Rhett May
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Rhett May

Black Rock, Victoria, Australia | SELF

Black Rock, Victoria, Australia | SELF
Band Pop Singer/Songwriter

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"Rhett May...A powerful force when it comes to his music !!"

Rhett May
If you are looking for something original, then I have the perfect music for you. Rhett May is a powerful force when it comes to his music. His main appeals are his originality, his message, his enormous voice, and his powerful lyrics. We, at Junior's Cave, recently caught up with the mega-talented singer/songwriter as he opened his world to us. I hope everyone enjoys this fun spotlight.

Isaac: Elaborate on who you are and your upbringing.

Rhett: Please see my website www.rhettmaymusic.com which will give you a feel for who I am and where I come from...

Isaac: Was there any one musician that spoke to your heart so profoundly, you were inspired to do your own thing?

Rhett: It was John Lennon, right from the start, his passion and his anger at the Establishment. And his "couldn't care less" attitude if he truly believed in something, I respect and applaud anyone who can speak out against injustice.
Isaac: Which singer/group would you say you would most like to do a duet with?

Rhett: Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones...

Isaac: What singer/songwriter do you most connect with?

Rhett: John Lennon...

Isaac: Out of your entire song collection that you've written thus far, which song(s) would you say is/are the most personal/meaningful to you?

Rhett: “MAMA". This song is perhaps the most poignant, in that it speaks about the inhuman suffering of unborn children whilst in their drug addicted mother's womb.

Isaac: Which singers/groups do you enjoy/like from some of today's music genres?

Rhett: There's not a great deal that I'm fascinated with. Most of what I hear is contrived and 'canned' to sound too perfect. The rawness of the lyric and the emotion of girl meets boy. The get down stuff like "if the van is rockin', don't come knockin'". Is not there anymore? The "simpleness" of love and fun and sun and good times. WHERE IS IT? Music is all about REAL emotion--not manufactured
plasticity!

Isaac: What charities are you involved with or support?

Rhett: Charities that actually benefit children that are disabled, intellectually disadvantaged, mentally and physically abused!!

Isaac: Have you (or would you ever consider) writing a song about any of today's particular worldn issues/problems? If so, what world issue would speak to you the most to write about?

Rhett: Drugs! The use and misuse of drugs and the glamorization of drugs in our community; the global misconception that our kids of today have about the benefits of using drugs. Can't everyone SEE that drugs not only KILL the individual user--but also totally 'stuff up' everyone's lives around them; their families, their friends, their business. That is why I write so many songs with an anti-drug message.
You DO NOT NEED drugs to live a happy and fulfilling life. Get high on music and love. How can you enjoy anything, if you are too stoned, drugged, spaced out to feel, experience, enjoy, what you are doing ? I have been around drugs in the street, drugs in music, and drugs in everyday life; I have NEVER EVER succumbed to anything that stopped me from enjoying my life. While everyone was too drugged and too high at parties to give the girls what they were looking for, I was sober and
having a ball with them! But seriously, I have seen it all from the
streets and nightclubs of Calcutta. To the music scene here in OZ, DON'T DO DRUGS-THEY KILL,eventually!

Isaac: Why should people listen to your music?

Rhett: People should listen to my music because of my anti- drug messages, my good time boy meets girl songs, and as I keep saying I write 'killer' songs; HYPNOTIC INFECTIOUS Love Songs with an edge that keep going round and round inside your head ! I connect with people's desires, their fears and their feelings; sensuality!

Isaac: Your music is relaxing and chill. What inspired you to toss out these awesome lyrics and chords?

Rhett: Whatever is in my head, my heart, and my soul. I am extremely passionate about my music and I feel that my melodies and my lyrics can reach into every single person's personal experience. Some time in their life I try to create a feel that is unique with my rhythms and yet, try to put myself in their head in their hearts and souls when they love, when they cry, when they hate, when they lose, and when they are happy. We are all human and we all experience the same feelings of love and despair, happiness, and hate; fun and depression.I try to connect with every single one of those feelings and tie them into my songs with chill and passion.

Isaac: How far into the creation of a song do you share any of it with anyone? Who would you play it for? Would it be a chorus, a verse and chorus, or a complete song?

Rhett: I try to share the small steps of creativity only when I am satisfied in myself that this will be a song I am proud of. I will test it out on a friend, James Payne, who collaborates with me from time to time And will also play it for my wife and daughters, but only when I have recorded the demo.
You see, I am a great believer that you MUST be true to whatever it is you have in your heart and your soul when you are creating lyrics, music, and songs. Unfortunately, people who listen to an idea that is in an embryonic stage can totally alter the germ of your original feelings and concepts. Albeit in a well meaning fashion... but they can still alter your entire thought processes with one single comment and change what might have been a masterpiece.
Did Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin ask people's advice when they sat down to compose their masterpieces ?
Isaac: How much do you let others "mess around with" one of your new songs?

