On the Rise
Mal Sounds

Calling in from his home in Brooklyn, Buford is fresh from a trip to Berlin where he was putting together a new live set ahead of his upcoming show at beloved local spot Baby’s All Right. He’s also readying an EP release party at Cafe Kitsune, where he works and often DJs, a recent addition to his resume.

Buford’s childhood was filled with music. Growing up, his family always had music playing. His dad would record and produce artists in their living room, their house alive with the sounds of golden age hip-hop and rising neo-soul. “Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Jill Scott, André 3000, just that entire alternative neo-soul scene was super big in my household,” he smiles.

He didn’t start making music until high school. Attending the private Dalton School on a scholarship, it became a way for him to connect. “I just was very isolated from the mainstream population at the school,” he says. “In high school I found music became a way to actually find community with everybody else who's into that. We'd record in classrooms after school, just making weird music.”

Originally he was rapping and producing, but after getting hooked on Guitar Hero, he discovered a world of indie music. “There was this band called Silversun Pickups. ‘Lazy Eye’ was the big song from that time and it kind of blew my mind,” he smiles. “I was like, ‘What on earth is this?’ I'd never heard anything like it. I would set up a drum set around me with books and try to copy the drum rhythms just because it was something new. That was me cultivating my own music taste apart from my family. At some point I was like, wait a minute, obviously I like this music, why not just make it?”

After graduating college where he studied film and computer science, Buford focused his intentions. “I knew I wanted to do music but I didn’t know how to make it happen,” he says. “I was just working at a cafe, just trying to find places to record and just figure everything out.”

Unsure of his next steps, he found a cheap flight to Spain and decided to visit some of his family in Valencia. “I was like, ‘I'm just gonna stay with my family and go on a little vacation,’” he laughs. “I just happened to go a couple weeks before the pandemic hit.”

He ended up being stuck overseas for five months. During that time, he cobbled together a DIY set-up and began to write music. “I just started making music because I literally didn't know when I was going to be able to come back home,” he says. The result was his debut EP, Freaks and Wild Things, an inventive stretch of nostalgic synthwave, alternative hip-hop experimentalism and warm, DIY production.

Working on the EP with Terrible Records, he was introduced to Joe Valle from the group Wet with whom he collaborated on production, the entire process broadening his approach. “I feel like I was exposed to just a whole new level of production in some of those collaborations I was able to have,” he says. “I was really making music in my bedroom, just using what tools I had and just taking those demos to people. Kudos to them for being such good collaborators and being really open.”

Buford has brought that spirit of collaboration to Still In New York, working with an array of artists and producers including Harrison Lipton whose recent credits include Yot Club and MICHELLE. “I've never really written a song with someone else in that way,” he says. “Usually someone's written something and I've written something, whereas with that one it felt like we were literally just co-writing. It felt super electric and fun.”

With the brunt of the writing done almost two years ago, it took Buford time to condense and refine his demos, trying to synthesise his sound into something that would make sense as one sonic entity. “I was also just figuring out what the project was for me,” he says. “I think one of my favourite things as an artist is how you can just do anything. I can learn how to do anything I want on the internet and I have access to all these different genres. But then it's difficult when that comes up against the realities of the industry where people are telling you that the best thing is to niche down, to be consistent with all this stuff. I'm translating all these ideas, so I end up just having so many songs.”

With the help of his label Superbloom and the creative community around him, Buford focused Still In New York into five captivating and idiosyncratic cuts. Lead single “Bushwick Baby” is a hazy crush of sparse instrumentation that flows with Buford’s silky vocals, while EP closer “safehouse” is a delicate tapestry of warm guitars that give texture to his soft melodies.

The energy across the EP is pulse-like, with songs swelling and dissipating into a soft breeze. “I see it like a sort of rise and fall,” he smiles. “‘Bushwick Baby’ just feels hopeful and ‘Fall Into You’ feels like riding that wave and then there's just the come down, but it's not like a horrible come down.”

Through his newfound appreciation for collaboration, the Mal Sounds project continues to grow from strength to strength. Working with fellow artists like Bailey Cooke and Steve Cooper on “Bushwick Baby,” pushed Buford to be more open. “I feel like I really value those collaborations too because I don't like to show my music to too many people before it's out,” he says. “My girlfriend Tatiana Webster, who also makes music as TALIA, we're also always collaborating. The influence and the experience I've gotten from producing her work has also really informed my approach to the EP. I feel like it's just made me better.”