New music is on its way to Webster University soon. Freshman Slava Chay plans to release his third studio album, titled “STORYLINES,” on Sept. 29 after nearly a year of development.
“I look at this album in the way that every song is a different story. I want to stop writing songs just about myself and my relationships, so I asked around to my friends, and they shared some of their stories and some of the things they wanted to push out into the world. So then, the songs kind of became other people’s stories and mine,” Chay said.
He started developing “STORYLINES” in October 2022, but most of the writing and producing took place over the summer.
Chay has been writing, producing, and releasing music since eighth grade. He began making music on GarageBand with his phone and used earbuds to record his vocals. In his sophomore year of high school, he realized he wanted to take music more seriously, so he bought a mic and Logic Pro, a professional music production and mixing software. His dorm room acts as his production studio, complete with a laptop, mini keyboard and an SM57 microphone.
Chay doesn’t do it all alone, though, he works closely with a songwriter he met in middle school, Tessa Kanters.
Kanters started working with him in his senior year of high school and even appeared on the song “PSYCHOTIC!” under the name TEK. She holds Chay in high regard as a musician, claiming that there is no one else like him. She went on to describe him as unique, passionate, creative and hardworking.
“I produced, co-wrote and helped with what all the songs sound like. If Slava needed help with something in one of his songs, he’d call me because he knows that I’m not going to beat around the bush and tell him if it should sound one way or another,” Kanters said.
While Chay said all the new songs encapsulate his current self, he says that “FIGURE IT OUT…”, a song he wrote with Kanters, is one of his favorites from the album.
“Growing up in a Catholic school, I had so many people around me who weren’t ready to accept who they were. If they were gay or something, it would be this bad thing in the church, and so I wanted to make a song about how it’s okay how you don’t feel ready to be that now, but in the future, everything’s gonna work out for you,” said Chay.
Chay started covering LGBTQ+ themes in his music during his senior year of high school. He explained that the change occurred once he stopped worrying about what people thought about him writing about these topics. Now, in college, he feels he can write freely.
Chay credits music for his ability to be vulnerable.
“All these different emotions that I have, it’s hard to talk them out. Instead, I’ll just write a song about it. Putting a melody behind it kind of makes it easier for me,” Chay said.
Chay admits he’s still learning and improving at his craft and hopes listeners will take his newest album as its own separate body of work.
“This is the sound that I’m so much more proud of,” Chay said. “I just cherish it and love it and I’m super excited for everyone to hear it.”
Share this post
