For more than 15 years, Jimmy Mallia’s dream has been to release his music to the public and sing on stage.
The Texas native, who was born and raised on Galveston Island, has spent the last three-plus decades as a successful businessman – one who used to play guitar and sing his three daughters to sleep every night.
“I thought that was the most I would ever do,” Mallia says. “I’ve been in the business field for so many years so it wasn’t like I think I’m going to be a songwriter. I just sat down and wrote a song.”
He’s since written more than 20 songs, and last month released his first single to the public: “Hey Hey.” And now he hopes there’s enough demand for Mallia to release even more from the vault.
“I hope people like it, I hope it resonates with them,” he says. “Every song I want somebody to get something out of it. Hopefully there’s a message and hopefully they like the sound of it.”
Mallia originally intended to find another artist to record his song, “but somebody’s gotta sing the first one to get it out there.”
Things snowballed, and Mallia decided to go all in on his passion project. The debut single is a deeply personal project for Mallia, who’s gone through recovery in the last three years after more than 40 years of drinking.
“Well you know I had it my way and now, I’m on my way to Hey Hey,” he sings on the first verse. “And Hey Hey, I’m on the right path now.”
He wrote the song last year and recorded it over the summer, but didn’t plan on releasing it for his debut single.
“It wasn’t even in the top three songs I had written and recorded,” he says. “But as things evolved and we mixed it, it came out so much better than I thought it would and the story behind it is so much deeper than some of the other songs I considered. It’s almost like a God thing.”
Mallia uses the song to deliver a message he’s learned from experience: there is joy in recovery, and recovery has made his life so much better.
“It really is a personal experience of mine, having drank over 40 years and my road to getting into a program and recovery,” he says. “When it came time to decide what the sound would be, almost immediately I said I don’t want this to be a heavy, sad sound, though it is a heavy topic. I wanted it to be joyful, like a ballroom song because there is so much happiness and joy in recovery. I wanted to convey that you can have a great, wonderful life.”
It’s a classic singer/songwriter track, somewhere between folk and country, with Mallia providing vocals and guitar and a standup piano providing some barroom vibes and an air of imperfection.
“You don’t want a grand piano, something too smooth, I wanted the flaws in all of it because that’s part of the song,” he says. “We’re all flawed people in some way, shape or form. I didn’t want the song to be this really great perfect-sounding song. I’m certainly not the greatest singer in the world, but it goes with this song. It’s that imperfection that I think makes the song.”
After growing up in Galveston, Mallia attended the University of Texas in Austin and has lived in Lafayette, Louisiana the past 30 years, exposing him to a heavy dose of both country and Cajun music.
“It’s an interesting blend that has come together, and folk songs have been a huge influence in my life,” he says. “I was growing up during that period. All of these styles have been major influences in the sound of my music.”
Mallia has recorded eight songs so far and hopes to release a full album if enough people take a liking to his music.
“That would be my dream,” he says. “And if that never happens I’d still be happy. I did what I set out to do. I’d probably release one more song anyway, just because of the experience and the expression of it, but my ultimate goal would be to have somebody pick it up and want to do a full album with it.”
Make sure to stay connected to Mallia on all platforms for new music, videos and social posts.
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