MALICE K — KEEP THE CHANGE
Photography MICHAEL AVEDON | Styling TAYLOR KIM | Hair & Makeup MORGAN GETTY
Interview SKYLER KNAPP and SAM SLOCUM
Hailing from Olympia, Washington, artist Alex Konschuh is making waves in New York with his musical project, Malice K. Ahead of their East Coast tour, Alex sits down with Sam Slocum and Skylar Knapp of Been Stellar to discuss his new album, the novel Crime and Punishment, and hitchhiking the West Coast.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity:
SAM SLOCUM: We put out albums at a similar time. Is this your first proper record?
ALEX KONSCHUH: According to the label, sure. I see anything past six songs as an album, but my past two projects had nine songs, so I don’t give a fuck what they say, in my mind, I have three albums.
SS: Did this one feel different? The production sounds like a shift…
AK: I was just more comfortable as a recording artist. Before, if something was on tempo and in tune, it was good enough. I’d do one take because I couldn’t stand listening to myself for too long haha… But this time, I did more takes and didn’t beat myself up over imperfections.
SKYLAR KNAPP: I feel you. How’s the reception been?
AK: I think it's been really good, the right people like it.
Jacket and previous coat BLKDNM
SS: You opened with ‘Halloween’. I love that song, but to be honest, it’s one of the most abrasive songs on the album. Why?
AK: I don't know, really. I think I just wanted the record to fluctuate between heavy and soft moments. It felt like the right way to start the journey of this album.
SS: Was the screaming chorus always there?
AK: It just happened. We basically wrote the song whilst recording it. I had the riff, Issac came up with the chorus and we tracked it that day. The vocals were just me doing nonsense takes and screaming. No real lyrics.
SS: There’s a recurring theme of killing someone in your lyrics… Was that intentional?
AK: [Holds up Eminem t-shirt]
SK: Yo!
SS: Right on. I don’t want to project too much, but it does feel like there are multiple voices on the album. It reminded me of Relapse, where Eminem leans into the serial killer character.
AK: I wasn’t really thinking about murder. It’s more like when you say, “I died laughing”. Just an extreme way to express emotion. My mom really didn’t like that lyric at all haha… I played her the song, and when that line hit, she slowly turned her head and just stared at me. She got in my head about changing it, but I kept it.
SK: I’m glad you did. Some of the best lyrics are illogical but emotionally raw. There’s a line in a new song we’re writing, “I need you and I want you because you’re always on my mind”. It’s dumb and circular, but that’s how infatuation feels.
SS: Another great line from your new album: “I got so high, I thought my hand touching my hand was your hand.”
AK: That came from Crime and Punishment. Before Raskolnikov kills the old woman, he wakes up holding his own hand in a fever dream. I had a moment like that, so high I thought my girlfriend was caressing my hand but it was actually me being a freak, rubbing my own two hands together. And I love that line in the book, it was a fusion.
SS: Yeah, it was killer, man. Great song.
SK: Love that book and that line. It’s comforting, in a way, that you’re able to reassure yourself that you’re not alone, like “I could always hold my own hand”... So, are you from Olympia or Spokane?
AK: Olympia. I was lucky to grow up in an artsy town, because of Evergreen State College and a big house show scene with tons of artists and hitchhikers. I think Washington inspires me a ton.
SK: You hitchhiked too, right?
AK: Yeah, when I was a teenager. My friend and I planned to live on this off-grid commune in California, but my friend ended up having some beef with our ex-roommate, who then told them not to let us in. So we just kept going south haha…
SK: What's the farthest you've hitchhiked?
AK: Olympia to San Francisco. Took months. You don’t find one ride all the way, you get picked up for a mile, maybe ten. For somebody to even stop it takes a while and sometimes you have to sleep outside… It takes a long time.
SK: That's crazy. I was always under the assumption that it’s a universal rule not to pick up hitchhikers. Was it ever dangerous?
AK: Yeah, but we trusted our gut. We had no money, no phone, just EBT and a garbage bag of trail mix. We slept outside every night, avoided big groups and never took unsolicited rides. One person sitting up front, one in the back. Maybe we were lucky.
SS: How old were you?
AK: 18.
Coat, shirt, and tie GABRIELA HEARST
SS: I’ve been loving the visual art you’ve been posting. I think one of them was this character that was smearing shit on his face… I got a kick out of that one. Does your music and art exist in the same world?
AK: They’re a separate but equal representation of me. They do exist together, I don’t know… Music is what I have to say, art is what’s too complicated to say. I go between them. When I don’t know what I’m feeling, I draw. When I do, I write a song.
SS: What’s the story behind your track ‘Radio’?
AK: I was just in a dark place, wishing I wasn’t so intense. But I’d literally have to break my fucking head, because I’ve always been like this. I was just like, fuck my life and fuck everything else. I wish I could be this type of guy or feel good about what’s happening around me. I was fed up.
SS: When did the strings become part of the song? I had someone say that strings need to be “well deserved” if they’re going to be in an album. They can easily be cringe, but here, they land.
SK: Yeah. You earned the strings.
Jacket BLKDNM