Sometimes playing in a band is like a love affair, and for Matthew Szlachetka, the magic was gone. After nearly seven years fronting the Northstar Session, the Los Angeles singer and songwriter is stepping out with his solo debut, Waits for a Storm to Find. It’s a collection of 12 deeply felt songs, full of soulful melodies and rootsy arrangements that evoke the folk, blues and rock ’n’ roll influences that inspired Szlachetka, while pushing past them to establish a sound all his own. “I put out four albums and an EP with my previous band, and I think there are parts of those albums that were me. But in general, it wasn’t a full representation of what I was about musically,” Szlachetka says. Waits for a Storm to Find changes that. Comprising songs written over the past several years, the album is Szlachetka’s most personal statement, with lyrical vignettes drawn from relationships, tough decisions and learning, sometimes the hard way, when ...