On his 2008 debut EP Quadrilogy, singer/songwriter Brian Lee bared his soul and explored his darkest fears with four tracks that painted a portrait of a young American couple during wartime in the early 21^st Century. Drawing on the title of his first full length album Moth, he heads away from the darkness and towards the light, unabashedly expressing his feelings of love, hate and frustration and painting richly emotional themes with the help of his Los Angeles based co-writer and producer Franchot Tone-who also produced Quadrilogy at his Crash Test Studios.

Lee, who used the pseudonym Knugu on his previous project, had thought about calling his new album "Take Two," but chose Moth after the collection's contemplative and hypnotic song "Moths" because it was the perfect metaphor for his own metamorphosis and emergence as an artist. He fully relates to the creature, safe and warm asleep in its cocoon, then finally waking up to become a beautiful flying creature, like the underdog emerging to take on the world. Moths always hide during the day, then chase after the light at night. These images connect perfectly to Lee's feeling that he was making a long anticipated breakthrough with Moth, where he learns to "paint the love" in his own words. Upon the prompting of radio promoter Peter Hay, he gathered the best songs he had been working on and began the recording process.

"I am getting back to the basics of why people write songs," he says, "sorting through my own life and picking up critical points and exploring all of the emotions I felt in those moments. It's not telling one overriding narrative but is more of different ideas collected over time, less about the present than the past and future. I like to call my songwriting a passion, but more than that, it's like a wonderful addiction that comes naturally to me. I'm always subconsciously working on new songs even when I'm not sitting down to actually write with my guitar."

One of the Seattle based Lee's unique traits as an artist is that his main motivation is not making money but proving to himself that he can write songs as well as other independent artists. He also believes that, despite the difficult logistics of raising money for charity, at least half the proceeds from any of his projects should be "spent back on society." Lee donated all net profits from the sale of Quadrilogy to charity groups that help Iraqi children (including No More Victims).  Lee this time decided to abandon the pseudonym Knugu, which was used in the previous album - for hiding his identity, not wanting to be the focus of making the album for war time charity reasons.

Lee believes that the ultimate meaning of any given song should be up to the listener: "A song takes on a life of its own and the writer has no control over how it is interpreted, construed and used." Yet he is open to discussing his inspiration on several tracks of Moths. "Devil Hunting" draws from the experiences of violence that Lee personally witnessed living in Los Angeles several years ago. It doesn't glorify violence but conveys his strong emotional reaction through a sublimation process, where the feelings are transformed into something else. "Lady In Black" tracks a songwriter who travels around the world to find a song through the experience of longing pain; he is rediscovering how much he loved a baby that was either stillborn or aborted. And drawing from a famous film title, "Boys Don't Cry" is about a surprise revelation of a gay friend. Moth also includes covers of Lee favorites "Wrapped Up In Books" (by Belle and Sebastian) and Bob Dylan's "I Want You"-chosen specifically by the artist to "lighten things up.

"I am keenly aware of the significance and importance of the darker side of life," says Lee, "because my concept is that life is all about relativity. We feel happy only because there is sadness that we have also felt - like one cannot exist without the other. There's the butterfly in the sun, pretty and promising, but it only looks that way to us because there's the moth coming out at night. I put music aside for a long time to focus on getting my college degree and establishing myself in the business world, and I'm glad I finally began to follow my true calling. I really enjoy creating something that never existed before. There's a special feeling that comes to me, and I feel I have to write songs in order to feel alive. It's that important to me."