In partnership with BandLab
Though mal sounds was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the neighbourhood he still calls home today, the origins of his artist project lie in Valencia. In early 2020, he flew to Spain to visit his grandmother and cousins, then found himself grounded by COVID-19. “I basically always knew I wanted to be a musician,” says mal, whose government name is Amal Buford. “But what I found in Spain was a sense of clarity. Music had always been a social thing for me, so when that social aspect was taken away, I had to ask myself: ‘What is the deeper meaning? Why am I doing this?’”
After rebranding himself mal sounds, he enjoyed early success when his wistful chillwave bop ‘VVS’ popped on Instagram in 2021. Since then, he’s released a pair of equally atmospheric EPs – 2021’s ‘Freak And Wild Things’ and 2024’s ‘Still In New York’ – and continued to hone his ineffably nostalgic dream-pop sound. “My purpose as a musician is to create [sonic] spaces that can help people to see or process things differently,” he says.
Now he’s been selected for BandLab And NME’s Get Featured initiative, which gives emerging artists a chance to be heard by NME‘s global audience of music fans. It’s fortuitous timing for mal, who’s about to drop his balmy debut album ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ – and a partnership that really feeds his artistry. “BandLab feels like a social media platform that’s full of musicians,” he says. “Often I’ll go on BandLab to listen to new songs by people I don’t know yet. It’s just a powerful tool.”
mal sounds
Here, mal talks about the challenging aspects of being a DIY musician and how he’s learned to prioritise the soothing musical world that he’s creating.
Hi, mal! So why is now the right time to release your debut album?
“It’s really the first time I’ve written this many songs that feel like they’re in the same world and pushing a particular feeling and narrative. You know, I’ve felt a lot of frustration with the music industry and just being a musician generally, so working on this album was a very healing and grounding experience. I feel like I made a conscious decision to go back to basics.
“It’s called ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ because I was just frustrated with the whole culture of every artist being their own mini-A&R in their head. We’re kind of encouraged to overthink everything all the time – like: ‘What should I be doing next?’ That just felt so contrived, so in the end I thought: ‘What are you waiting for? Don’t hold your breath, just do the album.’”
How would you describe the overall narrative you’ve honed on the album?
”I’m really into this idea of cycles and iterations. Throughout my twenties, I found myself learning the same lesson over and over again, just in different ways. And so I think this album is a story of coming to peace with that cycle. The other side is the story of how I un-shrunk myself – and how someone [else] can un-shrink themselves. By ‘unshrink’, I mean develop a sense of self that’s bigger than all these boxes and constrictions that we might create for ourselves, just to feel safer or to appeal to other people.
“I was also interested in the infinite space that can exist inside someone’s head. I’m a producer first and foremost, so when I was developing the sound of the album, I was trying to get to this place where the hollow feeling of the guitars almost echoes, like, the cavern of your brain. For me, that’s as much of a part of the story as the lyrical narrative.”
The album has such a calming, balmy quality to it – was that very much intentional?
“I think calming, but with a sense of focus. There was a time when I was listening to a lot of ambient music – and I’ve always really been into shoegaze too. So I was thinking about how cool it is that a song’s vocal can be a storytelling tool, but also a focus point for human connection. Like, because we naturally want to hear a human voice, that voice can really bring you on a journey.
“I like to ride my bike, so I was thinking about how people could listen to this album as they ride a bike or just go for a walk. I was thinking of ways I could use the music to help people get into that calmer state of mind and be more observant of what’s going on around them.”
Six years after your Valencia epiphany, what aspects of being a musician do you find most challenging?
“I feel like it’s very challenging to keep your world small enough to be… like, I want to say, an effective artist. What I mean is keeping your world small enough to stay focused on what it is that you’re actually trying to do. That’s something I struggle with every day, because it’s so easy to find new stimuli and new ideas. And if you find those ideas on your phone, it’s basically just all marketing – and it’s probably going to be very convincing because it’s designed to appeal to you!”
mal sounds
In a related sense, as a DIY artist, you almost have two jobs: to make music, then to promote it on social media…
“Basically, yeah. But I try to cope with that by imagining that, at the end of the day, you have to choose one hill to die on. Like, you can do both, but at some point you have to prioritise. This goes back to the album. I had to be like: ‘I’m just gonna finish the album – and then if the social media thing happens, that’s great.’ I don’t want making music ever to be something that makes me mean or sour. I always want making music to be something I love.”
‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ by mal sounds drops on September 26 via factory setting
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