MALECO COLLECTIVE: BREAKING NEW GROUND IN LATIN ALTERNATIVE MUSIC WITH NEW HYBRID STYLE
Maleco Collective is a new artistic and musical movement that is creating a major buzz in the underground music scene in Los Angeles. Fresh off their selection as the Hennessey Artistry band, a distinction previously given to groups such as Kinky and Ozomatli, anticipation for their first offering is hitting a fever pitch. The band has begun to unveil their stage show at the top tastemaker events nationally, including Hennessey Artistry on the West Coast & Chaca Chaca in Miami, New York and L.A. Expectations are high as Maleco prepares for a full assault of the current mundane music scene with the release of their debut project, the 7 song "Al Horizonte EP" this Fall 09 and their full length album in the Spring 10.
ORIGIN OF NAME: The group was founded by two of the leading music makers in modern Latin music. The “Mal” is taken from the name of critically acclaimed rap artist, Malverde, who is one of the few Latino artists recognized by important urban magazines such as The Source, XXL and Complex for his rap styling. Before forming Maleco, Malverde had already released two successful albums as a soloist, but the collaboration with breakout artist, Chana, with the production of Chan made him realize the possibilities of playing with a real band. “What I was doing until that moment was completely programmed, with samples; this was something more organic, that still used programming, but included live instruments”, he recalls.
The “eco” is fused to signify both the band’s city of origin, Echo Park, CA and most importantly to illustrate their organic approach to music-making anchored by a consciousness about our world’s climate and politics. The use of the word “Collective” is used to illustrate the blending of different styles, talents and backgrounds from all the members, who hail from various parts of the world and bring their own individual flavor to the group.
Marthin Chan completes the ying to Malverde’s yang. Chan, who is a Latin Grammy nominated producer/songwriter and guitarist, is best known for being one of the main composers of the celebrated rock group Volumen Cero. Most recently, Chan has worked as a producer/songwriter for many local and international artists, including Luis Fonsi and Beto Cuevas. Marthin's accomplishments include four albums with Volumen Cero and Chana’s highly lauded EP, Manos Arriba, which will be followed by a full album with legendary producer Thom Russo (who has worked with artists like Michael Jackson, System of a Down, Jay-Z and Audioslave). In 2005, Chan was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the category of Best Rock Song after writing the song “Lágrimas” for the young singer JD Natasha.
“We say that this is a collective because we have put together Latin and American producers who want to launch a Latin musical style that is different than the one you usually listen to on the radio”, says Marthin, who has joined Malverde as a member of Voto Latino, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting political involvement of Latino people living in the United States. “When I started working with Malverde, I thought that I was going to create hip-hop beats for him; but he immediately made it very clear that he wanted to do something completely different than the things he had done in the past”, he adds.
A WHO’S WHO IN LATIN MUSIC FEATURED: In addition to Malverde and Chan, Maleco is a virtual who’s who of the new front of today’s cutting edge Latin music scene with the participation of Ibo Rodríguez on bass and Cuevo Pérez on guitar. Ibo is a respected sound and recording Engineer who worked in the most recent albums of Juanes and Huecco. He also received a Grammy nod for recording sessions for Ike Turner that were included in his last Grammy winning record, shortly before his death. Cuevo is a talented singer/songwriter that was asked to come on board to co-produce some of the project. They hit it off and the band was formed His most recent work has been producing the first EP of upcoming and buzz worthy band, Los Hollywood. Further, Cuevo is currently gearing up for his first album as a solo artist.
One of the most interesting aspects of Maleco is that it is really a band where you can find Latin musicians from very different origins: Malverde is of Mexican descent, but he was born in Coachella, California; Marthin is Peruvian; Ibo is Puerto Rican and Cuevo was born on Mexican soil, Acapulco. According to Ibo, each member of Maleco has origins in different places of Latin America with different musical angles, but all of them unite at the same point. In the moment they met, they had the same idea in mind: To make a savory and soulful mix.
The mix that Ibo is talking about is the musical diversity in Al Horizonte, which has many tracks with a genuine reggae music and funk flavor as in tracks, “Yo soy la voz” and the haunting Spanish version of “Redemption Song”, the classic Bob Marley tune. Al Horizonte may have much depth, but it also includes openly festive and ‘pachanguero’ songs such as “Pa’ arriba” y “Dámelo”. Maleco keeps the interest in topics related to the community that Malverde has shown in the past (as it happens in the song “Yo soy la voz”, which is about immigration issues and current wars), but adds a strong dose of romanticism. “Everyone has different types of love in their existence, and we wanted to make something realistic”, specifies the singer, who worked on many of the lyrics with Cuevo. “We tried to present different emotions and different life circumstances, without leaving out the social aspect that I have always shown [in my songs], but also celebrating family, fiesta and women”.
Other luminaries on the album include César Pliego, bassist from Kinky; Argel ‘Arkhota’, drummer of Niño Astronauta; the horn section of LA’s own Upground; María Fernanda, vocalist of Helios Jive, and Heidy, singer of Los Hollywood. The overall meshing of styles comes with the invaluable contributions of Eugene Toale –who worked with Kanye West in the album The College Drop Out for sound engineering and Gavin Lurssen –who won his fourth Grammy in Mastering during the most recent ceremony of these awards for his labor in Raising Sand, the acclaimed album of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
DEVELOPMENT OF SOMETHING TRULY ORIGINAL: “Since this project wasn’t handled by a record company, we had complete freedom to do what we really wanted, which led me to experiment with melodies”, says Malverde. “I wanted to make something really different, that wouldn’t be confused with the stuff I had made in hip-hop,” he adds.
It was only a matter of time for Malverde and Chan to collaborate on a special project like Maleco. Both had already worked together in the recording of “The Whistler”, a song from the debut EP of Dominican breakout songstress, Chana. “We performed it in many showcases, and it occurred to me that we should be doing more things like this, out of our element”, comments Malverde, who was declared Latin Urban Artist of the Year 2008 during the Latin Rap Conference of that year. “We met again last September and we started to try what came to us, with the idea of making an EP. But the results were so good that we decided to make a whole album, with the help of Ibo and Cuevo in the composition and the recording.”
Malverde affirms that many of the vocal sections in the record that are now sung were originally rapped. But the good spirit of the rehearsals and the unconditional support of his companions motivated him to perform in a much more melodic way, to a point where some songs in the album –such as “Serenata para ti”– don’t have any rapping, something that is a complete novelty in his career.
“I noticed that we could experiment a lot with the music, like the style of Gnarls Barkley, that has an MC and a singer, or like the way it’s done by Gorillaz,” continues Malverde. According to Marthin, the idea was to keep the Latino roots, but giving them a modern twist. He viewed the collaboration as a way to accomplish something that did not depend too much on the influences that you can usually find in the Latin music that is made in the United States. The key was to reproduce the sounds of the street. “I really like the fact that it has a fresh taste of music from the people, because it is a characteristic that I haven’t really explored with Volumen Cero, where I let myself get carried away by the influence of [Argentinian songwriter] Cerati, New Order or The Smiths”, says Marthin. “The interesting thing here is that we brought together the influences of rock, pop, electronic music, hip-hop and tropical rhythms that every one of us had experienced to some degree”.
“Before forming Maleco, each of us has had between 10 and 15 years of artistic experience, and that allowed us to establish an immediate musical connection when we decided to work in this project”, concludes Malverde. “The premise of this record was to take the music to a new place, not only for us, but also for the listeners.”
