Chris August grew up around music, particularly the secular sounds of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, and Stevie Wonder. August’s dad built a small home-recording studio, and August often fooled around with the guitars, keyboards, drum machine, and four-track tape recorder his dad assembled. He began to take the whole music thing seriously when he turned 15 — in that same year he became a Christian and began to write, play, and record music in the home studio with purpose, adding whatever gear he needed to achieve his goals.

He recorded the single “Starry Night,” a demo recording of which garnered him a deal with Word Records. Working with producer Ed Cash, August released the No Far Away album for the label in 2010.