The Brooklyn-based artist talks about the challenges of being a DIY musician

In partnership with BandLab

mal sounds grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and still calls the neighbourhood home, but his musical identity began taking shape in Valencia. He travelled to Spain in early 2020 to spend time with his grandmother and cousins before COVID 19 left him unable to return home. “I basically always knew I wanted to be a musician,” says mal, who was born Amal Buford. “But what I found in Spain was a sense of clarity. Music had always been a social thing for me, so when that social aspect was taken away, I had to ask myself: ‘What is the deeper meaning? Why am I doing this?’”

After adopting the name mal sounds, he found an early audience when his dreamy chillwave track ‘VVS’ gained attention on Instagram in 2021. He followed it with two similarly atmospheric EPs, ‘Freak And Wild Things’ in 2021 and ‘Still In New York’ in 2024, while continuing to refine his deeply nostalgic dream pop style. “My purpose as a musician is to create [sonic] spaces that can help people to see or process things differently,” he says.

He has now earned a place in BandLab And NME’s Get Featured initiative, which introduces emerging musicians to NME’s worldwide community of listeners. The opportunity arrives at an ideal moment, with mal preparing to release his warm debut album, ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’. The collaboration also naturally supports how he discovers and creates music. “BandLab feels like a social media platform that’s full of musicians,” he says. “Often I’ll go on BandLab to listen to new songs by people I don’t know yet. It’s just a powerful tool.”

mal sounds

In the conversation below, mal reflects on the difficulties of working independently and explains how he learned to protect the peaceful musical universe at the centre of his work.

Hi, mal! Why does this feel like the perfect moment for your debut album?

“It’s really the first time I’ve written this many songs that feel like they’re in the same world and pushing a particular feeling and narrative. You know, I’ve felt a lot of frustration with the music industry and just being a musician generally, so working on this album was a very healing and grounding experience. I feel like I made a conscious decision to go back to basics.”

“It’s called ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ because I was just frustrated with the whole culture of every artist being their own mini-A&R in their head. We’re kind of encouraged to overthink everything all the time – like: ‘What should I be doing next?’ That just felt so contrived, so in the end I thought: ‘What are you waiting for? Don’t hold your breath, just do the album.’”

How would you explain the story running through the record?

“I’m really into this idea of cycles and iterations. Throughout my twenties, I found myself learning the same lesson over and over again, just in different ways. And so I think this album is a story of coming to peace with that cycle. The other side is the story of how I un-shrunk myself – and how someone [else] can un-shrink themselves. By ‘unshrink’, I mean develop a sense of self that’s bigger than all these boxes and constrictions that we might create for ourselves, just to feel safer or to appeal to other people.”

“I was also interested in the infinite space that can exist inside someone’s head. I’m a producer first and foremost, so when I was developing the sound of the album, I was trying to get to this place where the hollow feeling of the guitars almost echoes, like, the cavern of your brain. For me, that’s as much of a part of the story as the lyrical narrative.”

The record feels warm and peaceful. Was that atmosphere intentional?

“I think calming, but with a sense of focus. There was a time when I was listening to a lot of ambient music – and I’ve always really been into shoegaze too. So I was thinking about how cool it is that a song’s vocal can be a storytelling tool, but also a focus point for human connection. Like, because we naturally want to hear a human voice, that voice can really bring you on a journey.”

“I like to ride my bike, so I was thinking about how people could listen to this album as they ride a bike or just go for a walk. I was thinking of ways I could use the music to help people get into that calmer state of mind and be more observant of what’s going on around them.”

Six years after that experience in Valencia, what remains most difficult about being a musician?

“I feel like it’s very challenging to keep your world small enough to be… like, I want to say, an effective artist. What I mean is keeping your world small enough to stay focused on what it is that you’re actually trying to do. That’s something I struggle with every day, because it’s so easy to find new stimuli and new ideas. And if you find those ideas on your phone, it’s basically just all marketing – and it’s probably going to be very convincing because it’s designed to appeal to you!”

mal sounds

As a DIY musician, do you feel responsible for both creating the music and promoting it online?

“Basically, yeah. But I try to cope with that by imagining that, at the end of the day, you have to choose one hill to die on. Like, you can do both, but at some point you have to prioritise. This goes back to the album. I had to be like: ‘I’m just gonna finish the album – and then if the social media thing happens, that’s great.’ I don’t want making music ever to be something that makes me mean or sour. I always want making music to be something I love.”

mal sounds releases ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ on September 26 through factory setting.