Lee Mays,
a.k.a. Percy Mays, is a singer, songwriter, and producer who is internationally
recognized and critically acclaimed. In 1976, Mr. Mays made his mark in the
world of contemporary Christian music with the release of his self-made vinyl
album, "Shine Your Love". In 1978, the title song, "Shine Your
Love" was released as a single on Word Records by The Cruse Family. That
song contributed to The Cruse Family's 1978 album entitled,
"Transformation", which won the Dove Award for "Best Album of
the Year".
Since the
early 2000’s, the “Shine Your Love” album has been a highly sought after item
on internet auction sites such as eBay, Yahoo Japan, and other auction sites
due to the fact that it had become a vinyl collector’s gem over the decades.
The music of “Shine You Love” has also been licensed by several independent
record companies including The Numero Group in August 2022.
In December
of 2015, Mr. Mays released the “Real Love” CD on the Soul Invasion record
label. The 13 songs on the “Real Love” CD contain a mixture of smooth jazz and
R&B/Soul sounds. In 2014, the single, “Give Me Another Chance” featuring
Fulton Turnage, was among the year’s Top-30 songs in the United Kingdom on the
Global Soul Radio Station, which is UK’s #1 Internet radio show.
From 2015 to
2021, art directors and booking agents in jazz clubs and concert halls booked
Mr. Mays for concert appearances in major cities throughout Russia, Ukraine,
Latvia, Belarus, and Italy. To his credit, Lee currently has one Italian
feature film and three Italian short films in which his music can be heard.
In August
2022, Lee won the Amsterdam Freedom Independent Film Festival's Best Original
Score award for his compilation of 11 songs in the Italian short film, La
Carrozza dei Sogni (The Carriage of Dreams), directed by Frances Sapphire.
In March 2023, Lee won Best Original Score for a second time with La Carrozza dei Sogni at the 2023 Luis Buñuel Memorial Awards in Calcutta, India.
Alan Mercer: Lee, you have a brand new song coming out.
What can you tell me about it?
Lee Mays: The new song is called ‘Rainbow In My Heart’
and it’s actually not a new song. I’ve been playing with it for the last few
years. Now, I have beefed up the production and finetuned it. I got the
software, that I’ve had for years, off the shelf when we were on lockdown. I taught
myself to use it because what else was there to do?
AM: Covid was good for musicians in a way.
LM: Yes, I had to become introspective, like we
all did. I had been spending thousands of dollars a year going to recording
studios in Dallas. There is nothing like going form spending ten thousand dollars
a year to spending nothing on production. I only had to pay for the musicians. It’s
all been a learning process for me for the last three years. I have learned how
to be a good studio engineer. That is really something for me because I am a musician,
an artistic person. I am not a technical person. I could never be an electrical
engineer.
AM: Was learning this technical side as hard as
you thought it would be?
LM: I used to think it was complicated, but the
more I sat down and learned it, it wasn’t as hard as I originally thought. I’m
more talented and smarter than I thought I was. I’ve taught myself just about everything
I’ve learned how to do in life. I taught myself how to play piano and guitar. I
even taught myself how to sing. Back in the old days I was told by a good
friend that I wasn’t a singer. Back when I was in college, I was in a trio in
Canyon, Texas. They are good friends of mine to this day. They were all state choir
back in high school. They were tenors and I was a comedian. I was considered
the Bill Cosby of West Texas.
AM: That’s the hardest job in the world.
LM: It is the hardest but it was easy for me because all I had to do was listen to the old Bill Cosby records and I did impersonations of him. That was good enough for me and the audience. Of course, today I wouldn’t touch anything by Bill Cosby. It was fun back then. We had a music comedy show and we would travel to schools and churches and do shows. I was writing songs way back as far as 1970 and the guys were doing my songs in the shows. One day I told them I wanted to sing. I saw these guys getting all the glory. I played bass in the background. I would see all the girls loving the singers and I wanted some of that. Those guys told me I was a good songwriter, a good bass player and a good comedian but I was not a singer. It was two against one, so I said, OK. Fast forward five years and those guys recorded a country gospel album and then I did an album called ‘Shine Your Love’ and guess which album got all the airplay. The album that I produced, wrote, and sang on. Today it’s a collector’s item.
AM: It’s wrong to tell people they can’t sing. It’s
simply a different style.
