The Story Behind Stay

Stay was made around the same period as the songs that eventually became Meniscus Reboot. It wasn't quite as closely tied to that project, though, and you can hear the difference almost immediately.

Compared with songs like Neon Pulse, All At Once, or Journey, Stay is much simpler. Its structure is more straightforward and predictable, if that's the right word. It doesn't constantly surprise you or push the arrangement in unexpected directions. Instead, it allows the song to breathe and simply flow.

That simplicity was part of what made it interesting to me.

One of the things I was experimenting with at the time was vocals. I wanted to find different voices and textures that I could incorporate into my music, and eventually I came across a vocal sample in a pack I had bought—I believe it was from Function Loops.

Something about the voice immediately worked.

It fit into the track naturally, and once I found it, the rest of the song seemed to come together around it. I really liked the way everything flowed.

Sonically, Stay also sits firmly within the collection of sounds that I naturally gravitate towards: synthwave, vaporwave, disco-funk, and all those wonderfully difficult-to-categorize "wave" genres. I'm often at a loss for exactly what to call this kind of music, but I know that I love the feeling it creates.

And Stay is very much about feeling.

The words, to me, carry a sense of longing and hope. There's an underlying desire to hold on to something good and to remain positive even when circumstances aren't necessarily going your way.

That makes sense when you consider when the song was written.

I was still going through my meniscus rehabilitation, and that period had its share of difficult moments. Recovery can be frustrating, especially when you're desperate to get back to the things you love. But even when you're not in a good place, you can still choose to look forward.

You can still want something better.

You can still stay hopeful.

That's the spirit behind this song.

I think of Stay as one of my genuine feel-good songs. It doesn't try to solve everything or pretend that difficult circumstances don't exist. Instead, it captures that small but important decision to remain positive—to believe that something better is possible, even when you're still waiting for it to arrive.

Sometimes that's all you can do.

You stay.

You keep going.

And you hold on to the hope that things will eventually get better.

I hope you hear some of that when you listen to Stay.

But, as always, the song ultimately belongs to you once you hear it. So give it a listen and let me know what it makes you feel.

You can listen to the track here, or on Spotify.

If you'd like to support me directly, you can purchase Stay on Bandcamp.