DeadJournalist.com's Exclusive Interview: Dent May

From time-to-time an artist comes along who has the uncanny knack of mixing the unique with the popular and ending up with a distinctive sound that is unmistakably their own.

Welcome to the music of Dent May.

May isn't your typical indie-flared musician hailing from New York, Portland or Canada. May isn't even from the southern indie hot spots of Nashville, Atlanta or the tobacco roads of North Carolina. He's is from the land of the Blues, Mississippi.

But before you conjure misconceptions base on geography, erase thoughts of a bluegrass player in overhauls and a straw hat. May is signed to Animal Collective's Paw Track label and was in film school at NYU. He was a sensation at last year's SXSW festival for his showmanship and stage presence. And on February 20, he kicks of his first national tour opening for A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers.

And what of that unique? That would be the ukulele. The instrument native to Hawaii, and known by many from the exploits of 1960's icon Tiny Tim, spent years as more a novelty instrument but has in recent years found favor with musicians such as Zach Condon, Jens Lekman and Patrick Wolf. It is one that May also embraced, so much so, that his band is officially named Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Don't let the guy who sometimes rocks the 1970's era Elton John-esque glasses fool you into thinking he's a one trick pony with his ukulele.

While it is the instrument that takes primary focus on this album it is not an instrument that, in the end, will define him. This is not to discount the seriousness of which he takes the ukulele but to emphasize the range of talents he possesses.

For more information on Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, visit his Web site: DentMay.com or his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/dentmay.

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele will release their debut LP The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele on February 3, 2009.

DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Dent May of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Your debut album is released tomorrow, February 3. How does it feel to finally have that day upon you? How long did it take you to write and record The Good Feeling Music of Dent May?

DM: It's an enormous relief. I wrote most of the songs within a relatively short period of time. Perhaps it was several months. I had the whole album written with demos recorded long before recording with Rusty, and it's been seven or eight months since we recorded. So I'm pretty psyched to finally have it available for public consumption.

How did you come to work with the other members of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele? What led to the band signing to Paw Tracks, the label formed by Animal Collective?

DM: When I got involved with Paw Tracks, it was a solo project and still is essentially. There have been many lineup changes in my band, but everyone in the band I've been friends with for a long time. Basically, I just recruited friends. A couple of the bandmates on the record can't tour because of their jobs.

Click here for the complete interview with Dent May