Hailing from the shores of Hawaï and setting up shop in Southern California, Mahalo has quickly made a name for himself as one of the newest rising stars of the global Dance music machine. By blurring the lines sonically and creating cutting edge material branded as his signature sound “Liquid House”, he carries out this year an impressive release run – since his breakout single ‘So Cold’ – including recently his collaboration with Swedish talent Tobtok, ‘This Town’.
Listen 'This Town' (feat. Timpo) :
Receiving a massive support, the track sees two of Perfect Havoc’s most successful artists teaming up together, to unleash a real piano-driven Deep House gem. And following our review last month, we had the chance to meet the Hawaiian prodigy to ask a few questions about ‘This Town’, talk about music, and get some info about his close future. Check it out!
Hey Nick, thanks for your time! Let’s begin with yourself, can you tell us a bit more about Mahalo?
Hey guys! I’m Nick aka Mahalo and I’m based out of Los Angeles, CA. I got into dance music as a kid and have been making music since I was a teenager, but started Mahalo in 2015. Since then, I’ve been making a lot of different house and dance music productions.
You’ve made a great impression recently with ‘This Town’, your collaboration with Tobtok. What’s your recipe to cook these treats? Any inspirations?
Thanks! I started out as a fan of dance music before I ever worked on a song myself, so there was a lot of inspiration early on after listening to music from the 90’s/2000’s. Some of my earliest inspirations are artists like Fatboy Slim, Leftfield, Groove Armada, DJ Dan, Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, etc. While I don’t have a set recipe or formula for my workflow, I typically know what vibe I’m going for in my head and try to catch a wave of inspiration. Then it’s all about working straight until I can flush out the idea I have in my head. When I hear an idea I like, it will usually lead to more ideas on how to layer, counter, subtract, etc. so building on these strings of ideas is a key part of my workflow.
Following your inspirations, any artist you would love to work with?
I would love to do something that’s adventurous and outside of the norm like a dance leaning pop track with Armand Van Helden, a festival style banger with someone like Lane 8 or a deep club track with Tycho. While I realize some of these are extreme pipe dreams, it touches on my desire to strive and I want to do something that’s slightly different than everything else you hear in the oversaturated dance world of today. It doesn’t always work but it at least keeps the creative juices flowing.
What can we expect for the rest of the year, do you have some secret plans to share with us?
I have a few more tunes coming your way this year that I’m excited to share, including the follow up collaboration with DLMT after our track “So Cold,” which was released last year. Stay tuned!
Quick bonus-question, what makes a good party for Mahalo?
People getting lei’d!