Interview: Senora May Blossoms on Debut Album “Lainhart”
Senora May’s debut album, Lainhart, is a lifetime in the making. That’s true of all first albums, but Senora May’s experienced a number of stops and starts. However, it’s probably a good thing that Senora May has built up so much life experience before releasing these songs into the world: the result is a complex folk album that boldly weaves Senora May’s interior life with the surroundings of her native Kentucky wilderness. As she describes in the interview, Lainhart is a series of deliberate choices that swells into a work that needs to be reckoned with.
Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you came to music? A lot of your songs are about feeling a connection to the Earth. Were you an outdoors kid?
I only dabbled with music, fiddle when I was too small to know direction, until I was about 12. I picked up flute for band in school at that time, which I didn’t quit until I was about 15. I regret quitting it big-time, which is why I wanted to play it on my album. After flute, I learned a couple of guitar chords from my best friend, Emily. We were heavily influenced by punk music and I think my first song I wrote was really oversaturated with minor chords and lyrical synonyms for pain.
Up until that punk phase, where I had my hair razored and wore mostly black. I was really an outdoorsy, tomboy of a kid. I believed in fairies before I went through puberty. After puberty, I liked hiking and romping around outside when I wasn’t being swooned by dudes that didn’t deserve the attention I gave them. Insignificant regrets aside, I really love nature. I feel like it’s impossible not to fall in love with it when you live in a place like I do. The hills breathe around me in sync with dawn and dusk, the air is so fresh and the wilds of Kentucky pretty well resembles tropical rainforests; Appalachia is a close second in diversity of species actually. So yeah, I really love it here, the fauna and flora; all the runners, flyers, bloomers and crawlers… It’s magical.
As I understand it, this is your first solo album. Congrats! What other projects have you been involved with? At what point did you decide to record an album of your own?
Lainhart is my first album! I have a couple other EPs or whatever but I sat on them — never put them out really. I almost feel like my first recording was before the internet, because I only made burnt copies with handmade cases I’d sewn and water colored that I’d sold to help pay for my study abroad in college. The real reason these didn’t make it to the internet was probably because I was just behind the times, smoking too much pot and living in the now. I did record some stuff in David and Teresa Prince’s basement one time, never put those songs out either. I am the biggest critic when it comes to my own stuff, but I think for good reason. Once you pull the trigger, you can’t retrieve it. It’s out there for whoever to whatever with.
I knew for a long time I wanted to get my music out, I just kept hitting dead ends and it got to the point of realization when I needed to release something or just quit. I knew for a long time I wanted to incorporate animal sounds and field recordings I’d captured around my place, so when I heard their sampling chimes and things on Kenny and Hayden Miles of Wayne Graham’s Mexico album, I felt like we could coalesce some pretty cool shit with my songs. I forever heard some great beats in my mind for my songs, made with coyote yips or shifting gears in my old Vanagon. I’ve yet to translate those ideas into an attainable plane, but I intend to dive further into exploration of sound in that way. I love R&B and between everyone and I, I am immensely affected by Beyonce’s genius of composition, not writing so much. I just really love artists that can take many genres and instrumentation and translate it to move people. That’s really potent to me.
I was struck by how often you use ambient sound in your music. Why did you make that choice?
I wanted to use auditory to transcribe some things from my head. I hear weird stuff sometimes in nature, when the bug buzz and bird calls layer up in real life, you can hear some pretty wild frequencies and ranges if you listen close, or just zone out. My attempt was to get as close to the sounds I’d hear when I wrote the songs so that anyone that heard it could be there with me. It’s like time travel, through the wormholes of sound.
I love how direct your writing is on here. What do you feel are the main takeaways of the album as a whole?
First, the title is my maiden name and a nod towards my roots and how I’ve grown from them. For me personally, the album overall was a recognition that as a female, I’m not gonna be everything the dudes were in my life growing up and even now. No matter how much I feel different, I realized at a certain point, that it wasn’t less, simply different, but again, no less substantial. I felt inadequate growing up, compared to my brothers. The songs navigate my feelings as a female overcoming inhibitions. I’ve spent my life supporting dudes, like my lil brother who joined the Marines and missed home so bad. I’ve supported my husband in his conquest of the road and sharing his tunes. This album may seem direct, but I think there’s some depth to it, if you spend time with it. Some lines that mean one thing, and seem simple, have some cryptic intent and I hope that those meanings come out for people as they need them. In other cases, I write for the joy of riddle and alliteration. For me, the takeaways of the album are mostly that ladies should spend some time alone when that’s an opportunity, maybe discover they’re way cooler than society has taught them to think they are. People, in general, shouldn’t feel constrained by obedience instilled by the system when we were distracted or displaced. That’s all.
What’s something you’d like to speak about that you haven’t been asked yet?
I think comparing artists is kind of silly, maybe because I’ve been compared to music based on geography, association and my country accent? On a couple different websites I’ve seen myself compared to artists of country and pop country genres, simply because they’re from the same region as me. I feel most connected with artists and bands like Brandi Carlile, Mountain Man, Feist, Cat Power, Joan Shelley, Led Zeppelin, Joan Osborne, Van Morrison, Norah Jones, Edie Brickell, John Prine, Natalie Merchant, Nina Simone (lofty I know, but I said connected to, not emulating). I want to sound more like Okay Kaya, H.E.R., Dounia, Big Thief, Marijata, IAMDDB, Slut Pill, and Luna and the Mountain Jets. All I’m saying is, the “sounds like…” section of websites and blogs I’ve seen is not usually accurate and in more cases than not, it’s a sausage fest. I guess I’m just tired of being put in a very tiny, bland box in that regard.
Learn more about Senora May and Lainhart here. You can purchase Lainhart on Bandcamp.