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"Your name is a big part of your identity," says singer-songwriter Brian Fennell, aka Syml. "Growing up, I remember knowing I was going to have a different name, which is a big thing."

Fennell, who was adopted as a baby and raised in and around Seattle, knows very little about his birth parents. He knows they were young when they had him, knows they are Welsh, knows that they loved him, he tells Sky News.

Despite having these little crumbs of information, Fennell has chosen not to delve deeper, never attempting to find out more - save for one phone call which was left unanswered.

But the parallel life that could have been is now shaping his career as a musician.

After singing and playing piano for US indie-rock band Barcelona, he chose Syml, the Welsh word for simple, as the name for his solo venture. And as a songwriter, a common thread in his music is "identity and how that impacts me", he says.

The result is his debut solo album, also called Syml, a collection of hugely personal songs exploring the mystery of his Welsh heritage and his identity, and putting his life into perspective now that he has children of his own.

"I was adopted when I was a baby," he says. "I've never not know that I was adopted. Growing up, it wasn't a big deal. I always thought people were either adopted or they weren't.

I didn't think it was anything that unique until I was older and started to ask myself questions about who I was and where I came from."

Before the age of 18, Fennell knew nothing of his origins. Then, he was given papers from his adoptive parents to explain a bit more about who he was and where he had come from.

"It was this vague information about my health history and heritage," he says. "But they also gave me a letter from my birth mother which she'd written to me, but with blank spaces. It was a nameless, faceless letter and it fuelled something in me."

For several months, Fennell experienced "a whirlwind of emotion" and says he felt confused and angry.

Did he want to find out more?

"It became a massive part of my identity for like a year or so before fading into the background again for a while," he says.

"I only reached out to them one time. It was a Sunday and the agency was closed. I never tried again. I think on some level I didn't want to know."

Songwriting, he says, became his therapy.

"Now I'm older and have got two little kids and that gap, or void, or whatever is very much filled with my own family.

"For me, it's a closed book, for now. I'm very happy, I don't feel any sort of void that needs to be filled with someone I don't know. There are lots of questions I don't have answers for; I wonder if they're musicians or if they're funny. They're more questions like that rather than 'why did you give me up?'

"One of the few things I know about my birth parents is that they were very young when they had me. My wife and I are very lucky to be in a good place to raise kids and we have a privileged life, we don't have to deal with a lot of the challenges a lot of parents deal with.

"The fact they made the decision is kind of enough for me to give me peace. I kind of know the answer to the biggest question, which is that they did it because they loved me."

Syml, the name, is his own nod to his roots.

Fennell credits his wife with coming up with it. "She looked through the Welsh dictionary for me," he says. "I love it's meaning. It's a bit of a reminder to keep everything as simple as possible.

"The language itself is so beautiful and mysterious - although I picked probably the easiest word to pronounce."

His heritage is laced throughout his album. "We all have traits that make us unique and I think all of us our whole lives are trying to scratch at that itch, to find out," he says.

One song, Connor, is named after the boy he might have been.

The track is about his own experiences of fatherhood, and making peace with his history.

"That was going to be my name before my parents adopted me," says Fennell. "It's a reflective song about when we had our son and how much children show a reflection of you, in good and bad ways.

"You have this little life looking back to you, relying on you to keep it alive and teach it about the world. It made me think about my [birth] dad."

Your name is a huge part of your identity, he says, but it is also "just a word".

Although… "When I was younger I knew I was going to be called Connor and I really wanted to be called Connor," he laughs. "I thought it was so much cooler than Brian."

:: Syml's debut album Syml is out now