Shaun Malloch - Been Long and the Lo-fi Agenda

There’s something wildly attractive about a do-it-yourself attitude. The avoidance of an institutional standard and diving into the plunge-pool of simple knowledge and practicality.

Photo by Tyler Sutherland

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Building a pedalboard from stray pieces of wood from a deconstructed beer box. Bunnings-sourced planks and hairy velcro tape. Conjuring a makeshift merch table out of old suitcases and twine, hoping your hurried scribbles of prices are fair, cause who would ever know what you should price your music? Wrestling with second-hand amps so that the tubes aren’t buzzing on just that one really, really really important quiet part of the song. 

These tasks are not done because it looks good but because it just works. In fact, the work makes it tangible and very real, a respectful argument between equipment and that inner musical impulse. Also, it’s a compromise of budget. Why would I buy that expensive preamp, that condenser, that guitar servicing if I could just learn the basics? One part economic survival, one part getting to that magical inner impulse all by yourself. 

Your home becomes your studio, your kitchen the break room and your porch the outside smoking area. Jams, sessions, rehearsals become indistinguishable from your domestic environment. Somewhere along the way, your life became that art. A home studio practice that had been enjoyed by painters and photographers for decades now comes to music, in this age of more affordable equipment. 

And in this magic space, the most sincere music has been created. Self-produced with whatever was on hand in whatever spaces were available, a sonic photograph of time and place. A focused student of this methodology is my good friend Shaun Malloch, based in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. 

Shaun is a driven musician and multi-instrumentalist. Aside from playing sideman to a wide variety of local music projects (including my own, which brings me a deep, contemplative pleasure), he writes and records demos in his lounge room turned studio space. He makes eggs a la Malloch. That is to say, scrambled, on sandwich pressed ciabatta with spinach and kewpie mayo. He knows the cheese scone geography of this flat city. He sings and plays drums, bass, guitar, pedal steel and keys. 

There is a gentle domesticity when you rehearse in his space. Everyone is family and there for not only a great catch-up, but a fulfilling collaboration of sounds. He holds space. He is a self-described lo-fi crooner. I wondered what that means to him and I simply wanted to know more about his process in this DIY domain. 

I visited the space ahead of a home concert celebrating a new single ‘Been Long’, releasing after 2 years of hiatus from his debut EP ‘Take What You Can’. 

Rounding a corner at the end of a stairwell bordered by unused furniture and surfboards, you are greeted by an unusually woody room. Clearly once an office or a workshop, it is now a intimate music space. After a warm embrace, a shared plunger of coffee and a brief catch-up, we got down to business. 

For the past two years, your music has been put on hold. You released an EP in 2021 that got some pretty good response and seemed to build decent momentum, what was the intention behind taking a step back before releasing new music?

On one hand it is just that life gets busy and I was trying to, you know, work hard in my career and tick a few boxes as far as that goes… and I didn’t feel like releasing more music. I didn’t want to, and now I do. It was the same when I stopped studying for a moment…when I came back my brain was overflowing with ideas on what to do. I had an extremely motivated and productive year, when I recorded that first EP after a bit of a musical hiatus. 

Which was released on lathe cut and on cassette?

Yep, Johnny Electric did the lathe cut and Isaac Bennett of Casper Thompson did all the tapes. Tyler Sutherland did all the photography and the design of the vinyl/tape. My friend Tiahla Skinner gifted me some weird film photographs where the exposure didn't quite work out that I’ve used for single covers and as a background for EP art. I really like them.

I have a copy of that EP, and there’s something really charming about the DIY aspect of it. Every fold of the cover feels someone just did this, manifested it. And it’s no insult to say it’s not immaculate, not perfect. It felt very earnest. Is that something you wanted to achieve?

I wasn’t like ‘Oh man, I’m going to go and do this DIY thing’. I just went ahead and did it, I knew it wouldn’t be perfect because of the way I am, like I’m not the tightest drummer. I’m not the best at recording and using Logic. My computer was wrought with issues, I knew it would be janky but I also felt like if I did as good of a job as I could…which wouldn’t be a perfect job…then it would have some sort of character. I guess the word earnest is…you know.

