Stavia Blunt was born and raised in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, into a home filled with music. Her late Greek mother was a trained opera singer who also sang and recorded with local pop and folk groups, including the big band 'The Hootenany'. Stavia and her sisters would traipse along on their mother's glamorous apron strings to gigs and rehearsals, and soon formed their own group with piano, guitar, trumpet and drums. Stavia was also influenced early on by her older brother's record collection (Motown, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Jazz); not to mention the rich array of music that is produced locally in Kenya - ranging form swahili and jit pop to Indian and taarab music from the coast.

At the age of 11, Stavia went to boarding school in England, where Don McLeans' 'American Pie' and 'Vincent', Cat Stevens' Lady D'arbanville, and Bob Dylan's notable duets with Joan Baez and EmmyLou Harris became early inspirations to her own song-writing. Other early influences included Leonard Cohen, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Nina Simone, JJ Cale and Warren Zevon.

Although Stavia went on to study medicine, she continued writing songs, hoping one day to record them. But at the age of 21 Stavia had a car accident whilst on a return trip to Kenya, in which her beloved mother was killed. This devastated Stavia and her family and it took a long time for Stavia to pull her life together again - a grief expressed in songs and poems which have not been recorded.

Stavia began recording her material a few years ago.