What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
For all of us, this occurred when we were kids. It’s just something we did! Banging pots and pans, singing or trying to act like the rock stars we were exposed to.
Introduce you / all to the members and your musical history.
Kris Jung: Guitar/ Vocals, Brendan Reynolds: Drums, Peter Hollywood: Bass
We came together from parts of amazing LA bands needing something new.
What was life like for you before music?
We don’t remember. It was always there.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
I think we’ve almost tried to avoid the “music industry” and do things the way we’ve wanted. We have our own business, however, and that’s going very well!
What’s the biggest thing you have learned from someone else in the industry?
That If you do your “own business” and “avoid the music industry”, you’ll think things are going well, but there’s much further to go. Hahahaha
Tell us Two truths and a lie about you.
1. One of the members of the band was a former Navy Seal Operator who served on CIA special missions including Extraterrestrial contact security at a secret US military base in the badlands of Utah
2. The singer was a professional beatboxer who was in the world’s definitive beatbox documentary called Breath Control with Mario C (Beastie Boys), Rahzel, Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie, etc
3. MAL played a show in Los Angeles where almost the entire crowd was high on mushrooms
If you could wish for one thing to aid your career what would it be?
Free recording studio rent
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
We wrote about this on our new album. A made-up person from our song “Madness As Lift” is arguing with a contrarian in our song “Besides”. But they both need to listen to the song “Come To Light”.
Yeah…. Listen to the song “Come To Light”. That will answer this question.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not why not?
All of them. The less they make sense, the better they are for studio banter.
What was the worst experience on stage?
Getting minorly electrocuted at a show in Orange County, CA
Tell us something about you / each member that you think people would be surprised about.
The guitar player’s (Kris’)left arm is permanently broken and he wears a permanent cast. He has no wrist movement and very limited finger movement, but he still writes and plays these songs.
The Drummer, Brendan, has his own popular hip hop group and is actually an amazing singer who has sung on many rock projects.
The bass player, Peter, is an ordained Reverend in the Universal Life Church.
….wait…that’s the singer. Peter is an amazing recording engineer and producer.
Peter picked all of the performances and captured all of the amazing sounds for our latest album, Come To light.
What makes you stand out as a band/artist?
We write and play a variety of genres under the rock/ Alt Rock umbrella, write sometimes strange and interesting arrangements that don’t follow traditional rock patterns, but we sound like us. ….like MAL
What was the recording process like?
We recorded everything in our own studio. We have collected tons of high-end gear and mics throughout the years so we were equipped to handle recording all of our albums ourselves at our own pace.
Recording on our own schedule without the pressure of a budget is very fun! It gets deep!
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
The biggest learning curve was remembering to write notes. If you found an interesting sound with a certain guitar pedal combination, WRITE IT DOWN!
…or else it’ll take a long time to recapture that sound for live shows.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
Not a thing! We’re very happy with the mix and Andrew Haller’s work on it! He’s amazing!
We think it’s our best work yet
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
MAL is coming!
We’re planning tours and festivals throughout the states and getting set up in a new studio where we’ll begin our next record. We have a couple videos coming out soon in support of our new album, and some strange new merch as well! Follow us on Instagram or our linktree to stay tuned on where we’ll be next!
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