There's something skewed in Dent May's brand of pop. The most recent signee to Animal Collective's Paw Tracks imprint, with his tropical corduroy masterpiece The Good Feeling Music Of Dent May And His Magnificent Ukulele, this Mississippi-based ukulele enthusiast fills his balmy, John Waters-inflected niceties with goofy sincerity and a huge sense of melody. Recorded one hot summer with his pals wearing short shorts and massive grins, the whole project seems very nostalgic and breezy, like some '90s backyard wedding/BBQ. In the video for "Oh Paris," for example, he's sitting in a lounge, all bad wallpaper and faded decor, with maracas and a tuxedo and glasses and a drunken/blissed croon. It's a paisley, daggy confirmation of the ironic imagery across Dent's work. I gave him a ring while he was at his crib in Mississippi to chat about irony, the ukulele, and upcoming music projects.
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I guess there are a lot of preconceptions about Mississippi that are probably untrue if you've never been there before. I mean, the obvious blues stuff and those ideas, but what's it like there these days? And the music scene?
Right, well, it's changed a lot over the years. I think a lot of people have the idea that Mississippi and the South is kind of stuck in the '50s and '60s in terms of the actual place itself. But as far as the music, well, all the blues guys are dead. Me and my friends play music, but it's hard to say if there's anything specific going on down here. It's a great place, though; it's slower, quieter -- people seem to be more friendly down here, and I think that makes it easier to live as an artist down here. It's more of a literary scene where I live, though. William Faulkner was from here, and actually it's probably better known for novels than music. And to be honest, I'd say writers have probably influenced me more than musicians around here.
I've certainly heard of more writers from there than musicians. You did an English degree at college, yeah?
Yeah, I actually did English and Southern Studies, a double degree.
Actually, yeah, I was going to ask you about the Southern Studies, because I was curious to what that entailed exactly?
Well, it's a pretty open-ended degree; you really can make of it what you want. It's interdisciplinary as they call it, so you study history, art, literature, and anthropology of the American south. I did my final project on 1970s blaxploitation cinema. A lot of people do stuff on music and film. It's a really cool program, but it's the kind where you could just trip through and not do that much or you can really make the most of it.
Do you think much of this stuff informed your making music?
A little bit. I definitely got into a lot of classic country music and blues and stuff through those classes. I guess growing up here, though, the blues stuff is just part of the social fabric, so it's like you already know it subconsciously. I've never been a huge blues fan, mostly because it's become real corrupted by tourism and stuff -- like a blues musician these days is way unauthentic. It's mostly southern rap actually that I grew up on, from Memphis and New Orleans. It's pretty hard to avoid -- Three Six Mafia, Cash Money. But then also stuff from Athens Georgia, like all the Elephant Six stuff -- the more indie stuff -- all that was a big influence, especially when I was in high school.
Are you still playing in that country and western band?
We haven't played together in over a year now, but I would still like to make a record with them. I have a lot of country songs written. I was working on a country rock opera that I want to do; it's called Cowboy Maloney's Electric City, but I'm pretty busy with the ukulele stuff. So it's hard to squeeze that in.
In terms of the country stuff as well as the Ukulele stuff, I'm not sure how much you think about kitsch, and, well, it could be offensive to call someone's music kitschy. I was wondering if you were into that idea at all, because for me this big split between sincerity and kitsch comes through. It seems like a tricky middleground to find, the goofiness and realness.
Well, the country stuff, it's probably less kitschy than the ukulele stuff in a way maybe; it is pretty straightforward, the country stuff. The lyrics aren't as funny or anything. The ones I've done are pretty straightforward country and psychedelic rock songs. I definitely thought about that balance; I wanted to ride a line between kitsch and sincerity. I'm a big fan of people like John Waters, where there's this so-bad-it's-good manifesto. When you watch his movies, you really get touched by the characters and their problems, but it's funny and disturbing at the same time. I really like stuff like Serge Gainsbourg too, where there's this mix between seediness and sincerity.
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"There are definitely people who will look at the name Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele and be really disgusted."
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I was thinking you'd be into John Waters actually; I was watching Pink Flamingos the other day, and it seemed to tie in with the skewed poignancy of your stuff. Okay, in terms of genre, is there any particular one you buy into to work within?
I guess it's a reaction to the idea of genre in a way, the way I do things. Hopping around from making electronic beats and then doing more acoustic stuff, I haven't been able to mush it into one thing, but I guess it's more explorative, looking into the idea of genre.
