MORE ABOUT STEPHEN STANLEY: Singer/songwriter Stephen Stanley makes music with immediate emotional impact, revealing a depth of talent that comes from years of devotion to his craft. At the age of nine, the Mansfield, Georgia-based artist learned to play his mother’s guitar after suffering an accident that rendered him deaf in his left ear and quickly uncovered an innate musicality and remarkable gift for melody. By age 13, he’d added piano and drums to his repertoire, in addition to writing songs and leading worship at the church where his father served as a pastor. Over the last decade, Stanley has honed a distinct and dynamic voice as a musician, bringing both raw emotion and a profound sense of purpose to everything he creates.

 

“My whole life I’ve known that I wanted to be in the Christian music world, but it took me a few years of writing to figure out exactly what I wanted to say,” Stanley notes. “At some point, I started to use my songs as a way to talk about mental health, and about how God has helped me to get through things like anxiety and depression. The way I write now is to try to be as introspective and open about what I’m feeling as I possibly can, with the idea that it will hopefully translate to other people who are going through something similar.” 

 

Stanley, who is now working on his full-length debut, shares, “I feel like my generation wants to try to change the world, and we’re slowly learning that it’s not that easy. I really believe that love—and specifically the love that God offers—is the answer to so many of the problems we’re dealing with right now, whether it’s hatred or injustice or lack of unity. I hope my music helps to remind people of that, and helps them to feel a little uplifted and encouraged whenever they get overwhelmed.”