Part 1

Name: Malo Moray & His Inflatable Knee
Nationality: German
Occupation: Composer, producer, improviser
Current release: Malo Moray & His Inflatable Knee's Atolls, featuring among others, Hans Arnold, and Markus Rom, is out via Possibly Sam.
Recommendations: Here’s my personal “Desert Island” packing list:
Piece of music: Lou Reed – “Vanishing Act” (from The Raven album – I have never experienced something more honest.)
Book: Janosch – The Trip To Panama (German Original: Oh, Wie Schön Ist Panama. – I think, this book names everything important in life)

[Read our Hans Arnold interview]
[Read our Markus Rom interview]
[Read our Markus Rom interview about Improvisation]

If you enjoyed this Malo Moray & His Inflatable Knee interview and would like to keep up to date with the project, visit Malo on Instagram, and bandcamp.

For an even deeper dive, visit our previous Malo Moray interview about the importance of unlearning and the art of falafel making.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Oh, that’s such a nice question! I actually am similar to you – it often makes me see things – when listening to music, I am transported – to me, that’s the nicest thing about making and perceiving music. It transcends what is there in the moment as it also intensifies the moment. To me, music is a meditative practice as much as a creative endeavour and a space to grow as a human being.

With that said, my listening experiences are also pretty diverse – generally, I am a very visual type, so either my eyes want to be kept busy or I see things when listening to music. I love listening to music in the car, on the couch (alone or with our kid), with headphones lying on the floor, in the bathtub and when having a walk.

But nothing compares to playing to a room full of people. The synchronicity of listening and creating something from this listening experience is truly magical!

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Music has been an absolutely integral part of my life at that age – my deep connection to music blossomed back then. I had my first bands, started playing the first instruments at my own decision, started playing concerts etc.

I think, it was around that age when I realized, I have that calling for a life in music. I had to unlearn a lot of things before I was ready to actually lead that life, but that’s when it started. My conscious, loving relationship with music started at that age.

Growing up in a conservative, stuffy small town in East Germany, music was a very strong identifier for me and my friends too. We actively listened to all that “dark” music that made us outsiders then. But it was nice. We really belonged somewhere. I still feel this today. Fortunately, I don’t need to frame myself as an outsider today, but music is still as important for me as a human being.

I couldn’t spend a day without actively connecting to music – be it through listening to a record, playing music, singing or listening to the sounds of the wind.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Basically, my creation just happens. I feel that inspiration is a process of receiving information from a greater energy. Rick Rubin calls it Source and I like that a lot.

So my inspiration practice is emptying myself whenever I can to have space to receive something. And then I wait. Not actively, I don’t sit in my studio and wait, but I try to have my antennae ready for the moment when Source sends me something. And when it happens, I try to capture it as often as possible.

For me, that’s always easiest when being on tour. There’s a nice simplicity to life on the road. Very focused, very straightforward. But also, my constant evolution as a human being, self-care and learning how to be more truthful are great sources of inspiration.

Those often-quoted sources of inspiration play as much a role as they don’t. I think, my art is the product of me processing my specific angle on the world and sparking it with some inspiration through Source. Sometimes, I see visual art whose energies speak to me vividly and they make me want to create. But rarely will I draw inspiration directly from a specific event or political thing going on.

I respond to energies most, wherever they might come from.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you describe the sound you're looking for?

My recent album ATOLLS, which is a 2 hour journey of ambient, kraut rock and jazz in 6 long pieces, was sparked by reading Paul Simon’s biography (so much on the often-quoted sources of inspiration!). I am very close to that way of perceiving music.

My own musical taste roots in 60’s/70’s art rock, like Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Patti Smith etc. All those bands work so well for me as they tapped into something that enabled them to direct energies in a very truthful and honest way. That resonates with me. That’s the feeling that I am going for.

Actually, I never have a specific “sound” in terms of how something sounds in mind. I tend to imagine that I am able to feel why something sounds, which means that I am constantly looking for that specific nudge of truthfulness in an artistic expression. If I feel the truthful energy of someone tapping into their (aforementioned) tunnel, then I’d say, I could always connect.

And it’s the same with my creation. If I can feel the truthfulness of the soul in it, I’ll enjoy it. That’s the sound that I’m looking for.

Are you acting out certain roles or parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? If not, what, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

In my music, I find ways of expressing more spiritual aspects of myself. Maybe because I was raised as a boy and man in this society, I always framed myself as a quite rational, slightly unattached person for big parts of my life. But the frames that we give ourselves are always too small.

My journey in music and personal life fortunately helped me realize that there’s more. Today, I am still discovering how receptive I am to energies, resonances – stuff that you can’t define with your mind or at least hardly put in words. music is a unique field of experience and practice for these things.
I wouldn’t say, they aren’t part of my daily life. But music is the most direct way of experiencing these energetic, less rational aspects of myself rather than rationalizing about them.

As core values, I try to act out the same curiosity and trust in everyday life as I do in my music. A friend once said, that he feels my artistic creation is somewhat like Star Trek: all about trust and curiosity. I agree with that.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

I think, if someone doesn’t get it, it’s worth giving it a try with someone else. I’m not the type of person that has an audience in mind when creating.

Sometimes people didn’t or don’t get my music, for sure. In the same spot, I like talking about my values in music on stage a lot, that sort of “where does it come from and why” helps a lot. But still … Pretty much every time it happened, that people really didn’t get it, I can lead it back to either me not being really ready to transmit truthfully or for the person listening to receive truthfully. Or something in between.

 I feel, music is a language that is hard to be misunderstood if it is expressed in honesty and humbleness. You know, I only create for myself. That stretches out: Some time ago, I realized in concert situations, audiences seem to get more intense kicks out of what I do, if I fully immerse myself, not giving a glimpse of a thought to how they would perceive me. A bit like a star – they shine bright, but their radiant energy is only a by-product of them constantly getting denser and denser on the inside.

I feel the same about my music, the more I can connect to myself internally, in the tunnel, the more an audience might receive these energies resulting from my tunnelling.