With a sound self-characterized as Appalachian-Rock, David Stukenberg‘s latest release, Novella, strides a few steps ahead of the music scene, both in lyric and in a sound original to the artist himself. Novella comes on the heels of previous albums, Mountain of Pieces and The Silo Project, but by no means follows in their footsteps. “The album began as a score for a short novel my sister was writing. It forced me to delve into musical areas I wouldn’t usually explore,” explains David. When childhood took on the form of transience and David found himself in the constant company of cardboard boxes and moving vans, he took up a portable friend: his guitar. His songwriting became a method of coping with this consistent displacement. “Music didn't start with me as something that I enjoyed,” he admits. “It was something I started because I needed some type of therapy. It was my outlet.” David’s outlet has resulted in an album that draws listeners in by pairing raw realities with compellingly ambiguous references to people, places, and happenings. Inspired by the Appalachian storytelling tradition, Novella provides a fictionalized musical narrative that weaves influences and anecdotes from David’s past into a distilled series of stories and thought-provoking scenarios. “No Home” is a direct construct of David’s continual relocation, while “He’s the Night” is a disco parable about fickleness in mob mentality and public opinion regarding politics and religion. “Seasons”, meanwhile, is simply an allegory about hope. “Each character embodies a different genre, resulting in the disparate tracks on the record,” David reveals. “This is my cowardice, diluting my childhood with just enough fiction to keep the 95% fact no longer liable.”