Bay Bryan is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Colorado in the US. His work is a blend of music and theatre and his debut solo album, The Meadow, came out in 2023. Bay co-composed the music for A Town Called Christmas and is Associate Musical Director. He has recently launched a Crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the recording of his sophomore concept album, BAYARD. Here he talks about the inspiration behind his music and why he now calls the North of England home… 

Can you tell us a bit about your concept album BAYARD? In a way it follows on from my first album, The Meadow (2023), carrying a similar theme of escapism. BAYARD continues on from that only this fantasy space is a forest enchanted by the spirit of a medieval horse, called Bayard, that legend has it could speak to humans and possessed extraordinary abilities.

There’s also another trickster character, part human and part fairy, in the forest and this is the backdrop to the stories and songs on the album. It’s what I call a kaleidoscopic collection of songs and the idea is the listener goes on this wonky ride through the woods where they stumble upon this cabaret tent with Bayard and their band of musicians inside. There are a lot of themes running through it – radical playfulness, inter-connectivity, gender, identity and the roles we expect people to play, digesting reality through a fantastical distortion.

What was the inspiration behind this album? It was about exploring ideas of who we are, and who we want to be. Also, Bayard is the name I was born with and I wanted to explore that, which led me to this medieval horse called ‘Bayard’, who was captured by Charlemagne but escaped into the forest never to be seen again. There was something about this folk tale that struck me as a beautiful symbol – in the human world we risk losing magic when we seek to make ourselves separate from it, and I like the idea of the woods being this secret refuge with something beautiful to offer us.

Also, when I was a child, I used to tell people I was an alien, which I think came out of a deep desire to be something more than myself – more than human. What I’ve found doing drag (because I’m also a drag artist), is that this costume or persona you adopt allows you to be something bigger and ultimately express your own authenticity.

Bay Bryan with his bandmates credit Lian Furness

How would you describe your music? I think both of these albums are more than just a collection of songs, I want them to be an immersive experience. They have a theatrical element. I’d say my songs are story-driven and my music is a blend of genres – it’s a kind of Frankenstein pop or theatrical pop.

Where did your passion for music come from? I was lucky that I grew up surrounded by music. We had an upright piano in our living room and I’ve always written songs by ear. My mum describes a moment when I was about two where I went over to the piano and replayed the Microsoft Windows opening screen tune, which certainly surprised them! I had piano lessons from the age of about five and I also did the classical guitar for a few years. I would sit for hours at the piano and put together chord progressions and later I started to write songs. I was also in the choir from a young age, so music was just a constant in my life.

How did you end up going from the Rocky Mountains to living in Manchester? I went to drama school in Glasgow where I studied musical theatre performance for three years. I met my partner there and when I graduated I moved to New York because of visa rules. We maintained our long-distance relationship and then decided to get married so I moved to the UK – I proposed to my boyfriend in Leeds. I put on a solo show at Interplay Theatre and at the end of it I proposed to him! And we’ve been living together in Manchester since 2017.

Is it harder to get heard as a musician today? You can get your music heard but to sustain a career is a huge challenge in the music industry today. It’s an attention market and everyone is trying their darndest to be heard, and some people are much better at it than others. Is this inherently a problem? I think in many ways it is, but everyone would have a different answer to that. Having had the luck of experiencing a bit of a buzz with my last record, I know how quickly attention can suddenly come your way and how quickly it can evaporate. One could argue that it’s easier than ever to put music out today, but for me I would rather find and attract the folks that resonate with what I love to make – and I reckon there are some reading this that might!

Bay Bryan (credit Liam Maxwell)

Tell us your three desert island albums?

Nick Drake – Pink Moon

Anais Mitchell – Young Man in America

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

What do you hope to achieve with BAYARD? My overall vision goes beyond the studio record and into an immersive gig-cabaret experience that brings people together, and the first step that needs to happen is the record. So the plan is to go into the studio in Wales.

At this moment with the growth of AI and the crazy political landscape we have in the world I feel it’s my duty as a musician to create something more than just a collection of songs. I want to create a meaningful experience that stays with people and I’d love to go on tour with my live band and perform both of these albums together in unconventional spaces.

Click here to support Bay’s Crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which runs until December 11 2025

Main image: Bay Bryan (credit Jay Fisher)