Malice K will NOT jerk off in public
An interview with a new kind of rock star.
In 2022 I heard a song that kind of changed my life.
I was in New York sharing a blow up mattress with a feisty Maltese dog called Cléo.
Sleep is famously hard to come by that city, and it is even harder when you are in a friend’s ground floor Brooklyn apartment on a street of semi-professional late-night bottle smashers.
So instead of sleeping I stayed up all night listening to one song on repeat. The song - just shy of 2 minutes - is breathtaking shining jewel of a love song.
Since that moment Malice K (Alex Konschuh) has emerged as a new kind of rock star. A wild live performer that sweats and writhes, combined with a brilliant and tender songwriter unafraid to get pretty heavy with it.
I was lucky enough to be able to chat with Alex about his new album Avanti out TODAY via Jagjagwar.
Read Below.
D.C.
Malice K will NOT jerk off in public
Malice K does not mind getting weird.
His live shows are quickly becoming renowned as bacchanals of rock music excess where it is not uncommon to see the singer, sweating, half naked, swinging from the rafters, spinning both the microphone and himself in tight violent circles. At his shows there is the dangerous and exciting feeling that anything could happen…
But when we chat on Zoom - he makes it clear that one thing you WILL NOT see at his shows is an artist jerking off.
“I saw some John Mayer video when he said you should put out every song you ever make… But what is the goal of that? Why would you put out music you don’t like? I mean I’m all for not caring what people think, but when it gets to the point when you are just jamming… to me that’s just jerking off for three hours,”
I think this is key to Malice K, who has emerged as a new kind of rockstar in an era of clean-cut, smiling porcelain Tik Tok friendly faces trained for months in the basements of Sony Music.
While his wild and intense performance style harkens back to 90s grunge excess - something in his songwriting feels raw, essential, and dare I say it ‘real’!?
All of this is delivered in spades on his excellent new record AVANTI - an exhilarating collection of incredible songs delivered with the semi-crazed conviction of a knife wielding maniac in a 7/11 parking lot. It is sincerely one hell of a record.
I spoke to Malice from his home in New York to hear more about the album, and the process behind bringing it out into the world.
D.C. Maxwell: I’m from New Zealand, a small place with a storied music legacy, and it can sometimes feel like this huge shadow modern musicians are trying to get out from under.
You are from Olympia, Washington, which is a small town with a huge impact on world music (as the birthplace of: Bikini Kill, Earth, The Microphones, freaking Nirvana man!!) . How has that impacted you and your music?
Alex Konschuh: It was really cool to grow up somewhere that had such an impact on world music, but also happened to be a small town. My goals there were always pretty existential, I just wanted to get better at making art. There were no labels, or investors there so ‘getting signed’ was not even on the radar. No one even knew anyone that worked at a label, so everyone who was an artist was just someone that worked by candlelight in an attic somewhere mumbling cryptic shit to themselves.
Then when I came to New York, I’d meet 19-year-olds who would say ‘check out my Tik Tok, I can’t wait to get signed!’. And I would say dude, you should be doing acid, or just anything else from what you are doing. I think in places where there are these obtainable goals in sight, it makes for worse art, as people are thinking about everything else but the music.
But on the flip side I feel like in Olympia I had to ‘come out’ as wanting to be a professional musician. It was totally not cool. All my friends were like ‘whatever man, money is just paper, music is just sounds’. So ‘Malice K’ was me kind of self-proclaiming I wanted to take this shit seriously.
D.C: Your songwriting to me feels very raw, and direct, and quite different to a lot of songs at the moment. How did that style of songwriting develop for you?
AK: I always really liked old country music, and there’s a lot of similarities between that and hip hop. I always appreciated songs were it is pretty direct. Bands like The Beatles where the goal is to have the song be ‘about something’.
I think a lot about phrasing things in my songs in ways that feel personal to the listener. I know a lot of people might say ‘oh, who cares what anybody thinks!?', which is kind of the stupidest advice ever, because who wants nobody to go to their shows?
I saw some John Mayer video when he said you should put out every song you ever make without working to hard on it and then see what does well on streaming. But what is the goal of that? Why would you put out music you don’t like? I mean I’m all for not caring what people think, but when it gets to the point when you are just jamming… to me that’s just jerking off for three hours.
D.C: You first got your start tied up with Death Proof Inc. a Los Angeles artist collective - what was that and how did it influence you?
AK: Death Proof was started by this guy called Nascar Aloe, who created this crazy post-apocalyptic subculture thing during the pandemic. They were doing a bunch of shows and kind of not giving a fuck and I really loved that, so I went over and doing that with them.
It was like a DIY record label/music platform/brand - a huge group of people just making art. I recorded the Harm/Heck album in the garage of the Death Proof house with just one microphone.
It was really weird though, like randomly out of nowhere, people associated with Death Proof would be having beef with Playboi Carti and stuff - it was something, but also wasn’t anything. Very hard to explain haha.
D.C: AVANTI is an incredible record, and your first release since signing with Jagjagwar. Did you approach this album differently to your previous records?
AK: Definitely. I had a lot more attention to detail. I put in a lot more effort, doing more takes and I was a whole lot more selective of what I wanted to be the song.
Before, if I worried about that stuff I wouldn’t get anything done. If it was on tempo and relatively in tune - then that would be the song and I would put it out.
But with this record I was more comfortable with taking the time to make the songs better. It was fun, and I am pretty proud of the way the it sounds.
D.C: I read an NME cover story where you described your early days in New York almost spiralling into a dark place of drug abuse. But you had a line where you said what saved you was seeing that it was all ‘adding up to be a boring story’. What did you mean by that?
AK: I had this really strong vision of me going back home and not achieving what I set out to do. I could see me going back and friends saying, ‘woah, what happened man?’, and I’d say ‘Well, I moved to New York, I did this, I did that, I got a record deal… then I did a bunch of drugs, lost all my money and didn’t make a record.’
To me, that whole thing would add up to a boring, uneventful story. About to hit a peak of something before ending it all in the stupidest way possible.
That was just not going to be me.
D.C: So then looking forward, what does a NOT boring story look like?
AK: It’s funny now I am craving more boring things. I think its my job to do interesting things, but ironically doing something again and again is what makes things not interesting. I am working 24/7, so I am craving more close to home pleasures as time goes on.
But its funny, now as I am just releasing an album everyone is telling me: ‘Okay, NOW its time to ROCK OUT!’.
I’m like, man I’ve been rocking out for like four years straight. I’ve been ready, I’m feeling fucked up but I’m also fucking ready to go. So LET’s GOOOO!!! Hahaha.
POST SCRIPT:
Currently listening to: Craig Finn - God in Chicago (One hell of a song!)
Currently Reading: The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner
Currently watching: Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares UK (although I may need to stop soon as I have begun waking up in the night screaming at a phantom Sous Chef about raw chicken)
If you want to support my music these are a few options:
Buy the album/merch from Bandcamp!
Share the songs with a friend who might be into it!
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