“There’s not a lot of places in Nova Scotia that have a big show like that,” says the Nova Scotia-raised rocker, who will close Saturday’s bill at the 2017 Jube.
“I think I’ve played there three times and the crowds have always been insane. Nova Scotians like to have a good time.”
After the Jubilee and a show next week in Saint John, N.B., Mays will have a busy late August through September, playing shows in Hubbards, N.S. (four shows booked, three already sold out), as well as stops in eastern and southern Ontario, Buffalo and New York City.
Mays, now 37 years old, was born in Hamilton, Ont., but his family moved to Dartmouth when he was a young boy (he paid tribute to his hometown with ‘City of Lakes,’ a single off his first solo album).
Mays grew up listening to singer-songwriters from the 1970s; stalwarts such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and J.J. Cale.
“My dad had a really good record collection,” he remembers.
He went through a heavy metal phase when he was a bit older before his sound developed into what it is today: roots rock, with splashes of folk thrown in (Mays said he’d like to do an all-acoustic album some day).
When it is suggested that his music has a Tom Petty-like vibe, Mays doesn’t shy away from that stylistic comparison.
“Tom Petty was a huge influence, for sure – a songwriter who still wants to turn up the amps.”
In 2006, Mays & El Torpedo, which would disband a few years later, won five East Coast Music Awards: group of the year, radio rock recording of the year, album of the year and single of the year (‘Cocaine Cowgirl), and as a solo artist, Mays won a 2014 Juno award for Rock Album of the Year (‘Coyote’).
Recently, The News asked Mays about a few of his well-known compositions.
Cocaine Cowgirl (from the album Matt Mays & El Torpedo)
A dozen years after it was released, Cocaine Cowgirl remains arguably his most popular song. It took perseverance in the studio in order to get the song to sound as good as the original demo.
“There was something about that demo that was pretty awesome,” Mays said. “That was initially called ‘Cocaine Cowboy’ and it was about a friend of mine who had kind of a problem. We didn’t expect that song to do well at all. It’s not really a conventional song – it doesn’t even have a chorus but audiences seem to like it, and they all know it.”
Take it on Faith (from the 2012 album “Coyote”)
“I wrote that on a ukulele. I was with a girl at the time – she was my fiancée – and it was a last-ditch effort to keep her in (in the relationship). It didn’t work, though.”
Mays had a recording session booked in New York, and when some tapes failed to show at the studio up that day, “it was like, ‘we need a song because we’ve got the studio for the day,’” he recalls. “It ended up being the first single off Coyote.”
Ain’t That the Truth (also from “Coyote”)
“My dad is always saying ‘ain't that the truth.’ When I come across everyday sayings that haven’t been used, I try to put them in a song.”
Faint of Heart (part of a four-song pre-release record in advance of ‘Once Upon a Hell of a Time,’ a 14-song album to be put out this fall)
“It's the reality of real love and real relationships – when you drive each other crazy but you can’t be apart.”
