Meet Kris Jung | Singer/ Guitar player, Co-Writer & Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kris Jung and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kris, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Our band, MAL, came together out of a necessity to make original music in 2012. We are all creatives with similar influences like Jane’s Addiction, Rush, Faith No More, Failure, The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Sabbath, Queens of the Stone Age, Sonic Youth, and more, with the desire and passion to express ourselves through our music. Myself, Kris Jung, vocals & guitar, drummer Brendan Reynolds, and bass player, Peter Hollywood have been connected through various music scenes in the L.A. southland for years.
We have all been fans of each other and the bands we’ve played in.
Pete hails from the legendary art-rock/ dark alternative group, Ding Mao. Brendan was the drummer in the famous Love-Core band, Boy Hits Car, and I, Kris, have been a veteran of the LA music scene since I was a teenager playing in Blackcast, Radio free America, and The Shoecrackers of Bethlehem.
It was a great decision to combine our talents in writing, producing, recording, and performing under the same creative umbrella called MAL. We are giving something unique back to our scenes in Los Angeles and spreading it around the country on tour.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Peter: MAL is journey through space and time guided by our own musical tastes and sensibilities. What sets us apart from everyone else is our willingness to take chances and stray outside of musical norms and formulas. We’re really happy with our latest album Come To Light and are excited to hit the road in it’s support.
We’ve had our fair share of challenges but we remain unphased due to our deep love of making music. We are very fortunate to have a great bond and musical chemistry between band mates . I guess what we’ve learned is to stick to what we love and to pack in as much fun as possible along the way.

Kris: Our brand of music is unusual, but familiar. We’re filling a quiet need in the music marketplace for intelligent, progressive riffs and arrangements with the comfort of memorable melodies and intense dynamics.
What we do isn’t prog, rock, post-rock, shoegaze, Desert, psychedelic, hard rock or metal. It’s a multi-genre blend under that Alt umbrella with our own signature sounds and arrangements that have differentiated us from other bands and kept our fans interested. Like Pete said, we have stuck to what we love and enjoy creating and performing it so much, the challenges we face are easily overcome.

The lesson? If you found something special to you and your creative team and LOVE it, DON’T LET IT GO! Keep it. Squeeze it. Use it. Love it some more and share it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Kris: Well, there’s so much L.A. has to offer! Having grown up in the Santa Monica Mountain Range, I would start off with some of the hidden trails I know of that lead to secret lakes and views of the Pacific Ocean with a small amount of climbing rocks to get that view. I’d take them panning for gold in Tujunga, or to the big Tujunga river to plop a chair down in it and picnic. Later, we’ll head to Grayson’s Tune Town in Downtown Montrose to pick up some awesome and rare guitar effects pedals then head to our standalone lock-out studio in Van Nuys to jam and party down. If there’s a show, we’ll head to the Redwood Bar in Downtown LA to check out what bands are playing (They have amazing food! I recommend their fish ‘n’ chips!), or we’ll head to The Mint on Pico (they also have amazing food!) or any show thrown by The Cobalt Presents (They always book quality bands) at the Federal in NoHo, Hotel Ziggy on the strip, or The Corbin Bowl in the Valley. We might hit The One Up on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks for drinks, great food and all the classic video games we remember growing up. Another great spot is Gold Diggers on Santa Monica Blvd and Harvard & Stone on Hollywood Blvd. cheap drinks and always great music!

Pete: We’d make a stop at The Rainbow on Sunset. Great food and they have shows upstairs. Definitely spark one on one of the many viewpoints along Mulholland in the Santa Monica Mountains. Griffith Park. Point Dume and Zuma in Malibu are my beach spots. We’d definitely head there. There are other nameless places in the Angeles Forest we’d visit.

Brendan: I stay home and play my drums. That’s all.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We certainly wouldn’t be where we are today without those who’ve supported and encouraged us throughout our journey. Jasan Radford (Blueprint Music Studios, Radford Media Group), Steve Deutsch (MARS Recording), Cartwheeling Whores Records, Cory Danziger (SceneFour.com), Megan Jacobs (formally w The Roxy), David S Barron (Director AMFilms), Dave Reda (Director, ElfTwin films “Zombie Dave”), Johnny and denie Griffin (The Fear Faire Festival), Brian Lacey (Journalist, AudioEclectica), Sarah Thomas (Whiskey Richards, Santa Barbara), Nathan Young (Youngblood Productions), Mike Austin (x-site Media), Warrior Dave, Sarah Pinocchio (Rodeo Bar, Paso Robles), Elisa Johns (Golden Gem Productions), Danny Carey and John Ziegler (Volto band..for letting us open for them so many times!), Cobalt Dave (The Cobalt Presents), Scott Reifman (The Mint, LA), Max Wasa (Liquid Music Group), and so many more artists, bands, and friends that have supported us like the always awesome, Kolm, Lucid Fly, The Baby Goats, Bone Maggot (Ventura), Macro, DMT (IE), American Animal (O.C.), With Our Arms to the Sun, Ding Mao, Old Blood, Lava Diva, Porcelain Pistols (I.E.), Lucy Morningstar, The Rawn Side of Town, Boy Hits Car, and especially CENTERSHIFT. There are so many more whom we cherish, appreciate, and get credit, but none more than our fans, friends and family. They have been key in our story.

Website: www.malsongs.com

Instagram: @malsongs

Twitter: @malsongs

Facebook: www.facebook.com/malsongs

Youtube: youtube.com/@malsongs

Other: malsongs.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Jeff Lovin (RIP) 130 Down Photography