Getting to know Malaika Mfalme

London-born, Tanzanian/Australian songwriter Malaika Mfalme has released their debut album Yasmin. We asked them to tell us more:

I am… a Tanzanian/Australian, singer, songwriter, guitarist, event producer, activist, podcaster, avid video game player and unserious photographer.

‘Yasmin’ Is… an album I wrote during a time of immense pain. While the world shut its doors and experienced the 2020 lockdowns, I was grieving my late partner. When I began writing it, I didn’t know it would turn into an album. It was my means of coping through writing about grief, loss, and then joy, healing and finally self-acceptance. 

I spend too much time… watching TV. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve seen every single TV show under the sun. My useless hidden talent is that I can pick out tens of hundreds of actors and say they were in this and that, but I won’t be able to tell you what the actor’s name is. As I said, useless talent. I hope to one day write my own TV show called ‘Share House’ about finding community in Sydney.

I’ve never… learned traditional Western concepts of music like reading sheet music. I believe that writing down music into sheet music is based on colonial structure. Whereas where I’m from in Africa, you learn harmonies by singing them repeatedly, feeling them in your body by hearing them in your ear. Same with rhythm. You feel it; you don’t read it. I think learning traditional classical elements of music is incredibly useful in communicating music to other people. But I also don’t believe that it is necessary as a musician that you have to have that knowledge. I believe that it is possible to find people within the music scene who are willing to work with essence, vibe and descriptors rather than traditional note-taking.

It might surprise people to learn that… I’ve never spent a birthday apart from my twin sister and I don’t aim too. I’m hoping that we get into our 60s and we still haven’t spent a single birthday apart.

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Keep up to date with Malaika on Insta.