Meet Michael Maleckar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Maleckar.

Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started playing piano when I was 5 years old thanks to my parents who were very adamant about me playing an instrument at a young age. I luckily had a great teacher back then and progressed relatively quickly. We moved from Warwick, NY to Nazareth PA when I was about 10 years old and couldn’t find nearly as good of a teacher. I also started getting into sports at that age so music took the back burner for a while. I picked up the guitar when I was about 16 years old but took years before I learned how to play it. When my senior year of football concluded I picked up the guitar again and started getting serious about it. I had an academic scholarship to Slippery Rock University where I wanted to pursue a music therapy degree but was unable to pass the audition for the program. In 2006 my Dad passed away suddenly, two weeks before I left for college, and being an only child I kinda left my mom by herself. She moved to Arizona to be closer to her family and I went to school. For three semesters I studied liberal arts and continued working on music, but then I lost my scholarship and decided to move out to Arizona to be closer to my widowed mother.

In 2009 at Chandler-Gilbert Community College I met a good friend and great drummer Josh Montag and together we started a reggae band called The Morning After. We played supporting slots for regional and national touring bands in Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. We recorded an EP entitled Planting the Seed and had some good years.
A few years later the band split ways and in 2013 I took a chance working for Carnival Cruise Lines as a solo guitarist. It was a great opportunity but I struggled with sea sickness and even after trying everything to help I couldn’t take being on the ship much longer. I only was on board for a handful of cruises before I broke my contract and came back to the desert with a renewed respect for the ocean and an appreciation for Arizona. I started learning more songs and putting in more effort to further my own career on land in the greater Phoenix area. In 2015 I quit my day job and became a full-time musician. I started playing live looping shows, acoustic gigs, bars, restaurants, resorts, grand opening events, weddings, birthday parties, dinner parties, anniversary parties, celebrations of life, phoenix Suns and Cardinals pregame events, the Bud Light Block Party last time the Super Bowl was in town and many more random events over the years.

Now in 2022, my schedule is thankfully pretty regular. I have 5-8 gigs a week and many regular residencies in Scottsdale and downtown Phoenix. In some gigs, I play acoustic with a single loop station, in others I play a full one-man band looping show which involves a bass guitar on a floating stand, a drum pad, two microphones, and I with my guitar creating a full band sound live in front of the audience. I also have a cover band that has been doing gigs together since 2017ish with in my opinion some of the best musicians in town. We go by “The Mr. Mal Band” and have been playing regularly at Wasted Grain in Old Town Scottsdale, with some gigs at Copper Blues’ two locations and a handful of private/corporate events around the valley.

It’s been quite a journey so far but I feel very lucky to have some talent, and more importantly a supportive family and friend group surrounding me. I am looking forward to what 2023 might bring to both The Mr. Mal Band and my solo looping show.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Like many of the roads in Arizona outside of the city, my road has been full of ups and downs, paved portions, and rocky terrain. Music made a lot of sense to me in school, I had a great piano teacher at a young age, and an even better Music teacher in high school. Without Chuck Dumbri, my high school Music teacher I don’t think I would be anywhere in the music industry at all. Those were smooth roads, losing my father, failing the music audition, and months later Mr. Dumbri would also pass away those were some tough years, rough roads. Starting a new life in Arizona had its bumps as well. I moved out and lived with my mom at 19 years old, not knowing anyone in the state besides my immediate family, which gave me lots of time to play guitar. As dark as those days seemed without them I wouldn’t have played as much guitar or put in the necessary amount of practice. Roads got smoother when I made some friends, started The Morning After, and saw some small success musically and in my life for the first time in years. But of course, nothing lasts forever. We had a bit of a Yoko situation with the band, I made some mistakes causing us to split up and serrate and start another chapter in my life.

At this point being on my own again I decided to take an adventure and go across the country to work for Carnival Cruise Lines. Things were looking up and the world felt like it was at my fingertips in my mid-20s. Unfortunately, upon arrival, I quickly learned what life on the ship would be like and experienced some really rough sea sickness that would not cease. It eventually became too much for me to handle so I left my contract and came back to the desert. In 2014 I recorded and released my first solo EP entitled Rest. I had the release show at Crescent Ballroom with some friends’ bands supporting the show. I fell into doing cover song gigs as they were paying the bills, and kind of just went with it. That transformed into doing weddings and corporate events, and I saw lots of opportunities and had a great time so just stuck with it. Here we are in 2022 and luckily I am still going!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Currently what I am proud of and what I believe sets me apart from others is the live looping show. To my left I set up a bass guitar on a floating stand, I have a drum pad to my right, a guitar, and one microphone all running into a looping pedal, then I have another microphone that goes straight into the mixer for a cleaner mix. This allows me to create a full band sound on certain songs.

For example, I will start with a 1-4 measure drum beat, record, and loop it. Then I would add a 2-8 measure bass loop to go on top of the drums, then I start singing while recording the guitar part on top of the bass line. By the time the solo comes around, I have the whole song recorded and can switch on the pedals to have a rocking solo. My favorite thing to do is to use this to improvise songs on the spot, and or mash songs together to create something never heard before and never to be heard again!

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Go support live music and live music venues, please!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TheMrMal.com
• Instagram: @The_MrMal

Image Credits
@KodakNinjaPhotography