Rocker Mays gets some artistic inspiration
Mays’ new album Once Upon a Hell of a Time to be released next month
Matt Mays knows what it’s like to fall in love with someone’s work.
That’s exactly what happened the minute the Canadian rocker walked into a Vancouver club and laid eyes on the intricate, folkloreinspired mural on the wall. “I was completely taken by it,” he says, and he sought out the bar owner to find out who created it.
Turned out it was the work of Ola Volo, an emerging West Coast artist who’s become known for her eye-catching beer labels, gig posters and album covers, as well as large-scale murals.
Mays soon became one of her biggest fans, not only entranced by her stylized artwork but also the musical sound of her name. The 38-year-old musician was deep into his own creative period at the time, working on the music for his new album, and an idea for a song began to germinate.
“I had this idea of writing a tune about her paintings and how they tell a story,” Mays said. “It came out about wanting to escape the day-to-day life, and spend time in the beautiful atmospheres that she creates.”
The song is entitled Ola Volo, naturally, and it’s a fuzzified masterpiece of a rock tune, one of the four excellent new tracks Mays released earlier this year to preview his long-awaited sixth studio album. The full project, Once Upon a Hell of a Time, drops on Oct. 20, with album art by, you guessed it, Ola Volo.
In the five years since Coyote, Mays’ last album, the singer-songwriter-guitarist has wandered between New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and hometown Halifax, first in search of healing (there was a romantic breakup, followed by the 2013 death of his guitarist, Jay Smith) and then inspiration.
Mays found himself working on music with an old pal, former band member and kindred spirit, Wintersleep drummer Loel Campbell, who co-produced the new album.
“We have the same ideas of what we like, tone-wise and song-wise,” Mays says of Campbell. “It’s just easy with him. There’s a lot of trust and respect, and he’s one of the best drummers on the planet. I love the way he plays, and how musical he is. He’s a great bass player, knows guitar lines and really knows what I can do as a singer so he pushes me lyrically and performancewise. Ultimately we just have a lot of laughs.”
Campbell also had a connection with Volo, who’s a big Wintersleep fan. Mays was nervous about her opinion of the song, concerned she might think he was obsessed with her. But she loved it, and was happy to meet him. The two artists met for a drink in Montreal.
“I wanted to let her know that I’m not a total weirdo,” he says, “and now we’ve become good friends. She’s doing the cover to the album, which is amazing.”
Her contribution was not the reason for the delay on the album, by the way. Mays’ strategy is to release it when he feels it’s done. “Most records have a lot of filler these days,” he observes. “Mine doesn’t. If you want a record that doesn’t have any filler, it takes a long time. For me, anyway. It didn’t sound like a finished record.”
Now that it’s complete, he’s looking forward to hitting the road with his band. There are a few shows this month, and a full Canadian tour is in the works.
“The band is better than ever,” Mays says. “We take it more seriously and we have more fun, too. The new stuff is really fun to play.
“I think it’s really good for the longevity of any musician to take some breaks. I love playing music, it’s my favourite thing to do, but it feels so good to play after a break.”
The album will be available internationally, thanks to a new distribution deal. “For now, we’re just putting the lean on and getting our social media game together,” Mays says. “The record comes out next month. Hopefully the spaghetti will stick to the wall and people will like it, and we’ll be stepping out of the nation a little more.”