STOLAR Co-writes New Singles with Aloe Blacc and Hall & Oates feat. Pat Monahan of Train

It's been quite a start for 2018 for Brooklyn-based songwriter STOLAR. With a new song with buzz-heavy Aloe Blacc ready for release later this month and a collaboration with Hall & Oates with Train's Pat Monahan currently moving up the charts, the "poly-genre multi-instrumentalist" (Village Voice) released his latest single "Suburbia" on Friday, March 30th and gearing up for his EP Raw Emotions: West Village, NY which comes out April 27, 2018.

Co-written with Aloe Blacc, the "smoldering single" (Variety) "Brooklyn In the Summer" is already building steam in advance of its imminent release at the end of April, which will further cement Stolar's position as a first-rate songwriter whose universality transcends music and message. Aloe Blacc explained to Variety, "I have been hanging out with great songwriters such as Jay Stolar who had this great musical story that I helped embellish and finish. He lived that story. It's partly my story, too."

In addition, last Friday saw the release of another song that Stolar co-penned called "Philly Forget Me Not." Along with legendary artists Hall & Oates and Pat Monahan of multiplatinum-selling pop-rock band Train, Stolar co-wrote the song that Philadelphia Inquirer opined, "Philadelphia-founded pop rock duo Hall & Oates have been at it for more than 50 years, and now, with their latest single, the pair pay homage to the city where it all started. Released this week, 'Philly Forget Me Not' serves as a short love letter to the City of Brotherly Love."

For his own oeuvre, Stolar has been focusing on his 18 month-long Raw Emotions project in which he is continually writing and releasing music. Within the breadth of 18 months, Stolar explores the vast span of human emotions, tackles his personal demons through songwriting and chooses two songs to release monthly. It's a daunting and exciting project that actually helps subvert his struggles with bipolar disorder and depression and channels that energy into the creative outlet of songwriting.

"Last year was a year of growing up," Stolar explains. "I changed musical directions dramatically, experienced the loss of a great love in my life, became obsessed with writing songs every day, got rid of almost every single item I owned, stopped drinking so much, tried things that scared the s out of me and started to build a new foundation for myself. I needed this shift emotionally, psychologically and creatively, but at the time I didn't know it. I was just following my instincts in order to keep moving forward."

Within the Raw Emotions project, each month is assigned a particular emotion; the current emotion, Nostalgia, finds Stolar releasing his latest single "Suburbia" which EDM Tunes reports that the song "has all those beautiful summer vibes going on with a powerful narrative attached to it." This Song Slaps says, "Records like Stolar's don't come around often...This guy is a magnet for hits and we can't wait to see what he has next."

Collecting all the songs released so far in the Raw Emotions project, Stolar will be compiling the Raw Emotions: West Village, NY EP which includes "Suburbia" as well as the previously released tracks "Erase You" ("the most raw and vulnerable song I've ever written"), "Forget And Feel" ("the desire to mask feelings and emotions with anything possible"), "Kurt Cobain T-Shirt" ("that moment when you realize what you are feeling is not some bulls emotion, it's real and you have to do something about it") and "Grow Up (feat. Spencer Ludwig)" ("It felt good to explore the childish perspective with no regard of judgement"). "This EP follows my experience of loss and change," he says. "It went from pain, to denial, to distractions, to a first attempt at acceptance, to genuinely trying new things and then hitting a wall when I realized that no matter how much things change, some things you can never completely wash away."

As Stolar looks forward to the rest of 2018, these tracks represent where he is right now... "There isn't really an 'end' or a final release to this EP," he says, keeping his songwriting prowess open-ended. With a lot of tracks on the horizon - both with other heavy-hitting artists and his own solo output, Stolar's orbit may seem to be widening and far-reaching but he still stays grounded. "I chose to represent this EP with the West Village because it's the second place I grew up," he explains about the EP's title Raw Emotions: West Village, NY . "I lived in New Jersey for most of my life and my musical influences, angst, passion and commitment to having lifelong friends comes from that place. But, going to college at NYU and living in the West Village really shaped me artistically. I learned under some of the greatest living artists in NYC and to this day, when I wake up in the morning to create, those artists are breathing through me. Now, this EP and the last year of my life are shaping me in a new way once again."

Photo Credit: Alex Berger

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