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Indie Musician Phay Talks Music, Following Your Passion, and His Love of barre3
When indie musician Phay finds something he loves, he pursues it with passion—even if there are bumps along the way.
He first discovered his love for music in high school, recording songs with his best friend, Kelechi. As the eldest son of Palestinian immigrants, Phay felt pressure to pursue a more stable, practical career—a “real” job—and so for a while, he did just that. After graduating from Georgia State University as the valedictorian of his class, he took an internship in real estate. “It was heavy on demographics, analytics, graphs—and I didn’t like it,” he remembers. He went from real estate to managing his father’s restaurant. “The money was great, but something was missing. I hadn’t found my purpose,” he says.
Still close with Kelechi, Phay called him on a whim one day and asked him to come over to record him. “It started as therapy,” Phay explains. “And it just felt so natural. I was like, ‘this is what I should be doing!’”
Seven million Spotify streams later, Phay now makes a living with music, producing and recording full-time. “My dad is still kind of salty about it,” he says. “In our culture, the oldest son is supposed to follow in the father’s footsteps. But I feel like I am doing that, just in a different way.
“My dad unites people through food, and I unite people through music. We both bring comfort to people, we foster community.”
Phay’s latest passion? Barre3. “To be honest, I didn’t have any idea what it was when my sister first told me about it,” he says. “But she said it was really hard, and I took that as sort of a challenge. I was thinking, ‘I can climb Stone Mountain—it can’t be harder than that.’”
How did that first workout go? “Eight minutes in, and I’m drenched,” Phay says. “There were probably 20 people in there, and I was the only guy, and I was the only one sweating. I remember thinking, ‘I have 52 more minutes to go?!’ I don’t know how I stuck it out the whole time. After class the instructor said, ‘You did great!’ and I was like, ‘No I didn’t!’”
Two days later, Phay got a handwritten postcard from barre3 Druid Hills in the mail.
“When I saw that someone had taken the time to actually write it out, with my name and everything—I just hadn’t seen that level of humanity from a company in a while.”
He signed up for a membership and told his sister he was going to do 20 workouts in a month. They went to several classes together, treating themselves to smoothies after they finished. “I saw progress in both of us,” Phay says. “She was getting stronger, more built, and I was losing weight. We push each other.”
Phay was up to workout #12 when his local studio had to shut down due to COVID-19. “That first week, I didn’t do any workouts,” he said. “I knew I could do them online, but I really wanted that studio experience.” But just like with music, he wasn’t about to let an obstacle get in the way of his passion. “Finally one day I drove over to my sister’s house with my yoga mat and my 5-pound weights, and we spaced ourselves apart and did a workout together.” Now, Phay and his sister Facetime while they do their barre3 online workouts—he’s finished 32 workouts to date!
Phay is excited to get back into the studio when it reopens. “I feel comfortable in the studio,” he says. “It’s like going to your friend’s house.”
But in the meantime, he’ll continue to fire up online workouts. “It’s super rewarding,” he says. “It’s compact, efficient—and by the end I feel at peace and at ease because of the breathwork. This virus is putting so much into perspective. Rich, poor, black, white, brown, green—it affects us all. Everything else can be stripped away, but if we still have our health, we have our freedom.”
Faris Mousa, better known as Phay, has a story to tell. Born in Chicago, raised in Decatur, Georgia, Phay is the son of immigrant parents who relocated to the United States seeking better, wanting more for their growing family. Due to his Middle Eastern upbringing on American soil, he is able to articulate a perspective and speak for a culture that isn’t ordinarily represented in Hip-Hop. Phay intends to be the voice that speaks not only for first-generation Americans but all Americans. You can hear Phay’s music on Spotify.
When indie musician Phay finds something he loves, he pursues it with passion—even if there are bumps along the way.
He first discovered his love for music in high school, recording songs with his best friend, Kelechi. As the eldest son of Palestinian immigrants, Phay felt pressure to pursue a more stable, practical career—a “real” job—and so for a while, he did just that. After graduating from Georgia State University as the valedictorian of his class, he took an internship in real estate. “It was heavy on demographics, analytics, graphs—and I didn’t like it,” he remembers. He went from real estate to managing his father’s restaurant. “The money was great, but something was missing. I hadn’t found my purpose,” he says.
Still close with Kelechi, Phay called him on a whim one day and asked him to come over to record him. “It started as therapy,” Phay explains. “And it just felt so natural. I was like, ‘this is what I should be doing!’”
Seven million Spotify streams later, Phay now makes a living with music, producing and recording full-time. “My dad is still kind of salty about it,” he says. “In our culture, the oldest son is supposed to follow in the father’s footsteps. But I feel like I am doing that, just in a different way.
“My dad unites people through food, and I unite people through music. We both bring comfort to people, we foster community.”
Phay’s latest passion? Barre3. “To be honest, I didn’t have any idea what it was when my sister first told me about it,” he says. “But she said it was really hard, and I took that as sort of a challenge. I was thinking, ‘I can climb Stone Mountain—it can’t be harder than that.’”
How did that first workout go? “Eight minutes in, and I’m drenched,” Phay says. “There were probably 20 people in there, and I was the only guy, and I was the only one sweating. I remember thinking, ‘I have 52 more minutes to go?!’ I don’t know how I stuck it out the whole time. After class the instructor said, ‘You did great!’ and I was like, ‘No I didn’t!’”
Two days later, Phay got a handwritten postcard from barre3 Druid Hills in the mail.
“When I saw that someone had taken the time to actually write it out, with my name and everything—I just hadn’t seen that level of humanity from a company in a while.”
He signed up for a membership and told his sister he was going to do 20 workouts in a month. They went to several classes together, treating themselves to smoothies after they finished. “I saw progress in both of us,” Phay says. “She was getting stronger, more built, and I was losing weight. We push each other.”
Phay was up to workout #12 when his local studio had to shut down due to COVID-19. “That first week, I didn’t do any workouts,” he said. “I knew I could do them online, but I really wanted that studio experience.” But just like with music, he wasn’t about to let an obstacle get in the way of his passion. “Finally one day I drove over to my sister’s house with my yoga mat and my 5-pound weights, and we spaced ourselves apart and did a workout together.” Now, Phay and his sister Facetime while they do their barre3 online workouts—he’s finished 32 workouts to date!
Phay is excited to get back into the studio when it reopens. “I feel comfortable in the studio,” he says. “It’s like going to your friend’s house.”
But in the meantime, he’ll continue to fire up online workouts. “It’s super rewarding,” he says. “It’s compact, efficient—and by the end I feel at peace and at ease because of the breathwork. This virus is putting so much into perspective. Rich, poor, black, white, brown, green—it affects us all. Everything else can be stripped away, but if we still have our health, we have our freedom.”
Faris Mousa, better known as Phay, has a story to tell. Born in Chicago, raised in Decatur, Georgia, Phay is the son of immigrant parents who relocated to the United States seeking better, wanting more for their growing family. Due to his Middle Eastern upbringing on American soil, he is able to articulate a perspective and speak for a culture that isn’t ordinarily represented in Hip-Hop. Phay intends to be the voice that speaks not only for first-generation Americans but all Americans. You can hear Phay’s music on Spotify.