Rhett: I NEVER allow anyone to mess around. I may allow them to look at structure or add an instrument here or there but I try to have the finished tune/melody in my head first including what the song should feel like!

Isaac: Do you have to be a tortured soul to be a singer-songwriter?

Rhett: Yes and No! I must admit that when I put myself in a melancholy frame of mind, a heartbroken state, or a depressed state of mind.... deliberately, just as an actor would to get into a role for a film.... emotions and feelings do tend to pour out easier.

Isaac: Are your songs strictly autobiographical or are they embroidered autobiography?

Rhett: A bit of both. I have live over the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's and we are now into 2008. I have seen all the musical changes and have been involved in most of them through my life in the music business. I have also have the benefit of living and growing up with the Indian culture as well as Western music and have experienced and seen others live through all the highs and lows of life.
My songs are a reflection of my experiences, my observations, my dreaming, and my fantasies.

Isaac: How long does it take you to process your emotions and turn them into songs?

Rhett: Some have been 10 minutes. Others I have agonized over for months.

Isaac: The best piece of advice you actually followed?

Rhett: Be true to your music. Believe in what you are doing and persevere. Most creativity is 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration. But mostly, you MUST be disciplined to sit down every day and KNOW that you are good at what you do!

Isaac: Give Shout-outs to your family and friends.

Rhett: I have built myself a basement studio and everyone knows that I am not to be disturbed while I am down working and recording...

Isaac: Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

Rhett: Songs for my new album that I hope will be released in time for Christmas.
My good buddy, James Payne, is helping me with the structure and recording of 13 songs I've written specifically for this album. I may call it "Fast Cars and Sitars"; let's wait and see. - Junior's Cave....Online Magazine


"Four Gems Cut Out Of Black Rock"

Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


CONTACT:

Rhett May

www.rhettmaymusic.com

rhettmay@rhettmaymusic.com


Four Gems Cut Out Of Black Rock

Calcutta Boy: A Multi-Faceted Creative Resurgence


BLACK ROCK, AUSTRALIA (08/28/08) - Diamonds take years to form in just the right conditions before they are pulled from deep within the earth. Calcutta Boy, the latest release from Rhett May, formed in much the same manner - taking years to develop. However, leave it to Rhett May, an experienced songwriter and musician, to uncover four diamonds from the depths of his creative subconscious and his underground studio! After years away from music, Rhett has prepared and polished these new tracks for the world to hear. Rhett May is back and Calcutta Boy contains gems cut straight from Rhett's Black Rock, Australia studio


It's been nearly thirty years since Rhett's past successes in bands such as The Flintstones and opening for the likes of Freddie Mercury, Queen and Brian May. However, during the decades May left music for the corporate world, his creative processes continued behind the scenes. “The passion stirred and started bubbling…” says Rhett, “then all my creative juices started flowing…pouring… tumbling out!” The album is self-released and the melodies and lyrics are entirely penned by May. With help in the recording studio from his childhood friend, James Payne, Calcutta Boy is the first of much more material due to be released in May's creative rebirth.

It is May's years of exposure and experience in so many different musical genres that gives Calcutta Boy its varied styles and unique sound. Just as a diamond, each song on this album is truly multi-faceted. With a classic rock feel, “There's a Little White Powder,” has an addictive melodic hook running over an anti-addiction theme dealing with the social disgrace of cocaine addiction. Well-crafted lyrics encompass a Caribbean/Calypso-style beat in “Mirror, Mirror,” one of the more popular selections on the album. Even pop-styled ballads appear such as “Have Your Arms Been Missing Me,” which has a hypnotic chorus and moody background vocal effects. “African Queen” contains a well developed storyline over surreal soundscapes and clever rhymes, taking the listener on a journey.


Calcutta Boy owes a unique musical flavor to the way Rhett May has developed musically over the decades. His exposures Indian ragas- which encompass many notes to create a melody- and his exposure to the great melodic hits of the 50's and 60's have given Rhett a rare musical palette. Undoubtedly, Rhett May is in the middle of a musical renaissance. He has cut four shining new gems out of Black Rock, and more are sure to come!


