INTERVIEW: Ciao Malz Would Rather Be Sorry, Then Safe
Brooklyn's Ciao Malz geeks out about music and muses on risk-taking in our interview
Sometimes you find your calling early. That’s how Ciao Malz (Malia DelaCruz) found her way to music, by spending hours and hours playing around with GarageBand as a teenager. With her first solo release Safe Then Sorry, DelaCruz captures both the freedom of experimenting in her bedroom as well as the restraint of someone who understands their craft. In our interview, Ciao Malz geeks out about her favorite new tunes and explains the sardonic outlook of her new EP.
Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.
I’ve said several times out loud that "Good Luck Babe" is a perfect song. Lyrically, the whole story is getting told and its not too much nor too little. The chorus is a perfect chorus, its explosive and revealing like a shining pop song should be. I don’t even have words for the BRIDGE. Even at the very end where it slows down and fades, it’s undeniably perfect.
Explain the title of your EP.
Safe Then Sorry is a play on words that I was surprised to find hadn’t been taken yet. It raises the question: What if I do the right thing, and it still doesn’t work out? There’s no answer, but it hints at the idea that maybe the grass is brown on both sides—a reality I’ve come to notice as I get older.
How do you manage having a good time at shows, but also trying to stay mentally and physically fit?
It’s not hard to manage having a good time at shows, that is nature. It is hard to stay mentally and then also physically fit. I believe they go hand in hand, so I like to go to the gym in the morning and lift weights. My label made me an intense gym playlist that scared me at first. Thankfully, now I am motivated by the chaos.
Recent release you cannot stop listening to?
"Cadillac" by Colin Miller is the most recent release I can’t stop listening to. It’s the type of alt-country indie rock stuff I’ve been listening to lately. It kinda reminds me of the early 00’s radio rock I loved hearing on the radio as a kid.
What 5 albums are you going to make your kid listen to and why?
I will be making my kids listen to the call me by your name soundtrack, every album by Phil Collin’s, every album by genesis, Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren, and Blonde by Frank Ocean. I think these albums could be very insightful to a kid who doesn’t know anything yet.
