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The Band: In the year 2001 a punksinger and a reggae-guitarplayer decided to take a new direction. Inspired by jamaican ska from the '50's, Mediterranean folkmusic and patchankabands they started a band that doesn't know any bounderies. Ska, punk, dub, rumba and reggae melt together in the songs of Mala Vita.
It wasn't hard to make other musicians enthusiastic for this kind of music, so in a short while Mala Vita grew in to a complete group with two guitars, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, accordion and trumpet. The members come from allover the 'Randstad', wich is the dense ...read more
The Band: In the year 2001 a punksinger and a reggae-guitarplayer decided to take a new direction. Inspired by jamaican ska from the '50's, Mediterranean folkmusic and patchankabands they started a band that doesn't know any bounderies. Ska, punk, dub, rumba and reggae melt together in the songs of Mala Vita.
It wasn't hard to make other musicians enthusiastic for this kind of music, so in a short while Mala Vita grew in to a complete group with two guitars, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, accordion and trumpet. The members come from allover the 'Randstad', wich is the densely populated western region of Holland with the largest cities in it: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Delft.
Since then the band fell in a quickstream. In a short time they recorded their first demo cd 'Como un arco tenso' (like a tense bow) and there first gig was inmediately a great succes. On a boat in the canals of the antique city of Delft they surprised their audience and the entire neighbourhood with a big musical party. After that the band could count on various new offers for gigs.
The Name: Mala Vita is Italian and literally means 'bad life'. In the Italian press the term stands for 'crime' and on the island of Siciliy malavita is another word for 'maffia'. The members of the band obviousely have nothing to do with crime and maffia, so they have chosen another way of writing. The 'bad life' must be a term in wich everybody can find a piece of themselves. Just a glance in a newspaper can be enough. With all this misery in the world you can do two things: dwell in bitterness or grab your guitar and skank.
The Music: Reggae, ska and punk are the roots of Mala Vita. From that point of view the band is inspired by genres from allover the world: from Cuban son to the French chanson and from the Columbian cumbia to the Balkan punk. Musica Mestiza or Patchanka it's often called. The style wich bands like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Mano Negra, Dusminguet and Amparanoia made famous in the world.
Barcelona is called the 'Mekka' of the Patchanka. The cultural melting pot for wich the city is known, echoes through in the music. In many aspects Amsterdam can be seen as the northerly brother of Barcelona: with its famous mixture of people, freedom and ambient. That's why Patchankabands visit the city frequently to play in the clubs. The ¿Que Pasa? dancenights, parties of Musica Mestiza organized by the Melkweg, are already legendary. We only had to wait for a Dutch band that had the courage to step off the beaten path and would take a new road in music. That band now exists.
The Lyrics:The lyrics of Mala Vita have the same global characteristics like it's music: everything is possible. A language is like a musical instrument with a certain sound. Because of the Italian background of singer Mickael, the first songs were mostly in Italian. After having traveled through Spain and Latin America, the spanish language took a more important place in the lyrics. But also French and even a little bit of Russian can be heard in the songs. Lyrics are important for Mala Vita. It's a way to share experiences: with inequality, injustice and other daily situations. « hide |
Contributors: badtaste, kilian,
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