The Malakites – Cardiff’s relentless performers stop by for a chat.

Right then, it’s that time again, time to showcase another totally rock n roll band from South Wales! They’re from my home town this time so let’s give it up for Cardiff’s very own, The Malakites. I’m not biased, I promise, when I say that the music scene in the Welsh capital, is absolutely mega at the moment, any and all genres, in both English and Welsh language. That said you can’t ignore the sheer sound coming from the areas surrounding Cardiff either, especially not after our interview with Maesteg based Pseudocool at the beginning of this year!

If you ask me, I think it has something to do with anyone who has ever thought of making some noise suddenly found themselves locked inside twiddling their thumbs for nearly 2 years and in that time thought, to hell with it, I’m going to start a band! Alright, so technically this isn’t totally true for today’s interviewee’s as they actually formed a little before the world went sideways, back in 2019 when they were only 16 in fact. But since stepping into the studio for the first time 3 years ago to record their debut “Roses on the Doorstep” (2019) these four Cardiff boys have been on a mission to make up for lost gigging time if nothing else.

Before I get ahead of myself describing the sheer mass of live shows these guys have delivered this year, let’s start with the music. At the moment they have three singles out on their Spotify, (well two and a half technically as 2022’s “Night Tomorrow” is a one minute teaser of an upcoming release). This echoey little number is sandwiched between their debut, the aforementioned “Roses on the Doorstep” (2019) and their most recent release “Only Sometimes” (2022).

The best way I’ve found to describe the three singles is that they all live in the same house but occupy totally different rooms. Like, “Roses on the Doorstep” is a quintessentially indie track with a lovestruck title, jangly guitar and sunny vocals. Then, in the next room of this metaphorical house of The Malakites’ singles is “Night Tomorrow”. While it has the same essence of being light and airy, it is also stripped back, super fluid, and according to vocalist Jacob Webber, takes inspiration from the intro of The Stone Roses epochal track “I Wanna Be Adored”. It is of course, only a teaser, and with any luck we’ll be able to listen to the full version soon!

This brings us to “Only Sometimes” which is a solid step onto another floor of this building. It’s a track with solid weight behind every instrument, behind every word even, and its intro is something reminiscent of The Clash’s seminal “London Calling”, got a thing for iconic intros this band don’t they?

Now, despite having referenced two solid bands in conjunction with their latest singles, I would like to make a point of mentioning something that their bassist Dan raised in our interview (below), which is that; while initial influences are important, they have no desire to sound like anyone else. Or as Jacob noted, not even have every track sound the same! And while in this day and age, sure, you can point at a song and say “that reminds me of something”, it’s inevitable when you have such a huge pool of music to pull from, ultimately what matters is where that artist has taken the sound, and how they’ve made it their own.

I think the word that best describes the feeling I had after finishing this interview is anticipation. Here we’ve stumbled across a band here who are at the very beginning of their journey, and they’ve done so much already! What’s so compelling about them is not just the promise of new material, but the ever gripping allure of a band with not much released who have still managed to leave a trail of totally rammed gigs in their wake. Intriguing right?

On the subject of gigs they have been absolutely all over the place, playing with This Feeling in The Moon, Jacs in Aberdare, The Duke in Neath, Zed Alley in Bristol, Clwb on multiple occasions, and that’s just since May! They’ve got a slew lined up as well all noted on their Instagram, they’re returning to play a This Feeling night at the Moon again on the 1^st of September alongside The Kairos, and then making their way to B2 in Norwich on the 23^rd of September to support fellow Cardiff boys The Rotanas, and then scooting themselves up to Glasgow the day after for First Wave Festival! Madness!

I won’t lie to you audience, our chat was a little chaotic… We tumble through topics covering gigs, festivals, The Blinders, venues, me getting the dates wrong, and it even features a surprise appearance halfway through from a very important member of the band, her name is Gwen and she’s adorable (that sentence will sound less weird once you’ve watched the video below).

Although, after learning what their live performances are like, I think the wild and wonderful nature of this interview is the perfect way to sum up this cracking band. So readers, with that hectic introduction now at a close, I will leave you to learn about the soon to be staple alternative indie four piece that is The Malakites.