Brandon Lay: Cars and Music Are His Yin and Yang

Brandon Lay is a car guy; a quick look at his Instagram account will confirm that fact. The Jackson, Tenn., native began working on cars in high school, before a career in music crossed his mind.

"There was a guy down the road that would sell old Ford trucks out of his front yard," Lay tells Taste of Country during his RISERS interview, "and one summer, we bought one that had been wrecked, but it had a 429 Big Block, and we just got so excited when we lifted the dented hood and saw that motor.”

As a college student, after getting interested in playing music for a living, Lay bought an RV so that he could hit the road and tour college campuses; more recently, he picked up a 1978 Lincoln Continental coupe, which he calls "The Queen." The singer-songwriter explains that it's "the solitude" of the time spent fixing up a car that he enjoys, especially given how public playing music can be.

"For me, mentally at least, it’s a yin and yang kind of thing to the music business," Lay notes. "I feel like the music business can be a little more gradual; you can spend a lot of time and not see the result until months or years later. I feel like it’s the exact opposite when you’re working on something old and bringing something to life; you can [say], ‘I painted that, [and] it looks totally different than it did two hours ago.’”

Lay is signed with UMG Nashville and plans to release his debut single later this year. Fans can find a list of his upcoming tour dates on his official website.

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