote the album,” said Stai. “That is going to be the majority of my focus-getting out there and playing the songs and having people buy the album.”

Besides promoting his album, Stai is eager to continue writing music, shooting live music videos and possibly finishing another album by the end of 2018 because he feels like there are always more songs to write. To purchase his album go to bandcamp.com and search for Brian Stai.