KiNG MALA
KiNG MALA Bio
What would you give for a chance to be the most omnipotent version of yourself? To finally be rid of the petty human desires that keep you from achieving greatness? To finally have it all, everything you’ve ever wanted? What would you trade? What are you willing to lose? What would you do for power?
These questions are at the core of KiNG MALA’s debut album, And You Who Drowned in the Grief of a Golden Thing. Across its wide-ranging 12 tracks – which seesaw between invigorating industrial pop and delicately refined R&B balladry – the singer-songwriter spins a tale as equally rooted in a sci-fi nightmare as it is in reality.
“That’s what I think storytelling is for,” says KiNG MALA. “It’s a vehicle to say everything you want to say – but a plot and characters makes it so exciting. You go with them to discover what you need to discover.”
As KiNG MALA came to learn, And You Who Drowned in the Grief of a Golden Thing calls into question her own battle for power – and how far is too far to get it. Or, perhaps more importantly, if she had it all along. With the help of producer Dan Loumpouridis, she dissects such an idea through layers of metaphor, creating a rich sonic trifle with each bite more delectable than the last.
From the moment KiNG MALA started working on her debut album in December 2023, she knew she wanted it to be conceptually driven. “Let’s do a week of sessions where we’re just talking about what this album is and not trying to make music, I want it to mean something to me,’” she recalls telling Loumpouridis. His way of tapping into meaning was to pose the question that informed the entirety of her debut: “What are you interrogating?”
Growing up in El Paso, Texas, the artist born Areli Castro was homeschooled with “zero access to the internet” or social media until her late teens. Even moving to L.A. didn’t offer immediate connection, with KiNG MALA saying it took a couple of years to figure out what she wanted to be. KiNG MALA first formed as an alternative band in which she played bass – and then she met songwriter-producer Rob Auerbach. The two made her debut solo EP together, during which KiNG MALA realized, “I want to make pop.”
Breakout success came with 2022 single “cult leader,” which established KiNG MALA as a new and undeniable voice taking up space in the dark-pop realm. “I felt like I had been trying for a while to recreate that energy [of ‘cult leader’], but I had been attacking it from this angle of anger and retaliation,” says KiNG MALA. “I felt like my petty emotion, my reactiveness, my rage, was getting in the way of this person I wanted to be: this great powerful woman… I was finally like, ‘Oh, it’s a possession story. It’s a power struggle.”
And You Who Drowned in the Grief of a Golden Thing tells that story in all its gruesome glory – but, true to form, it’s done via two non-descript, fictionalized characters: a human and an entity. Following the classic storyline of a hero’s journey to redemption, the front half of the album is packed with the wonder of “what if.” What would an exchange for power look like? And more importantly, what would it sound like? (Think the experimental, living aesthetic of Bon Iver’s 22, A Million or Dijon’s Absolutely, she offers – but with more bite.)
Opening track “POSSESSION” introduces listeners to the threat of the entity, creating confusion about their intentions by blending airy, angelic vocals with haunting if not cautionary production. Meanwhile, edgy lead single “GØD” “felt like the perfect bridge” between KiNG MALA’s previous work and where she’s heading. “[GØD is] a dark-pop baddie,” she says, “but it has elements of things to come.”
While the front half of the album teases a trade, “SALVATION::VIOLATION” chronicles the deal being made: the human’s body and humanity in exchange for all-consuming power. The tension between the human and entity reaches its climax on single “FUN!” on which they ask one another, through an almost-tangible smirk, “Is this everything you imagined?” The sinewy, metallic production is balanced by a grounding string section and steadying drum loop, and is immediately offset by the following track, album standout “GARDEN.”
“I am very big on Phoebe Bridgers, City and Color, and so this feels like a nod to things I love so deeply,” KiNG MALA says, illustrating her spectrum of inspiration. The folksy ballad showcases KiNG MALA’s captivating range as her vocals evolve from hushed, self-harmonies to a soaring, near operatic finale.
“GARDEN” is the last gust of strength from the human, as the latter half of the album details the toll this toxic trade is taking, particularly on the depleting and dizzying “ODE TO A BLACKHOLE,” which takes the listener down a sonic path as twisted as the hero’s own journey has been. The album ends with a one-two punch of “YOU DON’T KNOW ME,” which functions as the entity’s psychotic kiss-off, followed by chilling closer “I STILL FEEL IT IN THE BONE,” on which the human has returned to their body not only lacking power, but their humanity as well.
“It’s what we become, because the real dark shit that happens to women, you are never the same,” KiNG MALA shares. “And our entity exists because of that. She is not evil, she is just a consequence of the world we live in.”
At the same time, that world is also embracing left-of-center storytelling – priming this moment for KiNG MALA to emerge at the forefront of dark-pop’s new wave.
“Everyone’s being weird as fuck right now,” she says, citing world-building artists like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan and even movies like The Substance. “It’s that moment of like, ‘I have my finger on the pulse. The world agrees.’ We’re moving into this space where we can be fucking freaks and finally be angry and disgusting – it’s all manifesting.”
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