May Rio
Brooklyn, NY
Photograph by Robert Blair
May practiced and now she is perfect. The project of the pop writer/performer born May Sembera has been steadily evolving since the uncertain days of 2020. Confined to her home studio in New York, she used Ableton to compose off-kilter pop songs about early ’20s hedonism and days spent toiling on tour with her former band, Poppies. These songs became her debut record, Easy Bammer.
Easy Bammer was released in June 2021, right as New York’s nightlife began to rouse from its pandemic slumber. Ready to meet the moment, May threw herself into a trial-by-fire gig grind, playing upwards of three shows a week for months on end. During this self-prescribed performance bootcamp, she befriended a group of like-minded emerging artists that she considers a creative cornerstone. “I really enjoy being a solo artist but sometimes it can be difficult to do something so vulnerable on my own,” she says. “Being surrounded by a group of supportive peers makes me feel like ‘Okay, I’m not by myself.’”
The feeling is mutual: over the past year May has brought her innate knack for melody to a variety of features including The Dare’s indie sleaze hit “Girls” and Blaketheman1000’s underground smash, “Blake 2.” Elsewhere, she’s popped up on tracks by local faves Shallowhalo, Tobias, and Tony Vaz. If there’s a keystone to New York’s downtown music sphere, it might very well be May.
This creative rebirth is immediately apparent on May’s new record, French Bath, which takes its title from a deceptively luxurious act of dousing oneself in cologne to disguise an unsavory stench. From the beautiful models with rotten hearts that stalk the streets on the syrupy daydream “NYC UMTs” to “Mr. Horny Puke Man”’s shallow indie rock lothario, May holds a mirror to the many different ways we attempt to fill our own voids. “No one can fill/Up your emptiness,” she sings on “Getaway.” But rather than passing judgment, May empathizes with these lost souls: she’s been there.
French Bath squiggles and squelches with an elasticity that reflects the songwriter’s wry sense of humor. “I need your love just like/I need a hole in my side,” she dryly warbles on the devilish lead single “Need You Like.” “Sweet in a sickly way” is how she portrays a fraught relationship on the aptly-titled “Aspartame,” but it’s also an accurate descriptor of these 10 playfully sticky songs. “I don’t have a built-in way that music should be in my head,” she says. “I follow my ear.” This instinctive approach to pop songwriting imbues French Bath with imaginative, unexpected textures. Unlike Easy Bammer, which was written quickly in relative isolation, French Bath was given time to breathe over a year-long recording process that reunited May with co-producer Tony 1 of the eclectic NY duo Tony or Tony. Friends including Simon Hanes of Tredici Bacci, Greg Rutkin of Customer, Syl DuBenion of Standing on the Corner, and country humorist Dougie Poole were invited to contribute live instrumentation, expanding the world of May Rio to reflect the vibrant community that sets her alight.
The result is French Bath, an album that seeks to push beyond constructs towards a more meaningful life. May leads by example on the inward-looking ballad “Self Service”: “I took a look inside myself/I remember it/And it hurt like hell.” But French Bath attests that the journey was worth it.
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Maraschino cherries are saccharine, indulgent, and a little bit naughty, but any time one's in a cocktail, you'll drink it right back. You could call May Rio's music maraschino cherry pop — extremely sweet, but blunt and saucy, and nothing short of earworms. There's a snarky twinkle, yet heart-on-your-sleeve earnestness, to the New York-based singer born May Sembera's music, singing wryly of toxic relationships, "unemployed model types," behavioral patterns, and seeking out levity in a voice that calls back Lizzy Grant-era Lana Del Rey over indie-pop with slight trip-hop influence. In many ways, May Rio is at the literal center of the New York music scene. It's possible you've already heard her collaborations with rising scene staples like Blaketheman1000 and the Dare.
—Sadie Bell for Alt Press
