Another piece of dancefloor dream magic swinging our way on Armada Deep
Malachi, a huge welcome to DMCWORLD towers – where in the world are you today?
Hello there & thanks for having me. I’m currently in the studio which is in my house in Manchester…it’s a rather bleak and rainy day, BST has well and truly left the building!
What was the first piece of music you heard this morning after rolling out of bed?
Our 13 year old daughter (who is home schooled) is currently playing some girly pop music in her room upstairs does that count? Ha! Normally the first music I hear in the day is the promos I get sent. I try to go through as many as possible but sometimes it’s a near impossible task!
So after many years as one half of Audiowhores alongside Adam Unsworth, you’re making your solo debut as Malachi with the amazing ‘Dream Of The Life’ on the mighty Armada Deep label. What inspired you to take the plunge?
Well I think Audiowhores had kind of run its course really. We had an amazing 15 years together, released on some great labels, travelled the world together DJing but Adam was getting more & more busy with a full time job & family whereas I on the other hand was getting more busy with the music. I quit my job at Apple 2 years ago to concentrate on the music so “Malachi” was a natural progression you could say.
How would you describe Malachi’s sound and what can we expect from you moving forwards?
One thing I didn’t want to do is get trapped into one particular sound or genre. I prefer to make the music I’m feeling at the time then think of which label it’s best suited to afterwards rather than the other way around. I suppose at the moment you could say my first few releases are Deep House with a cinematic feel. I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration from the likes of ‘Bonobo’, ‘Quantic’ & ‘Cinematic Orchestra’ recently. I’ve also been producing some more Jackin / Tech house tracks more on a par with the likes of Sante, Sidney Charles etc.
Who alive or dead would you most like to collaborate on a song with?
Wow so many to mention but Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, JAW & Cari Golden spring to mind on the vocalist front. Producer wise I’d love to be in the studio with the likes of Quincy Jones, Claptone, Joris Voorn and Hot Since 82.
What does Malachi mean?
Malachi (pronounced Mal-a-kai) means “my messenger”, so I suppose you could say I’m a messenger for the music. It’s actually a hebrew name although to be honest with you my wife & I were just looking around for a cool name and we really liked the way it looked on paper so we went with that one!
Audiowhores have just released the ace ‘Together’ on Deeptown Trax, is this your last release with Adam or are you continuing to collaborate in the future?
We were quite lucky that before our split we had written quite a few tracks together, so we have another 3 or 4 singles to come out before the year ends. We have a collaboration with Mr V, a track coming on the Shapeshifters label Love Inc (with Jaidene Veda on Vocals) and a single on Mike Mago’s label BMKLTSCH.
You have worked with a lot of artists over the past 15 years, who has been the highlight collaboration so far?
As Audiowhores we were quite lucky to remix quite a few REALLY good vocal tracks, looking back I think remixes were probably our strong point. When we got asked by Joey Negro to remix the Z Records classic “I Need Somebody Tonight” by Thelma Houston we were certainly in awe. I think that remix has to be the highlight for us, oh and also remixing the likes of Kathy Brown, Barbara Tucker & Connie Harvey.
What’s you’re favourite piece of studio kit right now?
I’m still loving my new DSI Prophet 08 right now and also recently I bought an Ableton Push controller. I still mainly use Logic X but I’m starting to rewire a lot of things from Ableton back into Logic. Maybe one day I’ll take the plunge 100% over to Ableton but at the moment I definitely seem to work quicker in Logic.
Compared to the heady days of the Madchester rave scene, what’s the Manchester club scene like now?
To be honest I don’t get much time to sample the Manchester scene at the moment… if I’m not gigging I prefer to chill at home. I do get the impression though that it’s quite healthy at the moment. You obviously have the Warehouse Project that is doing well, Sankey Soaps and Dave Vincent’s recent venture Sankey’s Warehouse. There’s a new place opened in the Northern Quarter called Hidden Warehouse which I’ll be going to in November for my birthday.
We come round to your gaff and are looking through your tunes. Which record do you hide before we arrive?
At the moment most of my vinyl and CD’s are in the never ending mess of a garage so you won’t find much in there! But I suppose if you were to look at our Spotify playlist on our home laptop I’d have to hide Rod Stewart and various 00’s pop music from our daughter!
What are your 5 big tunes of the moment?
Malachi – Dream Of The Life
Session Victim – Never Forget
Sailor & I – Leave The Light On (Joris Voorn Remix)
Lane 8 – Loving You
Mennie – H.A.P.P.Y
Who is rocking it right now?
I think the guys at Exploited Records are putting out some really good consistent music at the moment. I still think Claptone is one of the most exciting artists of recent times, his remix of ‘Gregory Porter – Liquid Spirit” is just dope!
Not many people know this but Malachi is really good at…
I wouldn’t say I’m really good at it but I’m really into my cooking. I enjoy good food and we’re quite into our healthy foods so cooking is my 2nd passion to music.
If you didn’t have a career in music, what would you be doing instead?
Probably still working for Apple!
ADE is just around the corner, what does the conference mean to you and where can we catch you spinning this year?
ADE is my yearly pilgrimage! I’ve been going since about 2003. I had a break going around 2007 but recently I’ve made the journey every year. Amsterdam is quite possibly my favourite city in the world. That combined with the on-slaught of the entire electronic music industry being there it makes for an interesting conference! This year you can catch me playing at the “Concrete Digital Party” on the 15th October with Michael Gray, David Penn + more, then at “Taste The Music” @ Cafe De Paris on 16th October with Yass + more. Also on the 16th I’m playing at ‘DJ Central’ with Tom Gianelli, As I Am, AM2PM + more.
And finally, what is coming out next from you studio wise?
Lots of exciting music coming from Malachi. Nothing that I can announce at the moment but there’s a new single with Stee Downes on vocals in the pipeline.
*****
‘Dream Of The Life’ is out now on Armada Deep
PREVIEW:
{http://soundcloud.com/armada-deep/malachi-dream-of-the-life-out-now}
