Stuck in Traffic is olliray’s first album. The story begins in 2017 with the release of BoxRox, a small electronic idea that became the spark for everything that followed. Over the next two years the music grew slowly and naturally in a small flat in South London. Most of the songs began as simple synth sketches that later opened into fuller pieces with piano, guitar and voice.

The title came from a real moment in late 2018. Olliray was waiting for his dad to arrive for lunch. His dad was stuck in traffic and the delay gave him an unexpected pocket of time. In that quiet stretch he recorded all the vocals for the title track in one take. When his dad finally arrived he played him the music and asked what he should call it. His dad smiled and gave the answer that became the name of the whole album.

Stuck in Traffic holds the feeling of that early period. Raw, instinctive and made by ear. A blend of electronic textures and intimate melodies shaped between 2017 and late 2018, and released in January 2019.

For fans of synthwave, retrowave and 80s inspired electronic music.

How Hard I Try

Passionate travel nerd. Food guru. Devoted web fanatic. General alcohol fan. Internet advocate.

olliray makes emotive, cinematic songs that live between intimate piano ballads and modern electronic soundscapes. A singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist from London, he blends live piano and guitar with textured production to create music that feels close and expansive at the same time.

Alongside his original work, he records stripped back piano and guitar covers of songs he loves, old and new, reimagining them with a late night, intimate feel. His cover performances sit naturally beside his own songs, showing the same focus on atmosphere, storytelling and emotional detail.

He had a short spell of violin lessons when he was younger; everything else on piano, guitar and production is self taught. That path runs through his music; he writes, plays and shapes his songs by ear, chasing what feels honest rather than what follows the rulebook.

His debut single BoxRox and first album Stuck in Traffic captured a raw, lyric driven phase where he produced and sang everything himself. That was followed by Between, which pushed further into experimental electronic textures and abstract moods.

He then released Piano for Yoga, a live, meditative piano recording created in one continuous flow for a yoga video soundtrack. It revealed another side of his writing; spacious, calming and minimal, designed to sit with movement and breath.

He has always been writing, but in 2024 he finally recorded Lost Romance, an album built from songs he had written 18 years earlier and revisited with a more reflective, nostalgic perspective. The record moves between gentle piano pieces and fuller arrangements, tying his early ideas to the sound he has grown into now.

He is currently working on new music that continues to blur the lines between acoustic songwriting and electronic production, always chasing that balance between warmth, space and emotional weight.

For a first listen, start with Stuck in Traffic or How Long if you want reflective, cinematic songwriting, then explore the covers playlist to hear his take on songs by artists he loves. Fans of Bon Iver, Ben Howard, Nick Mulvey, Coldplay and M83 may feel at home in his world.

How Hard I Try

olliray • piano • covers • originals