Pop-Culturalist.com

Los Angeles–based songwriters, vocalists, and multi-instrumentalists Kane Ritchotte and Malcolm McRae are the creative duo behind more. After meeting just two short years ago, the pair instantly knew they wanted to collaborate. Together, they are setting a new standard for modern rock and roll with a sound that’s fresh but familiar at the same time, which is evident in their two-part EP. Pop Culturalist caught up with Malcolm to learn more about him, the band, and their new releases.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Malcolm: My family was always musical, but my parents didn’t play any instruments. My mom was obsessed with music from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. She loved Ray Charles. It’s funny because I always thought her music taste was so lame, just being a mom. Then I realized, as I got more into it, that even obscure records from the ’70s, she’d be like, “Oh yeah, I loved that in college.” It’s funny how your parents were basically once you.

My brother started playing guitar and I wanted to copy him. I started playing guitar and I didn’t take it seriously. It was just another avenue of expression. Then when I was eighteen, my father died. I looked at his life and I realized that he wasn’t happy with his profession. We spend so much time in our profession. It’s a third of your life, at least. I wish he had pursued something that would have given him a little bit more purpose. I said, “Well, f-ck it. I’m going to do the things I love most or at least give it a shot.”

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Malcolm: There are a few things. Family’s inescapable. I grew up in the South, and that was such a unique experience. I grew up Christian, and everyone around me was incredibly conservative. I didn’t realize that until I stepped away from that and started pursuing these artistic endeavors because I think you’re a product of what you’re around. I didn’t have any other viewpoint. So that was a huge thing to overcome and to realize, “Oh, there’s not just one perspective.” I wasn’t politically conservative. I just didn’t care about politics. I was definitely religious for a time, and I didn’t really see how all that was holding me back. Then Kane and I met this guy named Tony Berg, who’s a producer. He has this reputation as this guru in the industry and he is. He really takes special interest in projects that he works with and guides your tastes. That was something that really helped us grow, and he’s still continuing to do so.

PC: You and Kane were working on projects individually before coming together to form more. What’s been the biggest lesson you learned about yourself as an artist being a part of this band?
Malcolm: That I’m limited. It’s always better with another person. It’s just nicer. Kane has grown to be like a family member. Sure, we have tiffs, but he feels like a brother. We’ll be annoyed with each other, but we have this bond that won’t break. We’re past the normal platitudes of relationships. It’s really nice because it feels like the other half of you that may have been weaker has found a foothold.

Personally, my solo project was definitely more somber in nature—more melancholic. His was upbeat and more focused on production than it was lyrics. He’s got an incredibly amazing production ear. I think we came together and we realized, “This person has something to offer if we team up.” It wasn’t a hard decision to be like “The art will be better if we do it together.”

PC: What is the inspiration behind your two-part EP?
Malcolm: The inspiration for this crop of songs was to make something at the intersection of appealing and artful. We looked at our major inspirations, but we didn’t want to take a lot from any one of them. We wanted to spread where our inspiration fell. We looked at the bands from the ’60s and ’70s and we realized that their songs are structured in a particular way that seem more “classic” with quotations around it.

We would try to write songs like that but from the idiosyncratic perspective of modern-day lyrics and our experiences. Then there was the inspiration of country music and how those outlaw guys would take a phrase that maybe you should have thought of yourself, but they twist it in a way where it becomes so fresh. I’m not saying we achieved that, but I’m saying we attempted to.

PC: If you had to pick a song off either EPs that best encompasses who you guys are as a band, what would it be and why?
Malcolm: From each? That’s so difficult. I’m going to do two from the first one and then one from the next one. Individually, the songs that explain who Kane and I were before coming together are “Settled In” and a song called “God’s in the Details” for Kane. That was the dichotomy that we started working with. Our influence over each other has made it so that it’s a blend now—a lot more than it could have been at the start. Kane wrote a song called “God’s in the Details” a while ago with a guy named Jonathan Rado of Foxygen. That was for a solo project, and then we took this on. The melodies were all there. We rewrote some of the lyrics so that it was about a different subject matter. It felt more like Kane’s current issues rather than issues from a few years ago.

We did that then settled in with a song I wrote with an ex-girlfriend of mine. We were drunk at like two in the morning. I had the verse started, and then we cranked it out all in one night. It was about a relationship dissolving. It was pretty meta because we were just singing to each other exactly what was happening. Those encapsulate who we were prior to the band.

Then there are two songs on the next EP. I wrote a song called “Lazy James” that I think is the closest I’ve come lyrically to something I’m happy with. Kane wrote a song called “Colleen” that’s very musical. I love that song. Those songs show growth between the EPs.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Malcolm: Sheryl Crow.

PC: First album you bought?
Malcolm: I think it was MC Hammer. I was with my grandmother, who’s really Christian. That was the only rap album she would let me buy. I was trying to get into hip-hop.

PC: First concert you attended?
Malcolm: I don’t know. I know that one of my favorites was D’Angelo, right after he released Black Messiah.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Malcolm: There are so many. I think my favorite album of all time is John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band because it was a departure from the Beatles music. It was so cathartic. It seems so raw.

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