Michael Malarkey has been writing and performing music since as early as 2001. From cutting his teeth in local punk and hardcore influenced groups in Ohio to carving his own path as a multi-disciplinary solo musician in London with a steady flow of independent releases and countless tours under his belt to more recent projects like fronting the doom/grunge band Burial Clouds and reuniting his former screamo band Shadyside, Michael is an artist who continues to express himself with complete disregard to staying in any particular lane.
In the initial writing stages of Michael’s new record “Future Tense,” he wanted to give himself a challenge: to not play his guitar, his main instrument. Interested in the idea of enforcing a handicap in order to alter his writing process, he ended up scoring the album on keyboards, bass and drums and writing and recording nearly all of the instrumentation on the record himself. After some preliminary sessions at Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch, he ended up finishing the record at Tesla Studios in Sheffield with David Glover, who also produced Michael’s debut EP “Feed The Flames” as well as engineered his 2020 LP “Graveracer.”
Future Tense maintains Michael’s Americana-noir spirit, yet this time under the soft purple glow of dark 80’s pop. Each track is a delicate coming together of twinkling synth, driving bass, multi-layered percussion and dark imagery all tied together with Michael’s rich and nuanced Bowie-esque baritone.
