Today we’d like to introduce you to The May North
Hi The May North, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Well thanks so much for reaching out to us for this interview. We’ve been getting back into performing and writing music more in the last year and a half, and really appreciate this opportunity to talk about it all. The May North is a musical group; born as a sort of a musical love-child of then-fiances George and Steph. The two met as private music teachers who shared interests in Americana, blues, and folk music, as well as really good coffee, and they were both ready to start a new musical adventure. George was a guitarist and songwriter, and Steph played the violin, had just started learning how to improvise, and wanted to write rootsy music. The same year they played their first show as The May North, they also got married and performed together at their wedding reception.
When it came to naming the band, one of their favorite things to do was to travel north to the North Shore of Minnesota on Lake Superior. If they had a free weekend off of work, they would say something like “maybe we should go north?” without necessarily a plan or precise destination in mind. The North was pretty exciting and beautiful to think about visiting, so yes, it was probably time to go north. So there you go, The May North was born.
Not long after the band began, Chris joined on roundneck dobro, vocals, and songwriting, and he brought a deep soul and rich flavor to the sound that we knew we had been searching for, from the very first time we played music together. Over the years we’ve also had other unique and talented musicians involved, whose styles helped grow the band’s sound, including Justin Smith, Matthew Byrnes, and Jeff Swanner. We are grateful for the time and the heart that they gave to this project.
The beginning years of this band were an exciting time. We jumped into many great show and festival opportunities. Besides all of our performing and traveling during that time, as well as holding down full time jobs, we also wrote and recorded four original albums with some very stellar producers and engineers, including Dave Simonett and Ryan Young of Trampled by Turtles. Our experiences recording at both of their studios were extremely memorable for us, and we look back on them fondly as important times of bloom and growth for this band.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A driving factor of this band is that we have always been an original band, writing almost all of the music we’ve ever performed and all of the music on our records. In our live shows we sprinkle in a few deep covers that we love or have influenced us, but otherwise, we have played all original music, full stop. This has made it challenging sometimes in some performance settings, when it’s been challenging when listeners would rather hear something they know, and they’ve never spent time getting to know our music. Our main motivation for this project has always been to forward the art that we create ourselves. If we weren’t doing it for that, we wouldn’t be doing it.
Logistically, I guess you could say we’ve had some challenges over the last several years with band member availability. When both parents play in the same music group, you can’t just have the other parent stay home with the kids. After such an intense and exciting beginning season for the band, it was a big change for the band when two main members, George and Steph, decided to become parents. Their availability to be on stage changed considerably, especially for Steph, being needed so much by their sweet babes at home.
This created some tricky situations that we were able to be creative about. For example, the album Driftless was recorded with their oldest as a baby on site at the studio, in another room, napping frequently and breastfeeding between recording takes. And as they welcomed more babies into the world, there were more family music adventures to be had, such as caring for a baby backstage before a set at The Cedar Cultural Center– a great story to tell that baby when she grows up– that she got to be backstage in the green room at The Cedar when she was a baby.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are an original Americana music group, specializing in performing and recording songs that we write in our own style. Our sound has influences from Americana, folk, bluegrass, and the blues, but it can also deviate from the “rules” of some of these genres. This can make our music hard to categorize sometimes, but we’re ok with that.
We are quite fond of performing our music outdoors whenever we can, as many of our songs feature themes or aspects of nature in them, so opportunities to play our music in beautiful, natural places really does our hearts good. We’re especially fond of playing in beautiful settings in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin. Speaking of that, if you’d like to come hear us outdoors later this year, be sure to come check out Fungi Fest in Erin Prairie, Wisconsin, on Saturday, May 17th.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
It’s worth noting that for the last several years the band has had to step back, or say no, and to not pursue opportunities we would otherwise have liked to as we ventured through this most recent season of our lives, all being parents now. However, it does seem that we are discovering balance, humor, and inspiration for our music in our new normals as we experience them. Sometimes we’re just trying to conserve our energy when possible, and get enough sleep. But other times, new life experiences and joys bring new viewpoints and understandings about life that just wouldn’t be possible had we not carried our love for making music along with us.
We have a lot of new songs that have yet to be recorded, and we look forward to putting out another album in the coming months. So we’d love to end by saying that the adventure continues!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.themaynorth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maynorthmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themaynorth/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/maynorthmusic
