Carter Vail

Carter Vail, born in Connecticut and now based in Nashville, works as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose wry yet catchy indie rock and pop songs balance tension with euphoria, a quality on full display across his 2020 album Red Eyes and the 2024 release 100 Cowboys. An upbeat personality tempered by dry wit, he started posting original tracks and short comedic clips online in 2018 during his time as a student at the University of Miami. His first single, “Melatonin,” quickly accumulated millions of streams, supplying the momentum for a move to Nashville where he could apply his music engineering training. That track later anchored his debut album, Red Eyes, issued in 2020, while a follow-up streaming success, “Love-15,” surfaced the same year on the EP The Interstellar Tennis Championship. After relocating to Los Angeles several years earlier, he returned in 2023 with a sequel EP that included the singles “We Were Kids” and “I Want You.” Processing the turmoil of a difficult breakup, Vail teamed with co-writer and co-producer Noah Tauscher to shape the material that became 100 Cowboys, a 2024 collection of candid, emotionally direct songs that mix hardship with perceptive wit.