KATIE MALCO
Debut album Failures announced, via 6131 Records
Emotionally candid first single ‘Animal’ shared
Singer-songwriter Katie Malco announces her debut album Failures, set for release via 6131 Records on June 5th; a coming of age record that, through soul-baring songwriting and gut-punch guitars, documents Malco’s life growing up and facing adulthood. Alongside the announcement of Failures she shares a brand new single ‘Animal’, which tackles the frustration of growing up in a small industrial town in the Midlands and subsequent escapism through intoxication. Pre-order Failures here: https://smarturl.it/katiemalco
Throughout the ten songs on Failures, Malco touches on the crutch of drink and drugs, family death, struggling with first relationships and understanding yourself, friendships, anxieties around body image, and figuring out who you really are.
Album opener ‘Animal’ was borne from a time in Malco’s teenage life where she was sofa-surfing at friends’ houses due to her mum’s abusive partner – a situation that led her to find escapism in drinking and drugs.
Malco explains: “I couldn’t go home, but being out every night meant drinking or doing drugs every night. Sometimes it was genuinely fun and sometimes I became acutely aware that I was desperately grabbing at something I couldn’t find in my sober life – happiness, stability and a feeling of general ease. There was one night that always sticks out to me in my mind as a real low point because I was being a really bad drunk – embarrassing myself and feeling really unwell – and that’s what Animal is about.”
Malco’s voice is understated yet defiant, with a lull in the layers of powerful guitars allowing her to stand her ground, singing; “I’m not an animal, I won’t die here for you”. “That line was a message to myself” she says. It sets the tone for Failures, an emotional exorcism that examines how we work though the problems we encounter when we’re young and not fully equipped to do so.
Katie Malco writes music that sits quietly somewhere between an aching, serene sadness
and a hopeful determination. She mourns her past and lays it out on the table for all to see, exposed with twitching nerves. Armed with only an old telecaster that’s seen better days and her voice, Malco has toured the UK and mainland Europe with the likes of Julien Baker, Jenny Lewis, Bob Mould, Dawes, Kevin Devine, This is the Kit, BC Camplight, The Joy Formidable and We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Malco’s most recent EP is a bold collection of piano based compositions recorded live in an old studio hall. The EP, ‘Tearing Ventricles’, was released on Alcopop! Records.
Malco is set to release her debut album, ‘Failures’, due for release in 2020 on 6131 Records (Julien Baker, Touché Amoré, Self Defense Family, Culture Abuse). She released a first single from the record, ‘Creatures’ in late 2019 to praise from Paste Mag, Brooklyn Vegan, CLASH, BBC6 Music, BBC R1, Radio X and Fresh Finds playlist on Spotify.
Pre-order Failures here: https://smarturl.it/katiemalco
Tracklist
Animal
Brooklyn
Fractures
September
TW
Night Avenger
Creatures
Let’s Go To War
Peckham
The First Snow
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