Joshua Aaron Mays is a senior conservation biology major and has written music under the names of Free Space and Signs Following. Two previous pieces on Mays are this dialogue and this review of his latest EP.
J. Clark Hubbard is a senior English and political science major who likes to talk to Mays.
[Before the interview, Josh Mays was having a conversation with one Abigail Jean Peecher about cults, serial killers, etc. As he walked over, he made a sudden realization]
JAM: Wanna know what I hate? Last time we did an interview, I started talking about the Sannyasins, the cult.
JCH: Last time?
JAM: Yeah.
JCH: Well you know how I’m gonna have to start it this time.
[Mays rolls eyes]
JCH: Last time we had a dialogue, you talked about how you were going to release the EP.
JAM: That’s right.
JCH: And then we talked some over the summer about the album itself. When did it come out?
JAM: June. So it’s been a good two months. Almost three.
JCH: What did you want from the EP? What was your original intent?
JAM: That’s an interesting question because the album took four years to make. So the intentions changed a lot. I think when I started, the intentions were to create the best work of art that I could ever create, that it was gonna be the summation of everything I could do musically, that I was gonna push myself musically, working with new instruments, learning to record, and it was going to be a culmination of all my work, and it was going to be this great artistic piece.
As it went on, I realized that it wasn’t going to be that, and that that’s okay, because there shouldn’t be any art pieces that just sum up someone’s life. You make music and you make art your whole life, and it’s okay if a piece of art is just reflective of a very specific part of your life.
So I had that mindset going in. I wanted the EP to be reflective of just a few parts of my life. But I will say, as it kept going and I became more weary and I kept running into problems, I just wanted to get it out. The goal was just to get it released. By the end, some of the excitement began to come back. But, to answer your question, what I wanted out of it, by the time I released it, was to pay homage to where I started musically, and kind of look forward to where I’m going, and I wanted to share that with my friends and family. There’s a very important thing of not sending it to magazines, nothing like that. Not trying to get any more followers. Just letting my friends, family and acquaintances see it.
JCH: Was there a turning point where you began to think about the EP differently? A person, an album, or were you just thinking about it, and finally realized “Ok, this is not going to be the discography of my life in this one album?” What changed your mindset?
JAM: I think it changes when you sit down and actually start recording. The kind of “moving from something that’s nebulous into something that will be the permanent piece of music.” When you start recording, you realize that “this isn’t sounding like I want it to” (good or bad) and you start realizing this can’t be anything I want, but is a very solid piece of work. Also, as I started to get better at writing and write more and more and more quickly, I realized that I was liking what I was writing now more than I liked the old stuff, and there were a lot of new ideas I wanted to explore. This was just a stepping stone, so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure to make the greatest thing I’ve ever made.
JCH: Did you feel a change over the recording process as you came to terms with that?
JAM: It takes the pressure off completely. When you realize it’s okay to work with the equipment you have now, when you realize it’s okay to work with the skills you have now, and the material you have now, that creates a lot more excitement, in a different way than I was expecting. I think that’s a healthier excitement, a much less arrogant excitement.
JCH: You talked about how you didn’t want to send the album off to a bunch of places. Have you gotten any feedback from somebody outside of your immediate circles of friends and family?
JAM: I have been surprised by the acquaintances that have listened to it. Sometimes I forget who follows me.
JCH: What’s the weirdest connection to listen to your album?
JAM: The weirdest ones were just like people that I vaguely knew in high school, and haven’t kept up with-
JCH: Like the fourth circle of friends?
JAM: Exactly, and you just hear from them like, “you’re doing great work.” The other funny one was, I went to my grandpa’s birthday party or something like that, so all my relatives are there. And when your grandparents listen to your music? It’s fun. Or when your cousins and your aunts and your uncles all listen? It’s things like that. When I’m recording, I’m thinking of who I would perform for at shows. So the older people in my family or at church come up to me, they’ve seen it online, and that’s just… different.
JCH: Have you ever considered doing an EP with just your grandparents and yourself?
JAM: Haha, I should, I should. One time my nana told me that she quilts to my music sometimes, which is a big honor.
JCH: Incredible.
JAM: She told me that about the Free Space album. She is an incredible quilter and just won a pretty big quilting competition.
JCH: Where was the quilting competition?
JAM: It was around Chattanooga, like north Georgia.
JCH: Do you know what she quilted?
JAM: Yeah, I went and I voted for it. It was just this really big quilt, really beautiful. She is a much better artist than I am. I just think it’s funny that those two things kind of merge.
JCH: We’ve talked about your goals, and how they and the EP have sort of morphed. Are you content with what the EP has done?
JAM: [pause] Yes. [pause] Yes. If… [pause] Yes, if I had had this small of a release like two years ago, and it was unintentional (like, if I would have wanted it to be bigger and it just wasn’t), I think there would have been a lot of disappointment, and a lot of questioning, “Should I really be doing this?” But now, when I released it, it was just very satisfying. It was a very good feeling, and I can’t describe the joy I felt getting back the final tracks after the drums had been recorded, and I was mixing them in my room. Gosh, to hear something that’s so core to yourself outside of you was incredible. So even if I had only made it for myself, I would be thrilled. The affirmation from my friends and family who have enjoyed it has been extremely satisfying.
JCH: One time, we talked a little bit about future projects. Have you seen any potentials since releasing the album? How do you feel about the future of making music? After college, just making music and going for it, as hard as you can.
JAM: I’m in a weird place right now. Some of the momentum is gone. I hit some walls this summer, mostly just money-wise. I can’t afford the equipment I need, and until I can, I can’t record anymore. The recordings I was doing were not up to par with where I want them to be. My writing is where I want it to be, but my recording skills and getting that to transfer to an actual recording are not where I want them to be. But, once I get out of this funk, I know there’s a lot of potential energy just under the surface.
It’s kind of the birth pains of making an album. They’re getting me down. But once I get this one out, I’m going to be way more proud of it. It’s bittersweet… I don’t know if that’s the right word. It’s hard, but satisfying. After college I’ll be nearing the end of creating this album and will be able to play shows. I see my creative energy expanding after college. I’m going to be working on a lot more visual art too, and that’s just waiting to explode.
JCH: Last question, if you could tour with somebody who’s touring now, who would it be?
JAM: Oh I don’t even have to think about it. MewithoutYou. 100%. MewithoutYou has been my favorite band for six, seven years now? I could just die after that. There would be no more goals. I just need to open for MewithoutYou.
Tweet at @MewithoutYou to help Mays fulfill his dreams and finally feel content to die.
