LOMM: Can you give a little biographical and historical info; who is involved in the band,
and how did you guys meet up?
Malacoda : Malacoda was a recording project that was formed in 2014 by Lucas Di Mascio and
was intended to be a recording project, however this obviously changed. The current members
are; vocalist Lucas Di Mascio, guitarist Wes Macdonald, myself (Zak Stulla) on bass and Victor
Boechat on drums. When the former lineup disbanded I was already being mentored by Lucas
so to make things easy I taught myself bass in order to join as a band member. Shortly after I
joined Wes joined as we already knew him. Victor joined in early 2020 as we were looking for a
full time drummer and he reached out to us through an ad.
LOMM: Pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everyone yet the arts have been hit
especially hard. The musicians are vulnerable to financial upheaval. How have you guys
been holding up?
Malacoda : The local music industry world wide has definitely taken a huge hit. In Canada
specifically and our scene in Toronto we have noticed a lot of the clubs and venues that we’ve
become familiar with have closed down. On Malacoda’s front, we are all lucky enough to have
steady employment and education streams that have allowed for our finances to fluctuate in a
way that doesn’t affect the capacity at which we invest into the band.
LOMM: On the other hand you seem to have had a productive time. Is that right?
Malacoda : You are definitely correct! When the Pandemic began we primarily focused on
finishing the recordings for the current release and the two future releases we have planned.
Once those were mixed and mastered, we then focused on the content creation for the releases
and the avenues we need to pursue to grow our social media platforms as the pandemic has
really demonstrated the importance of social media in the music industry.
LOMM: Modern sounds are my thing ☺ How about you? What does your genre mean to
you, why did you choose this genre?
Malacoda : Personally, I love hearing new modern symphonic elements within music as it is part
of our genre that really defines ourselves as a band. The reason for why we chose this genre is
that we all are fans of power metal and that our discography has been leading us into this
direction.
LOMM: How did the initial musical and thematic elements evolve?
Malacoda : Following from the previous question the original sound for Malacoda was a dark modern melodic metal take on popular music trends. I feel the first album helped develop the catchy elements to our music. The second release Ritualis Aeterna brought in the more symphonic take and added to
our dark melodic sound. Restless Dreams the third release introduced Gothic, Progressive, and
Contemporary Rock elements into our sound which helped build our gothic presence within the genre. With all of these elements collaborating together the elements have really allowed us to
develop a very creative sound within our genre.
LOMM: Are you happy with your product? I mean, what aspects of it do you think you
guys nailed, and what parts do you think you could improve upon?
Malacoda : I feel that the current music we have created presents the direction the band is going
to be consistently taking. It’s nice to see our upcoming release Crawling Chaos act as the
starting point for what we have to showcase with our defining sound. In regards to improvement
we are always continuing to improve our social media as trends and social media marketing are
forever changing. The second you feel you don’t need to improve this aspect you are now
beginning to limit your growth.
LOMM: How has the overall reception been?
Malacoda : The reception of the upcoming EP
Crawling Chaos has been well received by those that have reviewed it, heard the recently
released single and video, and by the select few that have heard it in its entirety. With the
Pandemic it has been hard to really get a large sample size of feedback as we haven’t had a
chance to play live to see the responses we get with the new content but what we have been
given so far is a big confidence boost.
LOMM: Have you ever been on a tour? Given live performances? Is it tough for you not to
be able to do so now?
Malacoda : The last tour we did was right before the Pandemic hit, it was a small run of shows in
Ontario. I love performing and being active and engaging on stage as I consider myself an
extrovert. Not being able to perform and meet new people has really been tough for me. I feel
like a kid counting down the final seconds until summer starts except every time the clock gets
to 1 second it resets back to September!
LOMM: What do you see for your future? How is it looking?
Malacoda : For myself I see a
successful path as a musician as I am focusing the majority of my resources on developing and
searching for avenues in which I can further my career. I am really excited to develop to the
point where I’m able to use music as a means to explore the world and connect with different
people and cultures.
LOMM: Could you tell us about the lyrics / themes /concepts you focus on or plan to
focus on? How did the ideas come about, and how do they influence the writing
process? Who is writing the lyrics?
Malacoda : Lucas is the one who writes our lyrics, it’s very
apparent that he focuses on using mythology and interests such as Dante’s Inferno and Silent
Hill to aid in taking the listener on a journey. He also uses this writing style to help convey the
challenges that he has faced throughout his life as a person and musician.
LOMM: Which is more exciting? Being on the road or studio?
Malacoda : For myself the
road I love travelling and meeting new people and the interactions along the way. It really is an amazing experience even though I love the studio as that’s where I get to record my creativity
and experiment, the road definitely suits my extroverted self.
LOMM: Who is composing the songs?
Malacoda : Lucas Di Mascio has composed most of the
music up to this point with Wes writing the Song Deadlights on the Crawling Chaos EP.
LOMM: What bands do you draw your inspiration from?
Malacoda : Huge inspirations for us
are Kamelot, Katatonia, and Iced Earth as we are all big fans of each band!
LOMM: What’s more important to you? Catering to the audience or music for its own
sake?
Malacoda : I feel both go hand in hand as if you don’t cater to a specific audience it makes
it harder to connect your music to your target audience. You also need to cater to music for its
own sake as it will progress the genre and help develop intricacies that will define your sound.
LOMM: When you look back at your music career, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Malacoda : I’d have to say playing this legendary venue in Toronto called the Rockpile. This was
the biggest venue the band had played at and it was an experience I’ll never forget, that set flew
by so quickly and I’ve never had that much fun before in my life. I’ll always remember getting
disoriented on the venue’s large stage because the lighting guy queued the fog machine when I
was running by it which completely camouflaged me so I couldn’t see anything, then when the
lazers went off all I could do was keep my head down, play my part, and laugh.
LOMM: Anything else you think your fans should know?
Malacoda : Our Crawling Chaos EP
is set to release on April 2nd and our single off the ep crawling chaos is already out with its own
lyric video. Check us out on all platforms.
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