FOR MORE INFO PLEASE VISIT: www.rhettmaymusic.com



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- Music Submit/DreamStar Music


Discography

Calcutta Boy (2008)

1 A Little White Powder
ISRC: USTC60894163

2 African Queen
ISRC: USTC60894189

3 Have Your Arms Been Missing Me
ISRC: USTC60894192

4 Mirror Mirror
ISRC: USTC60894194

Rhett MayArtist:Rhett May
Label:
Genres: Rock, Dance

Release Date: 13-Oct-2008
Original Release Year: 2008

ID Number: X104917
UPC: 634479860034

Recording Location: Black Rock Australia

http://cdbaby.com/cd/rhettmay2

Photos

Bio

Out of India to “Oz”

The Journey of Rhett May

Wooly Bully Tracks…

What does a cup of coffee, the Himalayan Mountains, and tracks left by creatures called “Wooly Bullys” have in common? Easy, Rhett May! So, immediately you think Bigfoot or Abominable Snowman, and huge tracks left in the snow, right? Not exactly…These Wooly Bullys did exist, and have evolved over thirty years, and the tracks they've left behind are musical tracks. See, Rhett May is a seasoned musician whose first band was named The Wooly Bullys, and his first big break came via a Brooke Bond coffee commercial. So, let's have an adventure. This is a quest to uncover the first Wooly Bully, Rhett May. He's not as elusive as the legendary Bigfoot; however, he has left musical footprints that lead out of India - to his current home in Australia, kindly known as “Oz.”

The Ink Spots Dripped onto a Tabla…

Rhett May owes his rare musical sound and style to the unique environment that he grew up in. Born in 1950, in Calcutta, India, he was immediately immersed in a magical, musical melting pot. Carnatic and Hindustani music and instruments such as the Sitar and Tabla were always providing melody and percussion against a daily backdrop of lifting and soaring voices of Ragas. Ragas especially played a vital part of Rhett's musical experience with their series of five or more musical notes forming melody. However, this environment of classical Indian music wasn't the only sounds floating about Calcutta in the nineteen-fifties and nineteen sixties. By the time Rhett had begun boarding school in the Himalayan foothills; western music had also begun an invasion. The cinemas featured musical movies from The Monkees, Cream, or Jimi Hendrix. Elvis and Ricky Nelson's pop also pulsated through the airwaves.

Rhett lived the magic of the musical melting pot, but one experience stood out. Rhett explains, “My mother and father were always playing records - no TV in those days - in particular I remember “A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)”, by Marty Robbins, and the beautiful voices and harmonies of The Ink Spots. Few, if any songwriters and musicians could grow up in such a perfect time and place of musical menagerie. For Rhett May Indian culture and music mixed with that from the west. His music would forevermore be influenced when The Ink Spots dripped onto a Tabla.

Sixties - Seventies - Success…

Rhett's formed his first band, The Wooly Bullys, at the age of 15 with Preston Bortello and childhood friend James Payne. Their first taste of fame came in 1966, when they won Battle of the Bands. They became such a hit that they performed many of the venues that were hot at that time, such as Trincas, The Park Hotel and Mocambo's. The Wooly Bullys evolved into a band called The Flint Stones. The Flint Stones became India's most successful pop group, being featured on the cover of many of the music magazines. The Flint Stones recorded a successful single in “Be Mine (Happy by My Side)” and even attracted the attention of former Beatle George Harrison and Apple Records. The band was asked to come to the UK, and was double billed with the likes of legendary jazz guitarist Charlie Bird.

This was a very successful time for Rhett who accompanied his band to play a private concert for the Queen of Bhutan and her family. This was not the end of May's musical growth, however, only the beginning. The nineteen sixties were blossoming musically with the addictive melodies and varied styles that were precisely what Rhett loved. Rhett states, “The sixties got me hooked on bands like The Yardbirds, Steppenwolf, The Beatles, Herman's Hermits … and the list goes on!” Rhett would carry this heavy influence of the nineteen sixties into his musical future as the underpinning of his musical style.

A Saturday Night In “Oz”…

Rhett left his native India in 1969, and would start his music career anew in Australia. As a solo artist, he would win the Perth Talent Quest whole performing backed by the Troupadours in 1971. However, he wouldn't remain simply a solo artist; Rhett would recreate the same group success he had in India all over again in Australia. Rhett states, “I got a totally new group of musicians together in 'Oz' - we were doing the 'garage' thing.” This garage band would develop into a successful band which evolved from the “Shakespeare Sarani” to “Prodigy”, and eventually they changed their name to “Lucifer.”

As the decade of the seventies progressed, Rhett's success was about to be changed forever by the “fever” of Saturday Night Fever. The Disco era came suddenly, and it would force Rhett and his band mates to move out of music. The gigs disappeared for the styles of music they played, and the dance floors became filled with DJs and Disco lights. Indeed, the sixties and seventies were a time of change, not only for the world, but for the world of music. Rhett's musical career was about to be turned upside down. One o