Backstage Pass - Malakyte - Interview

ATP

For the record, who's answering the interview?

MALAKYTE

My name is LG. I play drums for Malakyte.

ATP

What is your band's name? How did you come up with that name?

MALAKYTE

We are Malakyte, a metal band from Brisbane, Australia. The name is derived from malachite, a green stone people used to wear around their necks in ancient times to protect themselves from evil. We chose the name because we liked the sense of ambiguity it had; it didn’t create any immediate connotations to anything. That and because we all just liked the sound of the name.

ATP

So who's in the band and what instruments do you each play?

MALAKYTE

Tommy Muz is our lead vocalist. Laggy and Dalton are our twin axe-attack duo, Trip Walker is the self-proclaimed “lead bassist” of the band (!) and I am the drummer.

ATP

How would you describe your sound. What makes you unique?

MALAKYTE

Although our music is primarily influenced by thrash metal, we’re all influenced by a diverse range of music from doom metal, guitar shred music, death and black metal, and also a lot of progressive rock. I mean think about it; death metal and black metal existed in the 1980s and they both had their own distinctive sounds back then. Today they have become something more evolved than what they were twenty-five years ago without losing the original characteristics that made them what they were originally. How do you do that with thrash metal? We’re heavily influenced by newer bands like Vektor and Skeletonwitch, not just musically but in their attitudes of pushing the boundaries of thrash metal and “evolving” it without sacrificing its original character.

ATP

What bands have influenced each of you?

MALAKYTE

Laggy has always been a bit of a fanboy for old school metal bands! Muz’s two favourite bands are Kreator and Municipal Waste. Trip is heavily into doom metal bands like Pentagram and Electric Wizard. Dalton is big into guitar shred heroes like Vai, Satriani, and Jason Becker. I’m a big fan of darker technical thrash bands like Anacrusis, Celtic Frost, Sabbat, Coroner and Watchtower.

ATP

How experienced are you on the stage, a virgin or whore?

MALAKYTE

We’re definitely whores. Especially Laggy and Muz.

ATP

How would you describe your shows?

MALAKYTE

Full of energy. Even people who don’t like us musically have enjoyed the shows we’ve put on. We love to get the crowd psyched up. Muz will most likely end up surfing the crowd while singing the chorus of a song. We’re definitely a live band.

ATP

Tell us about your favorite show and why?

MALAKYTE

I have two favorites.

Last year we played the 2013 Soundwave Festival. Playing on a big stage alongside Dragonforce and Ghost in front of literally thousands of people was something else. We got to hang out backstage with Anthrax, Duff McKagen and Chris Jericho of Fozzy (Laggy is a massive wrestling fanboy so that was like a wet dream come true for him), and Ghost also borrowed my drum kit for their set. I’m proud to say that a Nameless Ghoul has used my drums! It was one of the best days I’ve ever experienced.

The other favourite show of mine was our launch show for “Human Resonance”. We played at the Crowbar, which is in my opinion the best music club in Brisbane and our second home! The discs for our album arrived only an hour before the show started (close call!). The venue was so full of eager headbangers, and the vibe was just excellent.

ATP

Tell us about your worst show and why?

MALAKYTE

We played the Gold Coast the following night after our album launch. All of us had stayed up all night partying after our launch show, and so we were very hungover. Muz had lost his voice so I was singing and drumming at the same time, and we got members of the crowd to come and sing some of our songs! Despite everything, we made the best of a bad situation and just had fun with it. It’s all on our tour video which you can watch on our Youtube page “MalakyteOfficial”.

ATP

Tell Us About Your Dream Show, who you'd like to play with and where?

MALAKYTE

Well if anything we’d love to play Europe, and also Japan. To play one of the amazing metal festivals in Europe would definitely be something.

ATP

Do you have a street team and how can you join?

MALAKYTE

We don’t. We usually promote everything ourselves (DIY!!), but if anyone wants to help promote Malakyte to new regions, you can always contact us at malalyte.band@gmail.com We appreciate anyone who has gone out of their way to help us promote the band in the past, and we still do!

ATP

Do you have a record label and if not are you looking for one?

MALAKYTE

Our album “Human Resonance” was self-released, and we hope it will generate label interest. It has done surprisingly well in both physical copy sales and digital. We also sent some copies to a distro in Japan recently, which all sold out within a few days!

ATP

What are your plans for the future, in a year, 5 years?

MALAKYTE

We are beginning to write songs for the next album, which we believe will be the next evolutionary step musically for us. We really want to try and promote our music overseas and generate as much interest over there, and eventually tour in other regions!

ATP

Finally, do have any words on what Arm The Pit means to you?

MALAKYTE

Armpits? Pits with arms? Arms with pits? You probably hear those all the time… Thank you very much for the interview!!