Infinite Third

Billy Mays III was just looking for a place to play.

Mays III and his drummer friend Ryan Balog, playing together for the first time, decided to check out the pier overlooking Clearwater Bay. Mays III, of Dunedin, said he comes down to the area frequently and noticed it has electrical receptacles.

He thought it would be pretty cool to set up and jam. So Monday they did.

They came out to mess with some sounds. That was evident from the case full of an assortment of pedals at Mays III feet. He typically performs as Infinite Third.

The acoustics of the Memorial Causeway bounced their experimental sounds throughout downtown as they played for a couple hours. - Clearwater Patch

Instead of putting on a blue button down shirt in the morning, Billy Mays III probably experiments with soundscapes and eats cereal.

Yeah, that’s right. The son of pitchman Billy Mays makes ambient music.

But I’m not here to discuss his lineage, just to pitch his product.

(eardrops) is the tenth release from Infinite Third, and mixes depth and subtlety in (burial) with melodic and delicate tracks in (sky) and (light). At an hour and twenty minutes, this 28-song compilation is surprisingly easy to listen to. - Gold Sweatshirt

Instead of putting on a blue button down shirt in the morning, Billy Mays III probably experiments with soundscapes and eats cereal.

Yeah, that’s right. The son of pitchman Billy Mays makes ambient music.

But I’m not here to discuss his lineage, just to pitch his product.

(eardrops) is the tenth release from Infinite Third, and mixes depth and subtlety in (burial) with melodic and delicate tracks in (sky) and (light). At an hour and twenty minutes, this 28-song compilation is surprisingly easy to listen to. - Gold Sweatshirt

One of my favorite things about Kickstarter is the fact that you can find some very interesting sounds just by browsing the various projects they have. Just by spending a few minutes looking through the most popular campaigns you are sure to find artists from all sorts of different genres, with different levels of experience, with a slightly different message, but all doing what they love. Sometimes, you find something that you never heard before. Today, I found Infinite Third.

More commonly known as Billy Mays III, Infinite Third is a very unique artist. All of his music is different distortions and adjustments to the sounds of a guitar. I think the best way to describe the music is mellow but cerebral. Infinite Third mentions that his fans usually listen to his music while trying to relax. I can definitely see that. However, to me personally the music began to generate different feelings as well. Some of the sharper tracks gave off a bit of an uneasiness to them. That isn’t to say that the music was bad. But listening to these songs felt more like an “experience” to me as opposed to a sit back and enjoy kind of activity. It felt like another example of the vast range that music can cover if you have an artist that is willing to play with sounds. I didn’t really walk away with one favorite track, but I really do feel like if you want to get a good sense of what this music is all about you need to listen to a few samples.

Infinite Third’s campaign is all about getting his last CD (eardrops) and his upcoming one on physical discs. He will be going on tour and, rightfully so, is looking to have some physical copies to sell to help cover the costs. The campaign has an awesome video and Billy is very easy to like. He loves what he is doing and there is definitely an appreciation for the money he is receiving as a result of this work.

The reward tiers are fairly well done, ranging from $10 to $555 dollars. The $111 tier, among other things, offers a fantastic opportunity to have Infinite Third perform for you remotely over Skype. Not too bad.

In a world where everyone wants to be the next big pop star, it’s sometimes hard to find real lover’s of music that just want to explore the possibilities of sound. I think Infinite Third is one of those artists though. Give his work a list and if you enjoy make sure to support his project. - Powder My Noise

It's not often that you find a musical artist with whom you feel truly connected with via their music, and it is less often such an artist is so warm, open and genuinely passionate about sharing their art form with their fan base that they offer it up virtually for free.

This is why I am honoured to be presenting to you, my fellow blogofs, one such person. He is an extremely talented and genuinely creative individual who doesn't shy away from interacting with his fan base. His name is Billy Mays III, and you can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, and here on YouTube .

In attempting to describe his music I realise that it encompasses a plethora of genres, of which the ones that spring to my mind are: electronic, ambient, experimental and chillout. But on reading his site info, other descriptors mentioned are: drone, shoegaze, soundscape, healing, love, spiritual and relaxing, to name but a few. I've listened to his music for the better part of a year now and am the proud owner of five of his albums, one of my favourites being 'Innermost Center '.

To listen to his latest album, also free to download, follow this link to (eardrops) by Infinite Third.
But you can support this musician by giving a donation when downloading his music, which I think is fair when you consider the amount of work Billy puts into each album.

Below is one of my favourite tracks entitled, "To Dream To..." - I think you'll agree, it's sublime, whilst being hauntingly beautiful. This music most deservedly belongs in film - only my humble opinion ;) - The Open Earth

It's not often that you find a musical artist with whom you feel truly connected with via their music, and it is less often such an artist is so warm, open and genuinely passionate about sharing their art form with their fan base that they offer it up virtually for free.

