This edition of our Song Spinner series, which takes you into the hearts, minds and hands of local musicians and their creative process, reveals the story behind “Reality” by Braiden Sunshine.

Bio: Sunshine is a 15-year-old singer-songwriter from Old Lyme — and if you don’t know that and are reading this, congrats on emerging from what must have been a coma. Sunshine, you see, was a finalist last fall on NBC’s top-rated “The Voice.” A member of team Gwen (Stefani), Sunshine charmed millions with his talent, his stylistic curiosity and his earnest and genuine smile.

Seizing on the opportunities presented by “The Voice” experiences, Sunshine independently released his first single, “Reality,” on Wednesday.

Insomnia does strange things: “Reality” is the first song Sunshine has ever written, though he has contributed to material in Madison Red, a longtime local band with whom Sunshine still performs.

Interestingly, Sunshine didn’t set out to write the song. It just happened.

He explains, “I couldn’t fall asleep one night. I was stressed out and all jittery. I finally started to drift off about 1 in the morning and suddenly this song starts playing in my head.”

Sunshine thought the song was familiar but couldn’t place it. As he focused on the lyrics, it occurred to him that, in fact, he’d never heard the tune. He laughs: “And I thought, ‘Oh, I’m making this up as I go along.’”

Stealth songcraft: Because it was late at night, Sunshine wrote the lyrics down on his cellphone, then crept into the hallway with his guitar to flesh out the chords and melody without waking anyone up. “The whole thing came to me in about half an hour,” Sunshine says. “I thought it was really cool because it showed me that I have the ability to actually write songs.”

The heart of "Reality”: Sunshine thinks the subconscious genesis of the tune was a cumulative result of his fun but admittedly arduous run on “The Voice” — a months-long period during which he traveled back and forth to Los Angeles and underwent the anxiety of the show’s week-to-week survival format.

“The song’s about having people you really care for far away, whether across the country or the world,” he says. “It’s hard to have people you care for so far away, but you figure out a way.”

Art as therapy: In addition to the swirling excitement and energy of “The Voice,” Sunshine says he also was “going through a lot of tough times at that point, with a lot of different things going on emotionally ... and in my head. But I felt a lot better after I wrote it. I think a lot of things built up and had to come out some way — and did so in the most constructive way.”

Blueprint innocence: At first listen, “Reality” is a fairly straightforward pop-rock tune with a verse/chorus/bridge structure. But, following the dictates of his sleep-crusted Muse, Sunshine tossed out some interesting chord twists in the second verse, even though the vocal melody stays the same. It’s a pretty unusual — but very effective — variation.

“The structure just happened like that,” Sunshine says. “I never thought about it. That’s just the way it came out. My music teacher, when I showed it to him for a project, said he thought it was interesting that I changed chords in the second verse.”

Getting it all down: “Reality” was recorded at Jam Studios in Middletown with longtime Madison Red producer Jeff Franklin — now Sunshine’s co-manager — and with help from longtime musical pals Dave Reed and Ian Maxwell. Synthetic Dream Studio and director Matt Weston produced the accompanying video.

Ignition, liftoff: “Reality,” which officially kick’s off Sunshine’s solo career, was launched Wednesday on video and virtually every online streaming platform available, including YouTube. You can download the track from iTunes.

For more information: Still dealing with the realities of fame, Sunshine is pretty shy about self-promotion. But feel free to investigate his Twitter and Facebook pages.