A hack I've found for my setup (Mint + Xfce + dwm)
---
#~/.xprofile
xfce4-volumed	#allows media buttons for volume
~/sh/dwm.sh &	#runs status script in bg


#~/sh/dwm.sh
#status bar
while true
do
	xsetroot -name "$(nmcli d|grep wifi|sed s/.*nected/SSID:/g) - $(upower -i $BAT|grep perc|sed s/percentage:\ \*/BAT:/g) - $(upower -i $BAT2|grep perc|sed s/percentage:\ \*/BAT2:/g) - $(date +%Y%m%d.%H%M)"
	sleep 10
done

---
And that's it for how I got dwm to work with volume keys. Of course it
requires that the volumed is working, so it may not work with the
advanced crew who already figured out how to use volume keys without
xfce4. Obviously mine isn't the best, but it's functional. You'll need
to define $BAT and $BAT2 (if $BAT2 exists) for the xsetroot to work.