Jay Brannan

Yesterday we talked of Scott Matthew, who got his big break when 5 of his songs were used in the soundtrack of Shortbus. Today, we visit another artist who caught his big break with Shortbus, both as a contributing musician, but also as an actor.

Jay Brannan (b. 1982) is a Texas born singer, actor, and songwriter. He's an openly gay tenor who plays Folk/Pop acoustic guitar, who has forged a career based on the strength of his intimate YouTube videos and self promotion.

He grew up among conservative Baptists, and after a brief stint at the University of Cincinnati’s acting school, he moved on to Los Angeles and ultimately to New York City, where he was cast in the 2006 film Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He won the part, which required him to perform an explicit sex scene, by submitting an audition tape. Brannan also contributed a song to the film’s soundtrack, Soda Shop, which was his first professionally recorded track. It was also the song that introduced him to me, a gentle and breezy track. Here it is:

Brannan subsequently acted in Holding Trevor (2007) as the promiscuous best friend of the protagonist. He also contributed Lower My Gun to the film's soundtrack:

Also in 2007, he released an EP called Unmastered. Body's a Temple was the EP's featured single:

If Body's a Temple strongly hinted at its gay content, Half-Boyfriend made sure we knew what it was about. Here's a video of the song using Ian & Mickey scenes from Shameless to illustrate the song. A good call.

Jay's first album, Goddamned came out in 2008. Half-Boyfriend was also included, along with lead single Housewife, about a man's dream of being a housewife to his ideal lover. It's a great song.

The title track is a strong lyrical statement against bigotry and violence promoted by (any) religion, couched in deceptively gentle music.

Opening track Can't Have It All tackles the dilemma of small town vs big city.

His second album, In Living Cover (2009), reached number ten on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. It contained a couple of original songs and the rest were covers. Opening song Beautifully was his own composition, about a woman falling in love with a gay man.

He was her long, bright future

In the middle of a wrong, dark road

He loved her, but he wasn't too sure

If he could return the love she showed

When she said, "my love extends

Beyond the realm of being friends"

He kissed her head

And quietly he said

"It's not that you're not beautiful, you're just not beautiful to me"

She said, "how beautiful do I have to be?

When I look in the mirror, you're the only thing I see,

And I have loved you beautifully"

Among the covers, here's his version of Joni Mitchell's All I Want:

... And here's The Cranberries' Zombie:

By this time Brannan was getting frustrated by being a gay role model. He said:

"It's 2009. I think it's time that everyone, the "gay community" included, allow gay people to take their place in the world as real people, rather than continuing to be defined and separated by their sexual orientation. I want the freedom to be myself, unafraid and uncensored, without having to market myself based on a sexual orientation, or attaching that sexual orientation to my name as a title.

It is an obnoxious issue that I face every single day of my professional life, and it is the biggest obstacle I face toward being taken seriously as a musician and as a person. I am sick of being pushed into the gay corner, by gay people just as much or moreso than people who are not gay. It sucks. I want my life and my work to be more than that."

However, by the time his new album dropped, Rob Me Blind in 2012, he must have changed his mind, because the video of the same-titled track, which was also a single, was most certainly gay-themed.

Beautifully was also included in this album, and so was The Spanglish Song:

The lead single of the album was Greatest Hits, a rather bleak song that managed to also be inspirational:

Also in 2012, he was nominated for a Genie Award in the category "Best Achievement in Music - Original Song" for his song My Love, My Love from the soundtrack of 2011 film Cloudburst. Here's the Genie Awards' presentation:

... And here's a live full version:

Jay's fourth album, Always, Then, & Now, came out in 2014. The title track acklowledges Jay's lack of self-confidence:

'til you laid eyes on me I never dreamed

I was someone who could be seen

So when you said you always get what you want

I thought, "who am I to intervene?"

The first official single release was Blue-Haired Lady, recounting the agony of an elderly woman facing death while looking back at her "proper christian" life.

The follow-up single was Square One, a song of anger and disillusionment.

Elusive Knight was also a song born of despair, a long way away from the infectuous cheerfulness of Soda Shop:

During 2016, Jay released an EP called New York, New York. Here's the title track, live:

... And here's the whole EP:

Jay Brannan is a talented young man, who's struggling against music business' inherent hesitation to creating a gay Pop star, as well as his own inner contradictions. I hope that he will eventually emerge victorious. I close with his own words, from an interview in Slant Magazine (2013):

"And especially now, as I get older, I look back and I'm like, “Oh my God, no one's ever going to hire me for a real job when I'm fucking 50.” They'll be like, “Who the hell is this person doing videos on the toilet with his pants down, and posting pictures of himself crying on his Facebook page?” But I have these impulses, thoughts, and expressions, and I've challenged myself to be like, “Well, you know what? Maybe the world shouldn't be like that. Maybe we should be allowed to be real, and human, and to share what's really going on, and to say things that are important, even if they're not the most socially acceptable.” And guess what: That's always been the stuff that I've done that's gotten the biggest response."