Scott Gray grew up in a small town in rural Illinois, in an extremely sheltered community, without much access to discovering popular music. He saw a local news story about Christian singer/songwriter Amy Grant, and suddenly found he had a favourite artist. He started playing piano, and chose to learn every song by Amy, and her contemporary Christian artists, such as Michael W Smith. All changed however when Gray’s step-uncle said to him – “If you ever want to make something of yourself in the music industry, you’re gonna have to write your own songs” – and started working on his own tunes immediately.