One of the greatest guitarists in the world, Malina Moye, has performed for the first time at the Nišville Jazz festival. She is a left handed Fender player, who plays her guitar upside-down. Her performance and fan service were fantastic and the audience in Niš enjoyed her concert a lot. After the show, we had a great conversation with Malina Moye about her carrier, friendship with famous Prince and other artists, movies, and we also got the chance to hear some amazing anecdotes from her life.
How do you feel after this amazing performance? Did you have fun?
Malina Moye: Oh, my god, I had a bomb! The energy was awesome! It was so hot, and then you add the fact that we were on the stage! This is my first time here on Nišville. I wanted to come over, ‘cause I’ve been seeing things online, and you, guys, had Candy (Dulfer) here, so I’m like: Oh, I have to play the stage! I’m super excited that we came! I was ready to have more but it was over…
I read in one of your previous interview from a few years ago, that you had never performed any of Jimi Hendrix’s songs, and now you did a cover of his Foxy Lady. Did you decide to do that because people are constantly comparing you to Hendrix, or it’s because of something else?
Malina Moye: Actually, it was very interesting, because, basically, I had never really listened to a lot of Hendrix. People wouldn’t believe that. And I started going through his catalogue and one of the songs that I just gravitated towards was Foxy Lady and If 6 was 9. I thought: Man, I really wish I could be a part of this experience Hendrix, as all of those top players like Zakk Wylde, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Randolph, Buddy Guy, and I was the only girl. I was just so excited to do my take on, because Jimi did a fantastic job.
My dad once said this to me: Malina, I’m gonna give you the bad news. I don’t care how much you rehearse or practice, you’ll never gonna be Michael Jackson, Prince, Jimi Hendrix… The good news is that they can’t be you! If you gonna be Malina Moye – you’re gonna kill it every time! That’s exactly what I’m doing.
It’s well-known that you grew up in a musical family. Can you, please, tell us something about that experience?
Malina Moye: When we were younger (my brothers and me), the singer Baby Face, L.A. Reid, George Clinton used to come to our house. So we always grew up with people like that in our home. I was born in Ohio, but then I moved to Minnesota, and when we moved there, of course, I had a chance to work with Prince. I was really young and Prince just let me hang out with him and I watched him play guitars in Paisley (Park) for eight months, and I learned so much. I remember when it was all done I told him: Mr. Prince, I think that now I can on the world and be somebody, ‘cause I just enjoyed being here, and he said: I look forward to watching you, Malina.
That’s beautiful! What did he say the first time he saw you performing on stage?
Malina Moye: I know, girl! You know what? I’m gonna be honest with you… I always wondered that. Kathleen (Johnson) is one of the other singers that I use in my band as well, and her brother was Prince’s main handler, main everything for Paisley… I think that we would have definitely make some wonderful things happen, as I was grown up, and then unfortunately, he had passed away. I remember that day, because I was actually getting ready to tour to another festival and my brother called me from Minnesota and asked me if it was true that Prince had passed away. I told him: Oh, it can’t be true! Let me call Kathleen, ‘cause she always takes my phone call, and I called her and asked if anything had happened to Prince and she said: Let me call you back. That’s how I knew.
I’m sorry to hear that… So, who else had any significant influence on you as a musician?
Malina Moye: Graham Central Station did a lot of stuff with me. I couldn’t bring them this time, but I’m sure that if we come back again, they’ll definitely come. Those guys are great, I learned a lot from them. And also Stevie Wonder! I’m sure I can bring him and his musicians here with me next time, too! I have a true story about him! He lived next door to me and I didn’t even know that! So, I was playing the National Anthem, practicing, practicing, practicing, with my windows opened and everything…
And then my neighbor said this thing to me: Malina, can you come to my house early in the morning?, and when I went there I saw Stevie Wonder on the couch. I was like: You live here?! He heard me playing this thing over and over, and all of my mistakes… And then he said: Listen, I’m having a birthday party. I want you to come play for my birthday. And that’s how we met! It’s just been so fun, it’s been an incredible journey.
