MALICK KOLY

The overlapping Venn diagram of Malick Koly reads as Abidjan born with Guinean and Malian heritage, an inspiring Franco-Guinean impresario and playwright father and eventual relocation to America as a teenager. Now emerging as a solo artist in his own right, the NYC drummer and singer-songwriter delivers his eclectic EP Feel Bad Fest

Hi Malick, thanks for taking the time to speak with us at Musicology. Firstly, congratulations on the new videoclip for Dolòr. It is a beautifully shot clip and very emotive in its simplicity and delivery. Can you elaborate on the concept for the clip, storyboard process and where it was shot?

Thanks a ton! Dolòr was shot btw the 125th A train and the 59th street & Columbus circle station. There’s something poetic about the “New York underground” I’ve spent a lot of time on and off subways, it’s one of the places where I listen to music and let it blend with the background noise, a piece of my world mixed in with the world we all share. So conceptually Dolòr revolves around trying to “ride out” of the pains I speak of in the songs. So, it’s a dream state embedded in self-search, reflection, and an intimate conversation with myself all the while being part of a public environment kind of a version of how it feels to be vulnerable.

Of the track itself, it is one of lament and apology, what events surrounded its creation, and was the musical composition one that came to mind immediately, or did the choice of instruments, tempo etc all develop slowly into what we hear on Dolòr?

Dolòr is in fact a sad song, but a lot of the Feel Bad Fest project is actually closure on past events. Dolòr is the closure of some growing pains, moving around a lot, traveling a lot having to culturally and socially adapt abruptly into new spaces, so Dolòr is an ode of sorts to my coping mechanisms and what helped me through. So, the tempo is very much tied to how that story made me feel, I saw myself on the train when writing it, hence how it informed the music video also, I’m very drawn into acoustic sounds but me and my band in the studio gave it an electric static whiff with the lead electric line halfway through the song.

As a singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer, how much of those different aspects of the musical spectrum guided you into the production of your new EP Feel Bad Fest considering that some artists approach a release in a linear direction as a single musician with a single input from a single instrument or point of view?

I think the multi-hyphenate thing gives an oddly shaped result most of the time, which I’m very okay with, one that feels unexpected even to me at times, I don’t write lyrics that typically flow on certain forms or structures, and some of the guitar lead lines are placed on different sides of beat, I think each facet of my artistry inform one another, and obviously to be accompanied by a stellar cast of musicians helps, “Feel Bad Fest” which also happens to be the name of the band that accompanies me consists of Quintin Zoto my guitarist who’s co-written some of this work with me, Oli Bomann my bassist & Theo Rogers my guitarist, they can shape sounds in any way shape or of form the way I hear it or see it and it’s something they’ve been able to accomplish by experiencing and developing an understanding of my drumming from our live shows in the past. But to me drums are melodic, they tell a story and that translates in my writing and production and vocal delivery.

Your previous single Heaven For Now feels like a vulnerable and exposed track. Elemental in its construction but poses some profound questions. Can you elaborate on the subject matter and influence of Ron Carter and Vernon Reid who feature on the track?

I think that’s the pattern with “Feel Bad Fest” as an EP it’s a vulnerable moment in time, and the closure of it all, and incidentally Heaven For Now is a question mark even in its closure. Because the lyrical scheme is just questions that are left unanswered. Sir Ron Carter is a hero to me, and in this journey a wonderful collaborator, same for Vernon, I think with that one it sonically made sense for the grunge folk direction I was taking, but also showcasing the power and possibility in music. The genre-bending components of it.

Broadly speaking on the topic of the EP itself, is there an overarching message across the five tracks on Feel Bad Fest or are they very much standalone songs, each with their own tale to tell?

Oh, it’s definitely a story, and it’s a very visual one, and that’s the big surprise when it’ll all come out. As important as the sonic component maybe I’d say watch out for the visual storyline, it helps tell the tale.

An EP can be a lifetime’s worth of experiences concentrated and refined into a body of work encompassing many years and phases. Other times it is a snapshot, a brief period crystallized into a record covering a specific epoch. Was it a case of either/or for Feel Bad Fest?

Feel Bad Fest is several years translated into themes and mini-stories and again stories can be told in recaps as long as the feeling of each story addresses a multitude of facets within it, and I think that’s my attempt with each piece of the puzzle whether sonic or visual. So, it’s covering my late teens and my young adult life altogether.

Based in NYC, how much of the city and its specificity is imbued in this EP, and how much of Feel Bad Fest’s content is widely universal?

Well I’m NYC based, but the last decade I’ve travelled a ton all around the world through my sideman works, but I would Feel Bad Fest addresses the three continents that have informed my musical DNA and my life story, Africa, Europe & North America, so as this story is consumed there will be discoveries, if you notice in Dolòr the music video, Im using foreign bills, that’s foreshadowing, Eaux Rouges, means red waters in French. Dolòr is pain in Spanish with a stylistic accent I’ve added to it, my touch, but the word has a Latin root to it. So, I’m intentionally & implicitly placing elements that beg the question, and the closure will be found at the end of that story.

As a musician who has been on the scene for a number of years and operating in different spaces, during those times, were there any words of wisdom spoken to you that really resonated with you and in turn altered the way you approach your craft?

Most definitely, I’m a student of music! And coming from a pair of artistic parents, a playwright, impresario, actor/dancer father & a singer-songwriter actor dancer mother, there was a lot in my upbringing that guided who I am today artistically, and surely along the way away from my family I was very lucky to be taken in by heroes and mentors of mine who not only believed in me but gave me a wide range of motion even as a young kid to develop my craft. The biggest advice that overarches those folks is to remain creative with whichever tools are in my reach, whether it’s writing even if it isn’t music-related, listening, observing, or mundane life tasks, creativity informs my navigation skills.

Performing with so many artists, can you share with us a standout show you have played and what made it so remarkable and memorable?

In all honesty, the performances that changed my life are the ones I wasn’t a part of so far, and they then inform what I believe music should feel like live! But I got to experience Matthew Garisson after a set of music I had played some years ago, and hearing him is just unmatched, and then I invited him to play with me and my band. And it was like levitating Ah!

Lastly, on a bit more of a philosophical note, what does music give you that nothing else does?

Inexplicable hope.