Story and photo Katlynn Mullins
Sometimes, catharsis – an act of purging pent-up emotion – is found without trying.
Billy Mays III, a local musician, believes this relief can be found in music.
At the beginning of 2019, he challenged himself: three songs, 3 minutes and 33 seconds each, released on the 3rd, 13th and 23rd day of each month.
For six months, this continued — until he realized he’d created an album. The 13-track record, “Imprints,” was released Aug. 12, his 33rd birthday.
The ambient tracks guide the listener through his mind, much like his live shows. The experience is meant to be “immersive, but also passive.”
Mays believes the music doesn’t have to be focused on to be felt.
“If I’m making music, and someone is listening, the energy goes to them,” Mays said.
Before adopting the moniker “Infinite Third,” Mays created heavy metal under different names.
He marks the beginning of his career after an apartment fire in 2009. With that, and the death of his father — famed television pitchman Billy Mays, in June of that year — he had to start from scratch.
Armed with grief and a guitar, he dove into his first album as Infinite Third, “Gently.”
“It’s more connected to what I was going through at the time,” Mays said.
Because the two albums were released 10 years apart, “Gently” and “Imprints” are often compared in his mind.
“Gently” was “all over the place, but there was a certain vibe to it,” Mays said.
“Imprints,” however, is “clearer, and the songs are more accessible and present,” Mays said.
The biggest accomplishment, he feels, is the progression he’s shown in all the albums released between the first and last.
“I feel like it keeps getting… not better, but more and more what I want it to sound like,” Mays said.
According to Mays, the music is more accessible now. Rather than resting, he experiments with new styles to find what suits him best.
Infinite Third, Mays feels, is something bigger than him.
“I feel like I’m on a good path in life,” Mays said. “The music is also sort of evolving in that direction, too. I always just want it to be a good reflection.”