LM: It is wrong. A lot of it has to do with
desire and your heart. If you have the heart for something and a desire for something,
you can do it. I had to teach myself how to sing. It was the same thing when I
recorded the ‘Real Love’ album back in 2015. I didn’t think I was good enough
to sing some of the songs I had written so I didn’t sing half the songs I
wrote. I picked my favorite singers from Dallas and I asked them to sing because
I felt they could do it better than me.
AM: Much like Quincy Jones.
LM: Yes,
then my good friend, Fulton Turnage, who is a great singer and my saxophone player,
sang on the album. I took him with me to Russia in 2016 where we did a duet
together and it was a smash hit. This was my first time in Russia. Everywhere
we went, the people loved our show. He sang some of my songs. The next year
when I was returning to Russia, he couldn’t go. I had to learn how to sing the
songs that he sang because they had to be sung and the audience loved it. I’ve
had to learn how to adapt and be what I had to be in order to get the music
across.
AM: You have your own unique way with a song, and
you have a niche all to yourself. You should be celebrated for it.
LM: I’ve heard people say that. My record label in Nashville told me they wanted me on their roster because there is nobody who can do what you do. It’s cool to have that distinction.
AM: I like you working with other artists also.
LM: When I was last in Italy I teamed up with a
young Rap/Hip Hop artist out of Milan. He is coming out with a single and I am
featured on it. That will be a mix of smooth jazz and rap. His name is Sclaise
and he’s very talented. I’m looking forward to this release.
AM: Is it in Italian?
LM: The rap is Italian, but my vocals are in
English. We did a music video in a city north of Milan called Arona. It’s a
beautiful resort city. It’s a worldwide release so hopefully we will get some
airplay in the United States as well.
AM: Lee, your songs always seem to be and stay at
the top of the charts even though you don’t play live shows very much.
LM: That is so interesting. I’ve been an artist on
ReverbNation since 2014. Throughout the whole time, my music has always been at
the top of the charts in the genre of R&B/Soul and Smooth Jazz. Right now, ‘Rainbow
In My Heart’ is the number one song in Dallas/Fort Worth and it’s been that way
for months. I know people are listening to my music. It’s really come as a
surprise. I never thought that week after week, month after month and year
after year, my songs would stay so popular. Maybe because they sound more
commercial.
AM: You have a good commercial ear.
LM: Many years ago, I as offered a job in
Nashville to be a staff writer for Bobby Goldsboro Music. This was back in the
1980s. They guy that offered me the job used to be in a band I was in back in
California and he wrote commercials. He wrote lots of famous jingles and commercials.
AM: Obviously, you didn’t accept that job.
LM: At the time I couldn’t make it work. I would have
had to move to Nashville, so I never took the job.
AM: Are you going to keep releasing songs on the MC1
Nashville label?
LM: Yes, although I may decide to release a
single independently. I’ve got a song called ‘Won’t You Be My Girl’ and I finally
have it sounding the way I want it to sound.
AM: You also write Gospel songs, don’t you?
LM: Yes, I have a gospel song I wrote about 25
years ago about a lady I was dating at the time, and she had a little dog that
was 13 years old and when the dog passed, it tore her up. That was her child. The
family dog is like a baby. Since I was not a pet owner, I was surprised by how
devastating it was for her, so I decided to write a song inspired by a dog who
died. The title of the song is ‘He Will Take Care Of You’. It’s a song designed to comfort.
AM: So many people need comforting all the time.
LM: You don’t need to have lost a pet to be able
to relate to the song. It’s about somebody caring for you enough that no matter
what happens you will be taken care of. I hope I can release it on MC1
Nashville’s gospel label.
AM: Gospel music is your roots.
LM: That is my roots. I started playing piano in my dad’s church when I was nine years old. My dad was a Baptist minister. There was nobody to play piano and my dad told me I had to learn so I could play.
AM: When did you start playing jazz?
LM: I started playing jazz chords when I was 17.
One of my favorite bands back then was the band, Chicago. I love those kind of
chords so I started playing that jazzy type of stuff. Then by the time I was 18
I started writing the songs that would be on the ‘Shine Your Love’ album.
AM: Do you have any goals left at this time?
LM: I just want to be where I’m wanted the most.
I had been busy in Russia and Ukraine from 2015 to 2019. Of course, when Russia
invaded Ukraine, I had to cancel everything. I almost moved to Moscow. I had moved
out of my apartment, and I had considered relocating to Moscow because when I
was there I would get calls every day from all over the Russian federation to
come perform. I was also getting calls from Italy. The Italian people love me,
so I might relocate to Rome or Milan. All I want to do is work. I want to be in
front of audiences and perform my music. That’s my passion.
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