The mix of joy, melancholy and reflection surfaced in our conversation – emotions perhaps heightened by the hours May spent in the company of Smith’s son the evening before we spoke – ripples throughout At Thirty-Three and a Third, a record on which May, then in his late 20s, takes a view of himself, his relationships, and his career prospects that is often far more mature than his somewhat tender years might suggest. On “Top,” the singer and songwriter expresses a desire to make better use of the time he’s been afforded on Earth, while the reflective “Past Few Days” sees him surveying the wreckage of a failing relationship and uncovering gratitude for the patience he’s been granted amid his missteps. “You always wait for me to learn,” he sings. May said similar themes have always been present in his songwriting, including an awareness of the finite nature of time, the urge to wrangle with his own romantic shortcomings, and a desire to confront larger questions of purpose and identity – the answers to which he currently feels more distanced from than he did in his earlier years. “I feel like I know less now than I did then,” he said, and laughed. “I have more experience, but it doesn’t answer any of those questions for me. … I don’t know. I’ve been accused of oversentimentality before, but that reflection isn’t like, oh, I miss the good ol’ days! It’s trying to figure out how that experience, how that relationship, and how those mistakes that you make begin to change who you are, where you are, and where you go next.” (fb)

Our next Community Conversation is set for Thursday, June 19, at Two Dollar Radio HQ. Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/580563961759631/ (fb)