This is why I am honoured to be presenting to you, my fellow blogofs, one such person. He is an extremely talented and genuinely creative individual who doesn't shy away from interacting with his fan base. His name is Billy Mays III, and you can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, and here on YouTube .

In attempting to describe his music I realise that it encompasses a plethora of genres, of which the ones that spring to my mind are: electronic, ambient, experimental and chillout. But on reading his site info, other descriptors mentioned are: drone, shoegaze, soundscape, healing, love, spiritual and relaxing, to name but a few. I've listened to his music for the better part of a year now and am the proud owner of five of his albums, one of my favourites being 'Innermost Center '.

To listen to his latest album, also free to download, follow this link to (eardrops) by Infinite Third.
But you can support this musician by giving a donation when downloading his music, which I think is fair when you consider the amount of work Billy puts into each album.

Below is one of my favourite tracks entitled, "To Dream To..." - I think you'll agree, it's sublime, whilst being hauntingly beautiful. This music most deservedly belongs in film - only my humble opinion ;) - The Open Earth

It's not often that you find a musical artist with whom you feel truly connected with via their music, and it is less often such an artist is so warm, open and genuinely passionate about sharing their art form with their fan base that they offer it up virtually for free.

This is why I am honoured to be presenting to you, my fellow blogofs, one such person. He is an extremely talented and genuinely creative individual who doesn't shy away from interacting with his fan base. His name is Billy Mays III, and you can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, and here on YouTube .

In attempting to describe his music I realise that it encompasses a plethora of genres, of which the ones that spring to my mind are: electronic, ambient, experimental and chillout. But on reading his site info, other descriptors mentioned are: drone, shoegaze, soundscape, healing, love, spiritual and relaxing, to name but a few. I've listened to his music for the better part of a year now and am the proud owner of five of his albums, one of my favourites being 'Innermost Center '.

To listen to his latest album, also free to download, follow this link to (eardrops) by Infinite Third.
But you can support this musician by giving a donation when downloading his music, which I think is fair when you consider the amount of work Billy puts into each album.

Below is one of my favourite tracks entitled, "To Dream To..." - I think you'll agree, it's sublime, whilst being hauntingly beautiful. This music most deservedly belongs in film - only my humble opinion ;) - The Open Earth

Dedicating 365 days to create and share a piece of sound is no easy feat. Starting today and next week, meet some SoundCloud creators who have dedicated their time to sharing sounds on a daily or weekly rhythm. What they’ve learned is that creating and uploading a piece of work to SoundCloud every day or week has both challenging and rewarding effects.

Billy Mays III creates instrumental music as Infinite Third. Beginning in May 2012, Billy started Daily(Drops) to write a piece of music every day and upload it to SoundCloud.

“I’ve always had this dream of just being secluded somewhere making music every day and this was my way of doing it. Even without the full-on ‘seclusion,’ I found a way to make music every day and that’s all I really wanted out of it,” Billy says.

Daily(Drops) helped him progress as a musician. “I got to get a lot of ideas out of my system and got to experiment with many new techniques that I might not have discovered otherwise. Now that I’ve accomplished one year of daily music, I can be free of the ‘daily’ part and really start to focus on developing these new directions my sound has taken. I’ve also built my discipline with this and feel the strongest I’ve felt yet in terms of being an all-around creator,” Billy says.

Billy encourages taking risks like this to develop your style and sounds: “Be okay with whatever happens. At first, it may feel difficult to truly trust the muse but, over time, it will feel more and more natural to take risks and experiment. The key is realizing that not everything has to be a masterpiece. Some of the most beautiful pieces of art retain an element of rawness. So-called perfectionism can be useful but can also be a detriment to progression.” - The SoundCloud Blog

Dedicating 365 days to create and share a piece of sound is no easy feat. Starting today and next week, meet some SoundCloud creators who have dedicated their time to sharing sounds on a daily or weekly rhythm. What they’ve learned is that creating and uploading a piece of work to SoundCloud every day or week has both challenging and rewarding effects.

Billy Mays III creates instrumental music as Infinite Third. Beginning in May 2012, Billy started Daily(Drops) to write a piece of music every day and upload it to SoundCloud.

“I’ve always had this dream of just being secluded somewhere making music every day and this was my way of doing it. Even without the full-on ‘seclusion,’ I found a way to make music every day and that’s all I really wanted out of it,” Billy says.

Daily(Drops) helped him progress as a musician. “I got to get a lot of ideas out of my system and got to experiment with many new techniques that I might not have discovered otherwise. Now that I’ve accomplished one year of daily music, I can be free of the ‘daily’ part and really start to focus on developing these new directions my sound has taken. I’ve also built my discipline with this and feel the strongest I’ve felt yet in terms of being an all-around creator,” Billy says.

