MALA of DIGITAL MYSTIKZ
The mind behind DMZ, DEEP MEDi and the famous Anti War Dub, Mala – one half of Digital Mystikz – is responsible for the most influential night, label, and sound in the music, now called dubstep. Spreading his vibes worldwide and expanding thousands of minds through mastering low frequencies, Mala allows his audience to “meditate on bass weight“. A true visionary of the dark and heavy sublow sound, Mala speaks softly, but cuts straight to the spiritual core of the bass music.
interview by Katya Guseva
What is the main message of your music, if you have to put it in words?
There’s no separation between what I’m trying to say and what it says. It is so abstract that I can’t put it into words. What I’m trying to communicate goes beyond words. Because understanding words depends on our conditioning, upbringing, education, and our personal interpretation of a certain word. Sound bypasses all those barriers and limitations. There’s no room for the sound to be misunderstood. So whatever the sound says to you, that’s what it says.
One of my favorite albums is 1996 by Ryuichi Sakamoto. I have no clue what he was thinking when he was writing these pieces of music. But what it does to me is different every time I listen to it. Even if it’s the same track. I may have some memories attached to a certain track, so when I hear that track it brings me back to that point…
The closest I can get to translating what I’m trying to say is think for yourself and don’t follow anything literally. I think it’s too easy to pick up a newspaper or watch TV and believe every word. We are lazy and cannot be bothered to look into these things ourselves to form our own understanding. We take so many things on hearsay, on propaganda and what someone else wants us to believe. Be your own authority, but don’t think of yourself as an individual separate from the universe. Understand that we are all interdependent.
I don’t like things to be forced or controlled, I like things to just take place. That’s why I’m not trying to describe what I do, because I don’t want to put anything in someone’s mind who might be from a totally different way of living than I am. The reason why I didn’t listen to rock music when I was eight years old was because I saw these guys with long hair and guitars and I didn’t understand it. I didn’t like it just by looking at it. I wasn’t actually listening to it, but I had all these preconceptions in my mind about why I didn’t like it. That’s why I’ve always tried to be as minimal as possible in artwork, flyer designs, describing the releases. I don’t do any promo press sheets or ask for feedback. None of that matters. I just want the track to go out and that’s it…
