Written by: Oliver Heffron
Multifaceted artist Malachiii is developing a buoyant sound around his versatile voice and intuitive production process. Combining aspects of R&B and hip-hop into his brand of contemporary pop, the Southern California native has been finding new ways to channel his passion for performing into each new release as he colors in a diverse, optimistic portrait.
While Malachiii doesn’t shy away from sharing his vulnerabilities in his lyrics, his enthusiasm and joy shine through his infectious melodies and euphoric beats, making it hard for the listener not to smile and shake the doubt away.
His debut album, The Ascension, released last year via Motown Records, introduces an artist ready to create in various ways, from the swaggering hip-hop-leaning “Hold Me” to the slow melodic build of “Elevate.” Malachiii’s most recent single, “Hey Hey Hey,” marks a new shade in the artist’s discography as he works toward his follow-up project with its intuitive melody and breezy alt-pop production.
Malachiii sat down with NUANCE to discuss growing up in a creative household, developing his sound, and where he plans to take it from here.
Born and raised in Northridge, Malachiii grew up in an entertainment family–his mom was a Broadway dancer, and his father was a professional actor. While music was always a part of his life, starting piano lessons at a very young age, Malachiii remembers the moment singing became his main passion at 12 years old, when his mom started a musical theater school:
“My first love was dance, and so, like, all I wanted to do is dance and be like Michael Jackson. …But I started singing when I was 12 because my mom started this musical theater school, and when we had the auditions, she was like, “Well, you can’t just dance. This is musical theater: you have to sing, dance, and act; you have to do all three. So that was my introduction to singing.”
Malachiii took to singing, dancing, and performing quickly, earning his first professional gig opening for GRAMMY® Award-winning Indian composer AR Rahman at 14. He remembers the life-changing experience nearly didn’t happen if not for his mother once again encouraging him before an audition:
“I was at a summer camp and basically had this accident where I fell and hurt my leg before I could audition for this tour. But my mom was like, ‘I know your legs hurt, but let’s just go and let’s just see what happens. Just do the best you can.’ And so I went and like my adrenaline just kicked in, where I literally could barely walk before but somehow I was like doing backflips and doing all this stuff.”
His commitment, dance background, and enthusiasm for high-flying stunts served young Malachiii well on a show that he describes as “if you combined your typical World Tour stadium show with Cirque du Solei,” remembering he even “literally flew 50 feet in the air on a bicycle like I was an ET as part of the show.”
After getting a taste of performing at such a young age, Malachiii put together another pivotal piece of his artistic puzzle a few years later when he started making beats:
Photo Courtesy of Brian "Deep" Watters
“When I was 17 we had one of our summer camps, and me and my friend discovered Logic and we’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ Because at the time we were singing and performing covers and stuff like that, but with Logic it hit us that we can really make our own beats. So we ran into our neighbor’s house and asked if we could borrow a little speaker from him. And so I had my like, crappy little white MacBook Pro with one speaker but we were so excited because we got a studio where now we can cook up.”
Inspired by tutorials by early Youtube pioneer and producer Ryan Leslie, Malachiii began making his own music from scratch, realizing the cohesive sound he could create when he played every instrument and rhythm on a beat. After starting to release music, Malachiii got recognition for his potential as he earned a publishing deal with Electric Feel (Post Malone, Iann Dior, 24KGoldn) that helped take his ability to translate universal emotions into infectious hooks and polished production.
With his debut project, The Ascension, Malachiii says the “intention was to show all the different sides of myself in a way that’s genre fluid, and I think we accomplished that really well.” He explains how this genreless emphasis was informed by the broader movements of new artists establishing themselves in music:
“Everything’s kind of blending now. So I think really, the next generation of artists and on, there won’t really be this set idea of what a genre is because people are coming with so much… Even myself just from a young age, like all the music I was exposed to everything from jazz to hip hop to pop to you name it… I was like a sponge with all of that and so that kind of really informed the way I created. And so I’m really for the idea of not being locked into sort of one sound and feeling like you have to choose.”
With that being said, Malachiii acknowledges the space for focus and cohesion within the framework of an album or project, a belief that translates into the musical and lyrical throughlines in his debut project: “I’m also a fan of creating a project that’s has a theme and that that is cohesive you know, and so it’s been sort of a long time coming in sort of finding a way finding that balance between being genre fluid and having this sort of Sonic cohesive element.”
Years after his first introduction to the stage on a world tour as a child, Malachiii is building his legacy, one beat and melody at a time. With his hit songs “Hold Me” and “How to Be Star” being featured on Madden 23, he hopes his music and story help to inspire the next generation of kids to go out and give it their all and break a leg.