Billy encourages taking risks like this to develop your style and sounds: “Be okay with whatever happens. At first, it may feel difficult to truly trust the muse but, over time, it will feel more and more natural to take risks and experiment. The key is realizing that not everything has to be a masterpiece. Some of the most beautiful pieces of art retain an element of rawness. So-called perfectionism can be useful but can also be a detriment to progression.” - The SoundCloud Blog

If you want to hear the third Billy Mays’ music, it’s not hard to do. He never stops making it. He’s beatboxing when he walks up to my car on a long, hot afternoon in Clearwater. His YouTube channel has over eighty videos, and he offers most of his albums for free on the Infinite Third website.

“The music comes so easy,” he says. “It feels almost silly to charge for it. The big stuff, the stuff that you’d pay for, that’s in the works.”

The ease is evident in the prolific nature of his work. There are eighteen albums available for download online, not counting the song-a-day project he did last year. His latest Infinite Third album, Ear Drops, is billed on the website as “80 Minutes of Soothing Music to Massage Your Brain While Bringing You to the Next Level.”

Infinite Third goes on tour this October, starting in Asheville, North Carolina at the 3 Days of Light Festival, and then?

“Who knows?” says Billy, who will be touring with his collaborator and girlfriend, Gen, across the country. “Asheville will open up a lot of possibilities. The tour is going to be kind of like the process of making music itself. I find it hard to force it.”

The tour will be ongoing, and Billy mentions Pennsylvania and Canada in the same breath, making it clear that the structure is currently undefined.

“There’s no finite goal to any of this. I find the music has to be channeled, not forced. If I trust that it’s going to come, then it’s infinite.”

There are times when talking to Billy seems like the conversation equivalent of a road trip. Part of that, I imagine, comes from the fact that he's currently unanchored. He'll be in Florida a little while longer, then he and Gen hit the road in their Nissan Pathfinder for points unknown.

"City, country, the beach, the mountains, it doesn't really matter much to me. Creativity can happen anywhere. I can be happy anywhere, and I hate feeling stuck. Gen and I are totally on the same page there. I don't think this would be nearly as much fun to do by myself."

Billy runs the website Where's Billy Mays? where he posts tributes and references to his father, the late pitchman Billy Mays II. He's giving thought to writing and directing a documentary about his father, although it's a long way off.

Just like I remembered, Billy is still all about team work. His solo music project, Infinite Third, provided the music for a documentary by Skull Babylon. His group, Bandpractice, has become a sort of open jam session that tours at festivals around the Southeast. His writing, Impersonal Verses, is actually deeply personal and about connecting to others. But Billy really gets excited when he talks about his improvisational music group Mouth Council, run with his girlfriend and fellow musician, Gen.

“It’s all about the breath and the voice,” he says. “Gen sings or raps, and I beatbox and have a looper. We have a microphone we pass around and try to get everyone in the room or in the audience involved in making the sound.”

Beatboxes? Sure enough, Billy was happy to show me his skills after we got some beer on the beach, and he got me to participate. Don’t worry, I've got video evidence.

When we finished, Billy says, "That's the basic idea of Mouth Council. Anyone can make music, make the rythym. We try to make it a truly collaborative experience for both ourselves and the audience. Nothing is forced, everything is improvisational. It's radical inclusivity."

When I ask what role fear plays in his improvisation, Billy gets a shifty little smile. "It's not so much fear, but an energy. You've got to have that performance energy to make it quality."

And so finally I have to ask, what next hot stuff? The tour of course, and his YouTube channels. The videos Billy makes- with nothing fancier than some mics and a Cannon Rebel- often get over 10,000 hits. With Mouth Council, Band Practice, and Infinite Third all contained inside his creative sphere, Billy has no shortage of projects to keep the creativity flowing... infinitely? Infinitely. That sounds about right. - What Next, Hot Stuff?

Another concertgoer remarked to me that listening to Infinite Third was "like having your soul cleansed". It is. - Art Taco

Music serves millions and millions of purposes, and sometimes — especially in the case of Bill Mays III — it’s the perfect reason to just stop and be immersed in the sound that is spilling into your ear holes. Mays — who performs under the Infinite Third moniker — hit Fubar in St. Petersburg, Fla. on March 15, 2012. - Suburban Apologist

Music serves millions and millions of purposes, and sometimes — especially in the case of Bill Mays III — it’s the perfect reason to just stop and be immersed in the sound that is spilling into your ear holes. Mays — who performs under the Infinite Third moniker — hit Fubar in St. Petersburg, Fla. on March 15, 2012. - Suburban Apologist