MALONE – THIS IS IT 'This Is It' is the debut album by singer-songwriter Gareth Malone, aka MALONE. As Malone sees it, however, 'This Is It' is simply an extension of what he's been doing for years in his twin hometowns, Melbourne and Canberra: making tapes of original music, to be shared amongst friends. "I've always made tapes, just with a tape deck; writing a song for a friend, putting the tape recorder on, just me playing guitar and singing along", Malone says. "So I've always had people to listen to what I'm doing, and I'd listen to tapes my friends made, as well. All these people handing round tapes... it's such a fantastic thing. They're not conforming to any accepted idea of what you should be doing as a musician or as a band, not trying to make it sound like a pop song on the radio." Malone grew up in an artistic environment; surrounded by music on the radio, on the family stereo and in the living room, where his older brothers would play guitar. "I had piano lessons for a couple of years when I was seven, that was about it", he recalls. "I didn't start creating my own music until I was about 22, when I picked up a guitar and started writing songs, getting in touch with the music I'd grown up listening to, and connecting to it physically, with my voice. That's what everybody does, I guess, when they get a guitar... you try to sing like the records you've been listening to all your life." For Malone, those records were jazz and blues LPs, together with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Talking Heads, and personal heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. "I used to play my songs, just to entertain my friends; it was a very natural period of self-expression”, he says. “I was also just trying to master the craft stringing words together, stringing a melody together and making it all work. Of course, that takes decades! These were just the beginnings." From the beginning, however, Malone gathered some musical kindred spirits about him, 24 of whom played on 'This Is It'. "I was carried away with the possibilities of collaborative ways of recording", he says. "The studio was like a very advanced tape deck, for me; a natural progression to a new level of mystery possibility. Opening the door to the studio, for me, was like lifting the lid on a piano.” Malone says that 'This Is It' is a record in the truest sense -- a record of a particular moment in time, a record of the input other musicians brought to his songs -- but the songs continue to find their own way out there into the world, just like his homemade tapes. “Maybe this is just another tape, and I'm just looking for more friends to give it to", Malone suggests. "Whoever likes this album, it's like they've received one of my tapes as a gift from me. I'm sure they're out there, and they might see aspects of the songs that relate to them; they might hear a familiar voice.” ‘This Is It’, the debut album by MALONE,
features eleven songs of inspired and dream-like visions. From Spaced-out
Gypsy Marching Band Anthems to Seaside Acoustic Lovestruck Lullabies...
a transformation of tunes, rhythms, and messages received from African
Folk Music, The Jazz Age and 70s Massive Rock and Roll Bands. |