Because of that, I guess some people would ascribe this term ‘lo-fi’ to the music. There has been a trend of self recorded musicians for the past 40 years or so, do you think lo-fi is a style that you embrace or does that come naturally because of your process, your learning of these tools?

I mean I was using pretty standard tools, a laptop, an interface. Microphones like Shure 58s and 57s. Some people think you need to use shitty equipment to make lo-fi, but I’m just kind of using normal stuff. You know, the middle of the road. Because I was shitty at Logic, and I had a dodgy version it just kind of ended up that way. I accidentally had the gain up way too high on some mics. Some of those mistakes are embarrassing to look back at so I just try not to think about it too much. Like now, if I was listening to that I’d be like ‘Oh man, the snare is barely coming through on this, or the kick isn’t solid’. At the time I didn’t have the skills to hear those things because I was so new to recording. 

So over this time, for local music at least, bands come and go in the time that you’ve spent since the last release. Is it fair to say you’ve developed your production skills and sharpened your ears to hear those faults?

I’ve definitely sharpened my ears just by listening to music. Just being excited by listening to music that has a depth of production.  I guess that has informed the music I’m now making. I was just listening to a lot of cool producers. 

Richard Swift?

Yeah, Richard Swift is a good producer influence. Just before he died he did a really cool album with Kevin Corby called City Music. That influenced me a lot, but actually what made me start really thinking about a lot of that stuff was this podcast called In Loving Recollection which this guy, like, interviews an artist or a producer about an album that they did. It’s not too technical, it’s not like ‘What mics did you use?’. It’s more, ‘what was the vibe like, how did you get in touch with this artist?’. More holistic. I became really into John Andrews and The Yawns, Caroline Says, Jake Xerxes Fussel and Walter Martin through that podcast. Learning about the production process makes me more excited to listen to albums.

I’m interested in the process of producing and recording songs, embracing you. Embracing tones, sounds, inclinations that you find yourself doing in a studio or a writing environment, at a desk. And being cool with that! Instead of having a high pressure environment, where you’re feeling like ‘Oh shit, I’m listening to this artist, song and I want to sound like this’ but you simply can’t, because you’re not that. 

Well, I feel like when you’re going and doing a week in the studio, the pressure’s f***ing on. You’ve been planning and organising it for a long time, you’re investing money into it. And then that week, you’re just kind of stuck with what comes out of it. I think authenticity does come out of pressure but so can rash decisions, sounds that potentially don’t represent what you envision or align with. Whereas recording stuff at home, not only does it afford you the luxury of recording more things and taking more time to do them…

..you’re comfortable at home. 

…you’re comfortable. It allows you to let go of things as well. 

I agree with you. 

It’s a funny thing that the norm is to really get your sounds in the studio. But being around skilled producers and seeing how they can make any room sound awesome, unique or classic made me rethink the worthwhile aspect of doing studio stuff. If you’ve got the luxury of time, or don’t even care that much about how perfect something is. There are some things that I care about deeply, but others that I don’t fuss about. 

What do you care about for recording music by yourself?

…*pause*…

Getting an accurate translation of the song into a produced sound. A song starts off with lyrics or chords or whatever. Maybe a guitar part. That can be taken in so many directions but you almost already know what direction you want it to go. It’s actually been really hard for me when I’ve recorded stuff with other people, other producers who have done stuff which I haven’t anticipated which sounds amazing! But it’s not what I envisioned. I think what’s really important to me is getting a produced outcome that aligns with the chords and lyrics made me envision. But I’m also trying to embrace the ideas that come from other people, that’s really important too. 

There is a risk of suffocating yourself. 

Totally. I think I’m quite lucky, I’m naturally in and around lots of diverse music by being in other musician’s bands. 

And being a multi-instrumentalist as well?

Yes, I never find a certain instrument getting stale. Cause I just don’t play it that much, hah!

Shaun Malloch and his band open the Loons stage for Marlin’s Dreaming on the 15th of July. Tickets here

You can stream Shaun’s music here

@shaunicusmaximu