My name is Gabzy, I am a singer and songwriter from South East London – welcome to the Malone EP. This project was birthed from the heartbreak experienced in my previous tape Summers, so this was my chance to answer the well anticipated question, ‘Who is Malone?’.
‘Malone’ is an alter ego of mine, so this body of work allowed me to really get into the person behind this. Following a trip to the US, I met the producer melvitto and the rest is history. Working with melvitto on this tape came naturally – it was such an easy process us working together again.
I’ve been working with him for a very long time now so we both know each other musically, to the point where melvitto knows exactly what will work whenever I send him over some new vocals.
For example, with “As Friends”, the production that you hear on that wasn’t actually the original beat. I sent the first version of the track over to melvitto and I felt like the initial beat wasn’t giving me the vibe that I wanted it to give.
I feel like the track is a playful sort of song and needed more of that to come out, so I sent my vocals over to melvitto and he played around with it. He put the guitars on it and it just clicked – it worked perfectly.
The project is a short but sweet story; “As Friends” is about how the truth will set me free and not making the same mistake twice after a break up. I feel like there are a lot of ‘As friends’ situations in the generation that we live in today, so it’s definitely a very relatable song for the listeners.
We go into “Must Be Sprung”, which is a crossover between both versions of myself, I’m Malone here, but I’m still Gabzy. “Brazil”, which features South London rapper Blanco, is more of a playful and fun track – the production on this one gives listeners a mixture of both our worlds.
I felt like this was the perfect track for us because it’s all about having fun, a bit like “come to where I’m at and let’s turn up” sort of thing and it was the same experience putting this song together.
Blanco and I have known each other for just under a year now – we have a couple of songs together as we’ve been in a few studio sessions now. This wasn’t actually the first one we recorded – we have one for his upcoming project that he’s releasing soon!
I told melvitto that I’m going into a session with him, so he made us a beat that could fit both worlds together – the beat was perfect and that’s pretty much how that collaboration came about.
Malone starts to creep in again with the interlude and at this point, the ladies know there’s a couple more things about me that meet the eye, the ‘toxic’ side.. So they’re now asking ‘Who is Malone?’.
In this song I open up about this – almost as if I’m looking at a mirror and I’m a little in denial of what I see. By the time I end the EP, I’m starting to see the long term effects of the heartbreak I went through in my previous tape, Summers.
I love this project, but I can’t pinpoint a favourite track off of the tape… it actually changes day by day – right now it’s “Brazil”. Most days it’s “Toxic”… and then it might be “Must Be Sprung”. “As Friends” was my favourite song, but I think that because I’ve played it so much, I’m tired of it now but it’s definitely up there!
With the Malone EP, I’m just going to let it be it’s own thing. After this, it’s just on to the next project. This body of work is simply the answer to everyone’s question, ‘Who is Malone?.
Listen to the project below!
