Jay Brannan is a Texas born singer, actor, and songwriter. After finding homes all over the country to live in, and briefly attending University of Cincinnati's acting school, he decided to plant his feet down in New York City. Brannan was cast in 2003 for the movie Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He contributed the song Soda Shop to the film's soundtrack, which he stated was his "first professionally recorded track". Relatively new to the music world