After dc Talk's hiatus was announced, Tait dedicated more time to his band Tait. "I actually named the band Tait for my father. He was an integral part of my life, and I wanted to do something to honor his memory and the impact he has made. You're going to see a lot of Tait the band, not just Michael Tait, shining through in all of this," he said. Tait had partially formed this band around 1997. One of the original members was guitarist Pete Stewart (from the hard rock band Grammatrain), who is featured on the first album "Empty."

It's the presentation of that new entity that makes Empty stand out from the power pop crowd, meshing Michael's yearning, soulful rock vox with Stewart's approachable and tasty guitar work, sitting on top of the solid underpinning of the Chapin brothers' rhythm section. The songs are smart and hook laden that it's hard to walk away from a first listen with only one song running through your head. "I've taken all these things and turned them into the things my dad told me about as a kid," Michael says. "The record's called Empty directly from what my dad taught to me about my whole life, 'What does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?' Those things became real to me when my dad died." And the first single, "All You Got," which was born "from the realization that everybody goes through seasons in their life where they feel a total deprivation spiritually," states Michael. "Sometimes we are the ones who encourage, sometimes we need the encouragement." "That cavernous hole of grief can swallow you, if you're not careful. Or you can turn it into something useful, and that's what I've tried to do with my music," he adds.

"I couldn't have made the so-called 'solo project' before now, because I needed to learn so much about so many things," Michael says. "I started out my career as a spectator, really just enjoying the fantasia of it all. But as I've grown up, I think I've become an artist. Having lived through it, I can come to the drawing table with more than an idea, but truly a creative plan or process."

What next in the story of Tait? Stay tuned for their continuing life story. . .