“Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors” will showcase the sound of its most recent album “Medicine” Friday at the Grand Stafford Theater. 

Differing from past albums where Holcomb collaborated with his wife, “Medicine” was entirely written by Holcomb. Additionally, the songs were each recorded from start to finish as opposed to in parts broken down by instruments.

“I felt like there was a whole lot of things that I felt like I needed to kind of write and process alone,” Holcomb said. “It’s more of a fully realized album. A full expression of stuff I wanted to say creatively.”

The song “When It’s All Said and Done” expresses the effect that life’s struggles can have on an individual, Holcomb said. He said every obstacle he has met in his own life turns him to his Christian faith and music. 

Holcomb said one of the most intense struggles of his life occurred two months after he graduated college.

“I’d just been in such a rich time of lots of friends, lots [of] things to do,” Holcomb said. “Then you graduate and you go get a job, and bills start showing up. And you’re too busy to build up any relationships in a community with people who are just trying to survive. There’s just such a shell shock.”

Holcomb said although he is further along than when he first graduated, he is at a time in his life when he is presented with a new set of challenges.

“I’m at this age where you start to walk through life with friends and family whether it’s addiction, divorce, people losing infant children,” Holcomb said. “There’s this struggle of knowing how to be a friend, how to be a husband when people are walking through painful things.”

Holcomb said his songs are also inspired by the good moments in his life, and the song “Here We Go” was inspired by a night around the campfire with his brother, cousin, manager and wife.

“We just stayed up all night long listening to music, talking about life,” Holcomb said. “It was one of those beautiful nights of joy, of sharing life with people.”

Holcomb said some of the artists that influenced him in his college days were Bryan Adams, Nickel Creek, Wilco, Ben Harper, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, John Mayer and Patty Griffin.

“I still remember those nights with friends, most friends who I haven’t spoken to in years,” Holcomb said. “I still remember those days, those pops of fondness. And that’s what music is about. It’s like creating a moment with people.”

“Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors” will perform Friday in Downtown Bryan with “Penny and Sparrow.”