Working as a solo artist who performs all his own instrumentation has been a blessing for him, Palangi said. He suffers from severe allergies and asthma and his ability to write and perform all his own music – and to record it in his own home studio – has greatly lessened the effects of what could otherwise have been considerable hardships for a musician.

As a writer, he says he focuses on creating songs people will want to hear over and over again. And nostalgia, he believes, is also an imp...