Born Ivan Thomas Maali in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, music, much like the blood it buzzes with inside his veins, has always been a part of burgeoning singer-songwriter Maali’s life. From the time he was a boy, still learning and growing, to the young man he has become, the path was an inevitable one, the calling too strong to deny, beckoning for him to travel down a road that promises global recognition and an eternity in the hearts of all he can touch with his music.
Maali recalled with nostalgia inheriting his love for music from his grandfather, whom he counted as an influenced not only to him but the family.
“I lived in seven years in Kenya after being born before I moved to Tanzania, where I lived for about ten to twelve years, before coming back to my home country in 2016. Fortunately for me, I grew up in a musical home, so music wasn’t something I had trouble accessing. My grandfather was an organ player in church, and he taught his children to love and appreciate all kinds of music and instruments. That love led some of them to play the piano, and others the saxophone—it was quite extensive. That love ended up trickling down to my generation, and that shows up in us having an appreciation for music by singing Christmas carols when it’s the festive season and also performing happy birthdays when the time comes,” he said.
Maali | SUPPLIED
After finishing high school and finding himself at a crossroads, he decided to pursue music while looking for a way to finance his academic endeavours. In between battling the guilt of feeling like he’d abandoned education and fantasising about the potential pay-off of the music, Maali eventually committed to music with the help of a friend and a sibling. The former already had their foot in the door, building a career in the music industry, when they came knocking with interest after chancing upon Maali’s covers floating around online. Her elder sister, who wanted to pursue music seriously, validated his journey, infusing him with the strength and voice of reason needed to stay the course.
Maali spoke about the intention behind the making of his latest single, “Bad Decision,” touching on the conflict of trying his best to give people what they want while staying true to himself and his ambitions of breaking through and making a name of himself as an international name in the music business.
“When I thought about ‘Bad Decision’, I took into account all the styles of music I had released up until that point. I am an artist who lives in a juxtaposition, in that I feel as though people expect a certain type of music from me, which causes me to lean into that more, just to give the people what they want. The flip side of that coin is me being a lover and a fan of music by pushing myself to be the most authentic version of myself. So while I have written a myriad variety of songs, making demos and writing, I felt that it was the right time to establish myself not just within Nairobi but in Africa and the world at large as a person trying to break into the global village as a musician who’s got the chops,” he said.
“To make music well, to hold and string notes together in a way that makes sense and sounds beautiful involves your whole body and mind. That takes conditioning yourself so that you’ll always be on top of your game.”
– Maali
The singer recollected a string of bad relationships which were the collective source for the song. He talked about the learning curves of acrimonious breakups, the consequent maturity, and making music others would relate to.
“I enjoy speaking about the events that inspired the making of the song. From 2021 to maybe early 2023, one after another, one bad woman kept walking into my life. For the life of me, I was stubborn, and I don’t know why I was. I kept involving myself with people who, on the surface, wanted something with me but were only with me for another deeper reason that even today I haven’t come to understand as yet. I never quite got why they acted the way they did. Were they attracted to me as an idea rather than the real me? Did they like attention but not commitment?
“In those two to four instances, with some of them being fully-fledged relationships and others situationships and ‘flirtationships,’ I kept on having the worst encounters with similar people. At times, I was disrespected. Other times my boundaries were crossed. Other instances led me to question my ways of living. But the growth in everything came from me learning what boundaries are and what it means for them to be crossed, and things like that. That was the fuel behind the song. My position and perspective were all about filtering all the experiences and letting them drain into the song and into the EP, which will tell people my story and help resonate with their own,” he said.
Maali | SUPPLIED
Maali shared a little about his upcoming EP.
“The EP I’ll be dropping is about the reflection of self. The call to be accountable. In the music I listen to, oftentimes when people get hurt and heartbroken because of a relationship ending, they take the stance of a victim. It’s all about them being hurt and the disbelief that the person they were in love with hurt them so profoundly. In all of that, there is no accountability because they hardly make room for the reality that the first time they’d seen was the time they should’ve left but didn’t. Instead of going down that road, they go in the opposite direction. So as far as what people should expect from the EP, they can look forward to a fun and accountable beginning, while the end will look at growth and self-worth. I want my listeners to know they are infinitely capable of growth and becoming—they do not have to become stuck in their ways. I want them to know there’s so much to discover about themselves and to build on, and that it’s on them to live well and lead good lives,” he said.
The crooner singled out his music being a part of people’s lives as the greatest impacted he wished to leave behind with his music.
“One thing that often rings in my mind, as I grow in the music space, I would like to have impacted people’s lives in one way or another. For me, as someone who wants to make all kinds of music and hopefully have those pieces I make go out into the world and find people where they are and be attached to their lived moments, I don’t think there’s a price tag for that. I want to make songs people can grow up with—that’s where my heart is,” he said.
