Interview with Lake Malice, 2000trees
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
Earlier this month, we ventured to 2000trees, our first festival as a newly launched magazine and couldn’t have asked for a better way to get our momentum going. Set in our familiar southern countryside, we joined a sea of welcoming and joyful faces for a weekend of music amidst the trees.
Not only our first festival, “Trees” was our first opportunity to speak with the bands we started this venture for. And how lucky for us for our first interview out of the gate to be with a friend.
Also making their 2000trees debut, energetic duo Lake Malice only recently burst onto the scene, and The Cave stage Thursday afternoon. Comprised of Brighton-based duo of guitarist/composer Blake Cornwall and Italian-born vocalist Alice (ah-lee-chay) Guala, Lake Malice has seen incredible momentum in two short years.
With only a handful of songs released, a full gigging calendar and a high exposure tour on the horizon, one could be concerned they'll burnout. But brimming with humility, eagerness and an obvious love for the journey they're on, it doesn’t take long to sense that this team has something special brewing inside.
Full disclosure, we’re proud to call Lake Malice friends of The Scene, and yes we’re totally biassed by that. From lending props for photoshoots (because who else will have an American baseball bat to hand) to witnessing this powerful duo command a crowd, we’ve eagerly watched from the sidelines as they grow, experiment and share their powerful, energetic blend of metal and electronic music.
It’s only summer and it’s already been a huge year for you - a huge past six months with new music and videos, festivals and tours with really recognisable names. How has it been, what have you been up to?
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
Alice Guala (AG): Since we started making music, it's already been quite fast paced. But definitely this year it felt like it got to another level. The amount of live shows has given us the opportunity to really get better at our live performances and getting to know ourselves better as an artist at the same time.
We haven’t released a lot of music so far, so in one way it feels great to have these opportunities to play for so many people and build our audience and on the other hand we wonder if we’re frauds. Like we should be creating and releasing way more music than we are right now. But we’re truly doing everything we can at the moment with the time that we have at our disposal. With full time jobs, with touring…time for writing is a massive challenge right now. But we’re so happy with what we have and want to do so much more. But this year has been mental and great.
Blake Cornwall (BC): Echoing that, we've done so many shows. We’ve never been so busy, which is amazing, it’s what you want to be doing as a musician. At the same time, we really want to show what our music is really about. We’re gearing up now to start releasing more music more regularly. We’re quite excited to spend that time to hone in on what we want to achieve with our sound and then get back out there.
We’ve got some awesome tours coming up. And for me it’s really about taking these opportunities to demonstrate how we can grow as artists and put out some decent bodies of work over the next couple of years.
From last summer to this summer, you’re replaying some of the same festivals, and adding in new ones and moving from some more fringe stages to main or bigger stage slots. How has it been changing for you from then to now?
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
AG: It’s been a huge difference. Mainly because you’re exposed to such a huge amount of people. It doesn't feel real. But also, you're sharing the stage with so many artists that you look up to and were a fan of when you were a kid. To me that just, again just it didn’t feel real.
BC: It’s been very surreal.
AG: And we’re seeing faces in the crowds that we’ve seen before. Fans that actually keep coming to see us. We’re just so grateful. You could be anywhere at these festivals with so many artists around and you chose to be in that tent with us. So thank you!
And this is your first 2000trees, how are you finding it? Is there anyone that you’re really trying to see?
AG: Sadly we’re back at work tomorrow, we wish we could stay all weekend because it looks amazing. There’s a really good atmosphere. Blake’s really wanted to see Kid Kapichi for awhile and managed to catch them. They were so much fun, I loved the show. And they got political, which was something that I wish I had the courage to do. I struggle with those messages.
But there’s tons of artists here over the weekend I’d like to be able to stay and see. Ithaca is one band I’ve heard and really wanted to check out.
Blake: The problem we've got is that we've used up all our annual leave on gigs. So we get to play these great festivals but then we can’t stay to hear everything else. Here today at 2000trees, this has kind of been my first festival of the year and I’ve actually been able to see other bands.
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
You talked about getting to share the stage with people you’ve looked up to for years - as a newcomer to the scene, how does it feel to be able to share these stages with so many talented artists?
BC: I think it's funny because they're all just normal people. When you're on the other side they can be on such a pedestal and you look up to these people. But then you just see them sipping a coke on a bench and it's like, oh okay that's cool.
AG: Thank god you said that.
BC: What’d you think I was going to say?
AG: I don't know, like, taking a shit or something. Because that's the most human thing one could do.
BC: I've never seen any of my heroes do that.
AG: Like, you can see a famous person drinking a coffee, but that doesn't make them human. It's more like the private stuff.
BC: I've not seen anyone do that Have you?
AG: Not yet? I’ll still idolise everybody until I see that.
