STOLAR Launches Ambitious 'Raw Emotions' Campaign

NYC-based songwriter STOLAR who Village Voice described as a "poly-genre multi-instrumentalist" and his music as "a contempo brew of soulful pop-rock, unveiling a style and craftsmanship that earned him comparisons to Darryl Hall, Bruno Mars, and... Adele," is launching an ambitious campaign called RAW EMOTIONS that kicks off this month and runs a full year.

With a goal to release two finished singles a month, Stolar's focus is to redirect his struggles with bipolar disorder and depression into a creative channel, shedding a light on mental health. "Obsessed. Creating. Writing. Everyday. It's how I work through emotions." explains Stolar. "I create so I can connect. But songs are empty without people. And I want to share this music in its purest form. Music should be listened to as it's written, it shouldn't sit on a shelf or on a computer. That's why I'm launching this project. Raw Emotions."

His Raw Emotions project, which kicks off this month, is an exploration of his own songwriting process which finds him writing songs daily as part of his own personal form of therapy. The direction of this finds Stolar isolating emotions - be it sadness, jealousy, fear, etc. - and focusing his songwriting based on that particular emotion. Hence, the name of the project. The emotion chosen for October 2017 is DESIRE.

Set for release today, "Kurt Cobain T-shirt" The second song released for Raw Emotions, captures Stolar musing about a girl he is attracted to who is wearing that iconic t-shirt. "'Kurt Cobain T-Shirt' is about desire," he explains about its connection to this month's theme. "It's about wanting someone so much that you can't help but tell them. It's that moment when you realize that what you are feeling is not some bulls emotion. It's real and you have to do something about it."

The lead-off single, the appropriately-named "Raw Emotions" is a harmonically lush and soulful introduction to the project which finds Stolar teaming up once again with up & coming DJ/producer duo Take a Daytrip, who flesh out the song with funky slap-bass lines, guitar, and 70s sounding synthesizers. Lyrically, "Raw Emotions," finds Stolar expressing his desires with love and lust, which compliment the song's hard-hitting, epic production and echoing the month's focused emotion Desire.

A prolific artist in his own right, his previous output has garnered praise from PopMatters ("Stolar's sound is utterly warm and contemporary, based in pop, but further refined by his soul and electronic leanings"), American Songwriter ("harmonized glory"), Culture Catch ("criminally infectious, soulful pop"), among many others.

Born in New Jersey and based in Brooklyn, Stolar sharpened his natural songwriting and singing talents by playing countless local late night shows, studying other musicians' live performances, writing for artists such as The Voice and America's Got Talent finalists Caroline Pennell and Alice Tan Ridley, and penning purpose tracks such as the anthem for the most recent Brooklyn Nets playoff run.

The Raw Emotions project promises to deliver Stolar's deepest material to date, and will find the singer being honest with himself and the listener about his emotional struggles. With music slated for release regularly throughout the next 12 months, Stolar's exploration of self and the process of songwriting will leave a lasting impression with this material that's being written, composed and released as both a creative outlet and an emotional release.

Stolar concludes about his Raw Emotions project: "New music every month. No album. No set releases. Just songs as quickly as I feel it. As quickly as I write it. The way music is suppose to be."

Photo credit: Alex Berger

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