What do you tell someone when they ask what sort of music you play?
I say I play pop music [chuckles].
Totally. I guess people could say folk as well.
Yeah, that's true, especially with the use of ukulele, which is associated with folk quite often. I wouldn't want to be labeled as a folk musician though, but if someone calls this record folk-pop, it doesn't bother me or anything. But usually when you think of folk, it's more of an outsider kind of rural thing, but I don't see myself as an outsider artist, because it's usually that outsider/happy accident thing going on.
I was wondering about irony in your music, going back to the kitsch/sincerity split. Is it something you actively try to work with?
I think irony in a literary sense, situational irony -- that's something I definitely play with in my lyrics. But the idea of hipster irony, like wearing this ironic t-shirt because this band's really lame or whatever, that's not something I identify with at all. But, yeah, more of a literary irony; maybe like in the song "I'm an Alcoholic," there's that line between sadness and realness.
There is a matter of factness to that song -- joyous but sad and unlikely at the same time. There are a few aesthetic points that sounded interesting in their irony, but first there's this weird sense of tropicalness that comes out in the album, like this tropical corduroy backyard wedding kind of vibe.
Totally, yeah. When we made the record, it was drenching hot -- it was the middle of July. We did it in this trailer, and it was really really hot. We were definitely feeling kind of tropical, wearing short shorts every day. We spent a lot of time outside -- and, yeah, the backyard wedding thing you're talking about, it's socially how we hang out, generally outside.
Definitely, that summery/paisley kind of thing, like I was watching the video to your track "Oh Paris," and it looked basically exactly like this, like the bit where you're in the lounge with the really bad wallpaper acting overly happy with the maracas. It's got that kitsch thing again. It just kind of confirmed exactly the imagery that came up when listening to the record.
For sure, and actually I was thinking a lot of about like bad hotel bars, the singers in those places, and the music you'll hear there, like this bad lounge singer thing.
Yes! Absolutely, that's what I was talking about with the sort of irony that I heard, that bad wedding singer kind of thing. Maybe because there's that picture of you in that tuxedo as well. So you're heading off on your, well, first tour soon? With A.C. Newman?
Right. I keep adding dates, so we'll see what happens. I'm doing North America with the band, but then in Europe it'll be more solo stuff. I've got some dates with Animal Collective coming up as well, but after that it'll be me bumming around on trains in Europe with my ukulele.
That must make touring way easier; it's pretty lightweight.
Honestly, that's the main reason I started playing ukulele. I was playing in a power pop band and just got tired of lugging around my electric guitar.
So you played guitar before ukulele?
I guess I played ukulele before guitar, but I played guitar in bands more, I haven't used ukulele in public, up until the last couple of years. I play a lot of instruments, but just none of them particularly well I think.
Looking at various "indie" bands -- I'm doing the quotation mark things with my hands -- there's been a resurgence of the use of ukulele mostly in this quirky way. Have you found there's any backlash against the instrument?
I think so, yeah, a little bit. I guess I didn't know about the fact that it was becoming trendy until i read this magazine article about it. I'd never heard of it so much, but people do tend to trash it sometimes. It's kind of cool to me; I like the fact that it polarizes people. That's pretty much what my personality is like too; polarizing, and there are definitely people who will look at the name Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele and be really disgusted. I quite like that. But that twee indie pop scene with the ukulele -- sure that exists, but maybe not around here so much.
My cousin is a ukulele enthusiast actually. He bought me a red one.
Yeah, the chords are really easy to play. They're a good way to learn guitar and music in general.
You mentioned before you were making some electronic stuff as well?
The next record probably won't be ukulele-based, because I kind of wanted each record I do to be super different from the next. The songwriting style will be similar, but the instrumentation will be way different. I've been listening to a lot of disco and rap and old school Chicago house. I go through phases and delve into certain things. But yeah, I'm working on more electronic stuff, but I don't think it'll be actually that different apart from the soundscapes.
Did you ever get into that Arthur Russell album Love Is Overtaking Me?
Absolutely, I love that record. I love everything about Arthur Russell. Actually, it's really weird, I got this tape the other day -- one put out on Sleeping Bag Records [Arthur Russell's label] -- it was a 99¢ cassette at this Mississippi truck stop that had this crazy collection of obscure '80s dance cassettes. They've been a pretty big influence on the stuff I've been writing.
