Adversity breeds creativity. It can take the form of protest against war and authority: Picasso’s “Guernica” or the anti-war folk music of the 60s and 70s. But a new wave of art is emerging in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that covers different subjects sparked by boredom, and loneliness.

Michael Salama, a graduate of Pelham Memorial High School in 2019, used his time in solitude to write songs.

“I haven’t been doing this my whole life,” said Salama. “I only started really writing music in March of 2020. I then recorded everything in the following twelve months in my room.”

Released in October of this year, the album “Forking Paths” reflects an eclectic range of inspirations, with influences from folk to progressive rock.

Influenced by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’s famous story, “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan,” which translates to “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Salama’s album reflects the themes of Borges’s work. After Salama took a gap year as a sophomore because of Covid, the album came to him as a way to grasp all of the feelings he had due to leaving school at one of the most formative times of his life.

“It felt like my world was diverging in front of my eyes as I left the friends I just made and became an adult,” Salama said. “I was feeling paths diverge, which is all conveyed in the album through a love story.”

Salama is sure he will write another record, but is in no rush to do so: “I’ll keep writing songs, and when it happens, it happens.”

Find Salama’s music at his Spotify profile and his Apple Music profile.