Dent May writes, performs, and produces homemade pop music from his home base in Mississippi. A stylistic chameleon, Dent’s recordings echo folk, disco, R&B, psychedelia, country-western, soul, and funk sounds of the past, present, and future. Increasingly, his songwriting has taken a turn toward existential classicism, channeling the tuneful longings of Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson at their dreamiest.

Dent grew up performing in school plays and church choirs in Jackson, Mississippi, where he began writing songs and putting bands together by age 13. After dropping out of NYU film school, he moved back to Oxford, Mississippi. There he met Animal Collective while they were recording Merriweather Post Pavilion, and he’s been releasing music on their Paw Tracks imprint since 2009.

Dent recorded his third and latest album Warm Blanket alone in a rented Victorian home in St. Augustine, Florida during February of 2013. In contrast to the relentless optimism and upbeat thump of his previous LP Do Things, the new record is Dent’s most emotionally and musically diverse collection yet. Warm Blanket presents melancholy balladry alongside funky psych-pop with adventurous arrangements showcasing horns, strings, and bubbling analog synths.

Alongside the release of Warm Blanket in late summer of 2013, Dent will be touring the world with the latest incarnation of his live band, a revolving cast of musicians recruited from the ranks of Cats Purring, the self-proclaimed “North Mississippi Infotainment Cult.” He currently lives at their headquarters, the sprawling Cats Purring Dude Ranch, where infamous DIY shows take place and where Dent is already hard at work writing his next album.