“We would love to be born in the 80s”

They start the tour Tour of Desire In the Marearock Room in Alicante. How do you evaluate this concert?

We are looking forward to this not only because it is the starting point of the tour, but also because we have not played in Alicante for a year and a half and we really want to play at home.

They start without having an EP Desire fully loaded. Because?

The opportunity arose to play at Sala Marearock and we decided to take advantage of it. I also think there’s something special about playing songs before they’re even released because then you can see how people react to them right off the bat.

The group began filming in the middle of the pandemic, and now the project seems to have taken off.

Yes, Malafé has evolved a lot and now we seem to have found the formula as a band. It came from a personal song project, and during the pandemic I decided to change it up a bit and go for a little more danceable, more indie-pop sounds. I started working with my producer, Alberto Belando, via video call, because that’s how things worked, and that’s how a growing project began to take shape. We are now a family of five musicians and we have a lot of people behind us.

There were many other projects that tried to be born during the pandemic but were left unfinished. You are on your third EP and you managed to take the stage at WiZink Center.

I must say that we worked hard. We are constantly working, not only on a compositional level, but also looking at how we can perfect our live performance, investing a lot, dealing with networks… We are working hard on all aspects surrounding the project. However, it is true that very good things are happening to us, such as the opening of Funambulista on WiZink in 2023 or touring Spain thanks to Girando por Salas. And we’ll try to use that momentum to double or nothing this year.

Does Malafé get things done too quickly?

We value everything that happens to us because other projects may not have had the opportunity to be shown to a wide audience, but depending on how you look at it, the answer may be one or the other. There are many other groups that are advancing at a dizzying pace. Look at Arde Bogotá, it’s so fast. We believe that everyone should chart their own path, we are very ambitious and always want more.

Components of Malafé in the promotional photo INFORMATION

Do they live by numbers?

I don’t think we’re obsessed with them, but they worry us. I think the music industry is pretty obsessed with numbers, so you can’t just throw them away. However, I think there are more important things. We must remember that, in principle, this is about making music.

But in the end, numbers are important in order to make a living from music.

You’re right about that, I’m the only one in the band who has another job, but the rest of the band lives solely on music. They also play in other projects because it is not easy as a musician in Spain and if you want to make a living on your own you have to combine it with other musical projects. I hope one day we start training and we just need to play in Malafé. However, this is not possible right now.

He combines music with his job as a doctor. How does a healthcare professional decide to start a music project?

Precisely because of the epidemic. When you see how fragile humans really are and how any microscopic being can turn your world upside down, you prioritize, see what truly makes you happy, and go to death with it. This is the reflection that the pandemic taught me, so I started to take it more seriously.

And seriously, they are already releasing songs from their third album, what can you tell us about this EP?

I feel like there is an evolution between these and the previous issues. Not only because of the composition of the songs, but also in terms of sound. When you listen to the new songs, it sounds like an international band. This EP is a sign of the maturity of the project. We also went for influences from the late 80s, bridging the gap, inspired by the Anglo-Saxon pop rock of artists like Phil Collins or Bryan Adams. But we tried to approach them by making music in Spanish, something that hasn’t been done many times.

“Malafé has evolved a lot and now we seem to have found the formula as a band”

One thing that is very important for new bands is the festival circuit. Will Malafé attend this year?

I hope. Although it seems simple, getting into the festival cycle is quite difficult. However, when you start operating in some festivals, it becomes easier to stay in that circuit and everything starts to turn around.

Arde Bogotá has gone from appearing in the small edition of Spring Festival to filling large venues.

Definitely, when you say it, I think it will be very special for us to play at Bahar, the festival of our city. I wish they would give us this opportunity because I think people would be very surprised by our live performance.

Another issue that points to the current situation in the sector is the management of social networks. How do they see themselves in that world? Are they handling it well?

Only that. I don’t quite agree that it’s that important, because at the end of the day, we’re more interested in what the album is than what we put out on the networks, but it’s undoubtedly an accessible medium for the majority of people. and what should we use if we want to be there?

Alicante band Malafé in the promotional image INFORMATION

One thing that is very important for new bands is the festival circuit. Will Malafé attend this year?

I hope. Although it seems simple, getting into the festival cycle is quite difficult. However, when you start operating in some festivals, it becomes easier to stay in that circuit and everything starts to turn around.

Arde Bogotá has gone from appearing in the small edition of Spring Festival to filling large venues.

Definitely, when you say it, I think it will be very special for us to play at Bahar, the festival of our city. I wish they would give us this opportunity because I think people would be very surprised by our live performance.

Another issue that points to the current situation in the sector is the management of social networks. How do they see themselves in that world? Are they handling it well?

Only that. I don’t quite agree that it’s that important, because at the end of the day, we’re more interested in what the album is than what we put out on the networks, but it’s undoubtedly an accessible medium for the majority of people. and what should we use if we want to be there?

“Local groups in Alicante need more support”

This answer makes me think that Malafé is a band that could perfectly be born in another era.

We wish we were born in the 80s (laughs). We also like to think of a full album with the same plot as the current single format. But hey, this is the time we live in, which has many other advantages as well. Making music now is much more democratic than it was then, and we are just adapting to the times but trying to maintain our style and expression.

Perhaps without this democratization, Malafé would not have existed in the 80s.

Certainly not Malafé or many other bands. Recording in the 80s was hard to come by and very expensive to do. You can only do this if you are financed by a large company. Therefore, only people who were much more talented than most of today’s musicians agreed to record these albums. In this sense, I believe that democratization makes our job easier. However, not everything is child’s play. A project like ours is complex because you need facilities suitable for recording all the instruments. It’s not like an urban project where you just need to record vocals and edit the track. The two are very different worlds.

Seeing how expensive it is to keep a band afloat, do you get support from your city?

A city’s support is vital. A big part of Arde Bogotá’s success, now that we’ve mentioned them, is due to the fact that Cartagena immediately welcomed them and got them on their feet. I think it is very important to recognize your city’s support in growing projects. We didn’t get much support from Alicante either. One of our goals is to put Alicante on the map because we believe there is a lot and a very good scene and I think it is time for it to be taken advantage of.

Are you considering getting more support from the Provincial Council?

For example. It is difficult to be an artist in Alicante. Here you realize that it is much more difficult to get people who do not know the project into a room for a concert. It would be great if there was more music culture, more competitions, more stages supporting bands from here… Malafé first appeared on stage at CreaMurcia, a competition supporting bands from there, and I feel like something like that is missing in Alicante .