Malibu Wild

Malibu Wild is Cincinnati’s latest Indie Pop band. Last month, they released their first single, “American Dream” on all major streaming platforms. Two days later they played their first show and shared the stage with the legendary Gin Blossoms and Punchline at Bogart's. Impressed? You should be.

You can catch them this Friday, March 15th on a televised performance on Cincinnati's City Night's. City Nights is the television authority for Greater Cincinnati entertainment, featuring the hottest local and regional original bands in the business! Cablecast LIVE each Friday evening at 8:30pm on SPECTRUM (Charter) and FIOS (Cincinnati Bell), TBNK 185/821, in Northern Kentucky (Kenton County), with replays in Kenton County, Mondays at 11pm, and on Metro 24 (TWC/Charter) in Cincinnati, Wednesdays at 5:30pm.

We were excited to get to know Malibu Wild!

Describe your sound to those unfamiliar…

When the band was formed, we wanted to create something different; different from what we had all created in the past. We all share a love for indie pop music i.e. LANY, Coin, The 1975, LOYALS, Nightly, The Ivy, etc. and we wanted to create a blend of that with some 80’s retro/synth wave music i.e. Hotel Apache, Fickle Friends, Cherry Pools. It’s typically labeled “indie pop” but we decided would call it “Midwest California Pop.”

How did you come up with your band name?

The name of the project went through several iterations. We really wanted to use a line from LANY’s song “pink skies” as the name. The line was "Malibu Indigo" but after pitching it to some friends and getting feedback it didn’t really roll off the tongue so well, but then one day our guitarist Corey calls and explains how he can't explain it, but the name is Malibu Wild. He didn't know why exactly, he just said it felt right. We trusted his gut and have been "Malibu Wild" ever since.

How did the band get together?

Corey and I (Joseph) have been on and off on this project since late 2014/early 2015. We were both in an indie rock/pop punk band together and knew we wanted to move away to something a bit more cohesive in sound. We had every intention of being a two piece with Corey playing drums and me switching between guitar, keys and lead vocals and it turns out that's a lot of work, so we put out some ads for a drummer. Zach was looking for a new project and stumbled across our ad on Craigslist. He emails us and instead of asking what kind of music we were influenced by or what we want out of music or anything like that he asks us if we wanna have a pizza party, jam and just chill; so he was instantly in the band.

I am a big Gin Blossoms fan, how was it to open for them?

An absolute dream. We've all played dozens if not hundreds of shows between us over the years. We simply reached out to our favorite venue, got told yes, and then to walk out on stage with a packed room at Bogart's staring you down was nothing short of a dream, and not to mention meeting Gin Blossoms which in itself is an experience. These are top tier professional, classy musicians who can walk right off their tour bus on to the stage and play a flawless 20-minute set for a VIP crowd, crack some jokes and then play a 2-hour set like it's absolutely nothing. It's an experience we will never forget.

What do you love about being a part of the Cincinnati Music Scene?

It’s been so awesome and very refreshing from when Joey and I (Corey) were in the scene last. Zach’s been consistently playing in the local scene and touring nationally for a long time now, but for us it’s been such a great welcome back and we both missed it a lot. Everyone is extremely supportive and invested in making Cincinnati the best scene it can be, musically. Recently we all went to the Rock ‘N Revival for a Cure at the Southgate House Revival and the amount of raw talent in this city is amazing to say the least. We're just excited to be back in the thick of it all.

What is next for Malibu Wild?

We’ve got a very busy year ahead of us. We released our first single back on February 15th and now we are looking to release more music before releasing an EP by the end of the year. We're also working on a music video for our single, "American Dream", and talking with local venues and bands about shows in Cincinnati and the tri-state area for 2019 and beyond. We're excited to be here and can't wait to show the city what we got. - Courtney Phenicie