Since he's always been Jay Malinowski, it wasn't hard to go from holding the title of Bedouin Soundclash's lead singer to being a self-titled musician, Malinowski said.

And although he just released a record on his own, Bright Lights & Bruises, Malinowski is still a part of the reggae-soul band that earned many awards including a Juno in 2006 for New Group of the Year.

“It wasn't as much not wanting to do anything with Bedouin as it was just needing to do something different,” Malinowski said. “I was going through a lot of personal changes that wouldn't necessarily fit to writing with the band so I just had these songs and put out a solo record.”

The soul-folk sound of Bright Lights & Bruises reveals the singer-songwriter's more personal side and has a darker sound than Bedouin's warm beats, he said.

“It's basically what I would do on my own if I hadn't started Bedouin Soundclash.”

While writing the record, he took a break from the busy Toronto lifestyle and went closer to home on the West Coast.

It's easy to get distracted in Toronto where everyone focuses on themselves, Malinowski said.

So he took his songwriting to Nanoose, B.C., on Vancouver Island, closer to his roots, he said.

“For me, when I go back to everything it's a huge presence . . . and it just reminds me of being home. I just feel a bit more centred when I'm on the ocean. I think anyone that grows up on an ocean sort of has this feeling that they don't know where they are in the world unless they're on the ocean,” the Vancouver native said.

With the freshness of the Pacific, Malinowski re-assessed everything after feeling the effects of touring with a band for five years, he said.

“There's quite a bit of wreckage personally that goes along with touring that long and being away from home”.

But he said wouldn't re-arrange the route he followed from front man of Bedouin to solo artist.

“It's just what it was. That's just how it's all come about. I didn't really have any plan of what kind of band I'd be in or where life would take me. And it's taken it to here so it's the only thing I know."