Maylin Lei is a singer-songwriter and artist currently living in Baltimore, MD. Lei creates stripped-down music which sonically and lyrically paint little scenes. These vignettes create honest, even vulnerable, views of daily life and the people who come in and out of Lei’s life, all while trying to make sense of the world we live in.
Born as Nguyen Le, Nguyen was raised in West Hartford, CT where he played in his school’s orchestra and sang aloud when at home alone. After dropping the viola by high school, Nguyen pursued the visual arts and eventually attended the Maryland Institute College of Art where he graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting. Deciding to stay in Baltimore, Nguyen eventually purchased a used guitar at a music store near the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory and taught himself the basic chords and scales at night after work and on days off. Eventually, Nguyen began to pen songs under the stage name, Maylin Lei, a name invoking the images of beautiful waterfalls and the colorful flowers of Hawaiian Leis. Since then, Lei has gone on to continue writing, performing, and producing songs while also making the cover art for them.
by Maylin Lei
Credits to ilyaimy.com for providing the cover picture
My EP, When Pigs Fly, is the first body of music I’ve ever released. I purchased my first guitar little over a year and a half ago and only began writing songs after a year of learning to play guitar. However, when I found out how enjoyable it was to write songs, I knew that I was onto something.