Joe May is a Brazilian-born, Charlotte-based songwriter whose philosophy on music is all about making it as fun as possible. His funky, groovy and lighthearted debut album, Mild Adversity & Shallow Heartbreaks, drops on Thursday, May 15th, followed by album release shows in Charlotte and Raleigh.
Charleston’s The Psycodelics will support Joe’s special nine-piece band on Friday, May 16th at the Visulite Theatre, and then Saturday, May 17th they hit Raleigh’s Pour House with Duck.
The record was self-produced at Alta Mira, Joe’s home studio in Charlotte, with 25 different local musicians lending their talents.
“It reflects my values,” Joe explains. “I want to build things with people around me, bring people into the fold. It’s all a reaction to that.”
Fans of the Southeast jam scene may remember Joe from Pluto Gang, regional favorites who stopped touring a few years back.
“I just kept going and making music on my own,” Joe says. At first he was just tracking things himself, having friends collaborate here and there. That quickly evolved into the collaborative effort that is Mild Adversity.
“You can build a way bigger sandcastle if you have six friends helping out, right? None of this is a deliberate choice, it’s just how I like to work. It’s supposed to be fun, and it’s a silly album so the laughs were shared rather than hoarded.”
The studio itself is built in a spare bedroom at his house, born out of life changes that left him with two empty rooms at the same time.
“I had two roommates and it was great, and then they moved out, I had broken up with my girlfriend, and I was like you know what? Let’s just turn the whole house into a studio.”
In addition to recording his own music there, Joe also records for other musicians, which helps him fund his creative pursuits and add gear to the studio. Alta Mira caters to the warm sounds of 70s rock, using both old school and modern gear.
“My dad’s a drummer,” Joe explains, “I grew up going to shows on my mom’s shoulders to watch him play. He was fairly successful in Brazil in the 90s when I was growing up.”
The seeds had already been planted, and before long Joe had started on his own musical path. First, as a drummer, and while attending Chapel Hill for college he started playing keyboards and soon, recording.
“My mom got me an Ableton license for my high school graduation and I’m still running my studio on that same license,” he says. “That’s now 15 years in the making, I guess.”
For his earliest recordings, Joe admits that his skills weren’t the best.
“We had no clue what we were doing when we did that first Pluto Gang album,” he says. “We were in the loft of my apartment, and I had a hundred dollar mic that I had taken from my dad’s basement. I bought a little interface and we just tracked it.”
Their song “Moggy Oxvine” was an underground hit via Spotify’s Discover weekly playlist circa 2020, and it created demand for more music, so they kept it going. He even started recording all the shows after speaking with Peter Anspach of Goose about how they were doing the same.
Eventually, touring with Pluto Gang had run its course, but they are all still good friends, and now they try to play one local show every year as a reunion.
“The appetite to just go wake up in a hotel wherever and then drive to the next city… no one wants to do that right now.”
With the solo project, Joe can work with his own creative flow and explore any ideas he wants.
“It’s been fun to be in creative flow and not constantly checking in with everyone,” he says. “It’s been moving fast, which is the way I like to go.”
As Mild Adversity & Shallow Heartbreaks enters the world, Joe has also been documenting the album and the people who contributed via a podcast-style series called Behind The Boards, for which he received a grant from the City of Charlotte to produce.
“The city’s arts council is invested in helping to tell the story of these 25 talented creative people,” he says, “You only get a name and one line on the credits on the album, and that doesn’t quite speak for how talented everyone is.”
For the album release shows, Joe has two giant parties planned with a nine-piece band that adds an extra percussion player and three horns to his normal five-piece group.
The Charlotte show on Friday, May 16th pairs this band with The Psycodelics. The Charleston favorites just released their debut album and have a big summer ahead that includes a performance at Bonnaroo.
He recalls the time when he first saw The Psycodelics live:
“I took my parents to go see Neal Francis, he was doing that 11 piece band to promote his last album,” Joe recalls. “The Psycodelics came out and my dad is looking at me like this Neal Francis guy is a fool to hire this band open for them, how do you come on after this.”
So, naturally Joe wanted to play after them, too.
“This stuff is supposed to be fun,” he says. “Making it is supposed to be fun, and sharing it is really fun. “That is the core of the whole album. Even if stuff is serious or tough, it’s the fun of the community, the fun of bringing everyone together, the fun of playing the music that’s the core. Not just of the lyrics, but also the experience of making it.”
Stream Mild Adversity & Shallow Heartbreaks by Joe May anywhere you stream music. Learn more about the studio & catch live dates at joemaymusic.com.