But, even though, there are many amazing artists, I’m a real Prince fan. I always liked how he used a guitar as an extension of himself, and of course, it’s so crazy – as a woman I love the clothes and the makeup, and so did Prince!
You already have some experience in acting. Can you tell us something about that? And what are your plans in this field?
Malina Moye: I have two films. A film called Burn is gonna come up on August 23rd. The Samuel Project would be hitting Netflix at the end of December, but that film already went to the theater back in the States. And I wrote the song Enough which also appeared in the movie, too. That was the first time I’ve ever had a chance to put something for the Oscars, which was super awesome! I hope I can get many mini opportunities like that.
And with that song, what’s crazy is the synergy of the movie and what happened… It was a week of April 29th to May 4th, I asked everybody to put up a picture of themselves celebrating who they are in the moment, not who they want to be, but who they are as a person now, and to hashtag it #Iamenough. And when we did that, it grew into the real campaign. Yolanda Adams had put this amazing post talking about the record, the song, she also DMed me and told me that she loved the record.
We’re working on a script of my life right now. We’re hoping to make a movie, something like Purple Rain, but for Malina Moye, about my story. I came to California with 20 dollars, I was homeless, I used to live on the street, I washed up in gas stations, and then the person that heard about my story, he invested in my label, and that’s how things started to take off. So we’re gonna do that from the beginning.
You performed some of your songs from your latest album (Bad As I Wanna Be) here, at Nišville Jazz festival, and the audience loved them! Your new songs have some really strong and important messages.
Malina Moye: The first record I did – Rock & Roll Baby, I wanted to showcase like more guitar, and then with this one, I wanted to showcase also as a singer-songwriter, because I feel like I have a story that I’m trying to tell people and I want people to listen to the words. I just feel that we all matter, we all count. You don’t have to change who you are for anybody, and I think that if you get people who tell you to change, those people are not your tribe, they just don’t get you. And you know what?! That’s fine. You just keep pushing ‘til you find people that do.
With this record, I also wanted people to just take a look at themselves and to find the competency in themselves, because that’s what I was trying to do for myself. And even with the cover – I chose this crystal outfit and red lips as a statement of glamour, but I also wanted to come across as a warrior (through the pose). This is my place and I’m taking the ground.
It seems like people always want to put some labels on everything and everyone. So, you’re not just Malina Moye, but also a female Jimi Hendrix and they often compare you to other famous male musicians. Does it bother you? How you do you deal with that?
Malina Moye: You’re right. See, the thing is with the Me, too movement a lot of things changed for women and I’d say for men, too. So, in oppose to like 3-4 years ago, we didn’t have as many women as players, but now more and more come out, because I think they feel that we’re being seen. But we’ve always been here, it’s just that now people are finally paying attention and that’s wonderful. Of course, I’m a woman, I’m black, but I never look at those as my first things – I always just see that I’m a person who wants to play.
It’s always someone else who makes a point to say: Malina’s black. Well, I didn’t even think about it, until you brought it up! To me, it’s like – what about my phrasing, my tone, what I’m trying to do? I want the same kind of respect that you would give to a guy. But I also feel that being a woman is a positive thing, too. When they say: Hey, did you see that girl, that left-handed chick? – I’ll take that, too!
People always want to separate everything and I get it. That was also one of the reasons why I have wrote this song Enough. The person made me feel like I did matter and I didn’t count. As you can see, from the show that we just did, when you start glorying genres with rock and funk, and soul – that’s like Prince. But when you start looking: How do we mark Malina? Is she rock? Okay, we said that – she’s not white, she doesn’t have a blond hair, she’s not 60… Then you start to break all this different ideas, so then you show up and say: That’s YOU?! See what I’m saying?
So, then you chance the whole dynamic how people see you so sometimes it just takes a little bit of massage and you just gotta hang in there, and stay authentic. I’m not gonna change. This is who I am and I feel like, eventually, the world needs you, when the time is right.
Pročitajte ovaj intervju na srpskom jeziku.