BC: It’s humbling to be able to work in the industry, and be here in the capacity that we are. It’s something that I’ll never take for granted. But at the same time it does take away a little bit of the sort of the thing that makes gigs so special. Like peeling away the layers as you see how things work behind the scenes.
AG: It’s still great. It’s so inspiring. Every time we come back from these festivals, especially after sharing the stage with, you know, people that we look up to, we just feel so inspired to write. We just wish we had more time.
Or I look at how the people with more experience than me can interact with the crowd. That’s something that I look at a lot too, because I struggle with improvising. I know a lot of people have scripted things, and I do it too. That's something you find out as well with the peeling back layers and finding out how things work behind the scenes. And it's very interesting, I've learned a lot definitely.
BC: It's good being able to network with people and find out how they take their approaches to their craft. It's a really great aspect of sharing tours with bands where you can exchange ideas and learn about the elements we might want to improve on.
And like Alice said, whenever we play a tour or a festival, when we come home we’re energised from everything we’ve just seen. It encourages you to see what’s going on and draw inspiration from how that band got the crowd going or this that and the other. It’s good to be active in the community for sure.
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
I have to say, I was a bit taken back at your set today, seeing a sea of people singing along to your songs.
BC: Was there actually someone singing along? When we were setting up someone shouted..
Both: “I want to start the partay!”
AG: I still get quite shocked when I hear that. When I used to play in other projects - and maybe they didn't go as far or didn’t have much of an audience or fanbase - the one thing that I really wanted to see, like one dream coming true, and it sounds really tiny and small, But it's seeing people singing the songs that I wrote like. I find it mind blowing.
And them knowing what the songs are about. Part of the process of understanding who we are is also understanding the intent behind the music. And seeing people get it and align with that is awesome. It's fantastic.
I'm speechless. I didn't imagine that. Especially at 2000trees at a festival we haven’t played.
BC: We still feel like a new band don’t we? It’s only our second year gigging.
And you have a huge tour coming up? Just announced, you’re opening for Enter Shikari on part of their A Kiss For The Whole World, world tour!
AG: I’m so happy about that. So excited. I did not expect that to happen for us this year. This one is going to be special. I remember being like 16 in high school and growing up with their music. The reason I’m so into mixing genres and exploring bringing electronic music and heavier stuff together is mainly because of Enter Shikari.
BC: They shaped a whole scene, creating a subgenre of music. It is a tremendous privilege to be considered as a band that could share their stage. We were fortunate enough to support them in Southampton. That for us was already huge. Like, we can basically retire now, we've achieved what we wanted to do. Everything now is just icing on the cake for us.
Any cities you’re looking forward to?
AG: Oh my god, there's a show in Serbia. There’s a lot of countries I’ve never visited but that one I’m really excited about definitely. And then Milan.
Lake Malice at 2000trees, by Mac Praed
BC: Prague will be good to go back to. Are we going there? If Prague is on there then I’m looking forward to that. Going back to Poland as well, that was our first EU show and we had a really great reception there. All the European shows are always amazing. Playing a show in Greece should be really different. I didn't expect to be playing a show in that country, not for awhile at least.
AG: Maybe it will feel like a holiday.
BC: I’m sure it will feel like a holiday. Every gig feels like a holiday. It’s not hard work in any way!
How does it feel to get to go back to gig in Italy? And same for home shows in Brighton?
AG: It feels just, like, heartwarming. I think that's the best word. I get to see my family and lots of friends make their way to a show even if they don’t live in the areas where we play. I'm so just full of joy whenever it happens.
Not having a lot of time off means not going back home as often now. So whenever I get to see my family, I really cherish those moments. The last show in Milan was amazing. It was so much fun. But even playing Brighton is always great. I’d say it just feels closer to the heart to play Milan, but definitely I feel close to Brighton as well.
BC: My hometown is Hastings, I lived there most of my life. I don't think we'll play a show in Hastings, it's not really the right scene. But to play your hometown, I was able to live precariously through Alice’s eyes a little bit and see how special that was for you. So it’ll be really nice to go back there. And maybe we'll even get to stay with your family again!
It was great today to see you play, finally, and it’s actually really lovely to chat to you together and see how you interact and work as a duo. It’s clear you have a really good relationship.
BC: We just constantly argue with each other.
AG: No, no we’re…
BC: No.
AG: No! We never argue. Ha! We’re very aligned with pretty much everything. Not just the music. I think we get along in terms of our personalities; we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
BC: I think the only places we tend to not be aligned is budget for things. I’m like, “we should get backing dancers and smoke machines”. And Alice’s like “we can’t afford bread.” I’m trying to say she’s the sensible one.
AG: Blake is the dreamer. He’s got the vision and wants to go full on.
Huge thanks to Lake Malice for taking time to chat with us. Stream Lake Malice on Bandcamp and Spotify, watch their hauntingly beautiful videos on Youtube, and catch them starting this October on the European leg of the Enter Shikari: A Kiss For The Whole World tour.
